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First, I should say that I am profoundly grateful for the opportunities the class on "working across culture" has given me to experience and engage with other ways of seeing, thinking, and acting in the world. It has been a profound, humbling, and inspiring wee, the class, was lively as we got to experience different cultures. The first thing we did in the class was that we introduced each other sharing our country's culture, beliefs and values.
All through the learning journey of the week, the main points of interest were cultural communication and cultural behaviours and point of view. Studying intercultural communication was essential for giving us an understanding of our cultural differences and interaction through learning the six imperatives. According to Scollon, R., Scollon, S. W., & Jones, R. H. (2011) "In an increasingly diverse society, the necessity for intercultural communication is becoming more apparent. "The six imperative under Intercultural communication are; the technological imperative, demographic imperative, economic imperative, peace imperative, self-awareness imperative.
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We looked at how each of these imperatives influences culture.
The situation that I faced that challenged my perception for this week lesson, was at a workplace, where I met Madam Linda who was from Canada, she has been living in Canada for the last 20 years now. I met her at a conference; this was my first tour to Canada. Madam Linda is a doctor by profession; she has been working as a doctor for about five years now. Even though I feel great to converse with her, there is as yet gigantic diversification in our cultural base.
Madam Linda is a very hard working woman, who appears as an independent woman however she is married with two kids. We took lunch together at a restaurant, but it was to my surprise that table manners in Canada are relatively relaxed and informal in Canada. At a distance, I could see a hostess taking food before the customers, so I wanted to notify Madam Linda to take a look at that situation, so I pointed for her but surprisingly in Canada you do not aim at people as they consider it as a taboo.
When Madam Linda took me to her house, I found the husband washing utensils and cleaning the house, and this was a false perception to me because according to my culture the gender roles are not the same as the one in Canada. Madam Linda Introduced me to her husband Mr Nick who was an accountant by profession. In Canada, the role of men and women in the home has changed over the past years whereby men are left to take care of children and handle other household duties. Patterns in the family have additionally been changing in the course of the most recent thirty years with over 70% of ladies working outside the home. This has driven towards more prominent domestic equality with more men participating in family unit tasks, childcare and the readiness of dinners.
In this manner of domestic equality, I saw that it is so critical to respect other's culture and acknowledge how they are, because being ethnocentric will prompt declining of monetary advancement.
The next morning, we went to her workplace where we found doctors from India, Australia, China and the USA. These gave me a clear understanding of the Economic Imperative, that it is necessary for organisations to diversify their workforce to capitalise on the richness of cultural differences. I learnt the following from experience;
Continuously be available to new thoughts and learning: We are individuals and frequently oppose views that we find unreasonable. Remain alarmed to those inward emotions and contemplations that show you are shutting your psychological doors, for example, disappointment, outrage, objection.
Be interested in others: Managers I meet in different nations whine that a few Westerners show little enthusiasm for the way of life they are visiting. This can show up as impolite and disrespectful (as a result imparting that the host's way of life has nothing of significant worth to offer the guest). Ask specific and open-finished inquiries, tune in, watch, and exhibit your craving to learn.
Distinguish similarities to expand on: While it isn't right to expect likenesses too rapidly, it is essential to look for them. Similarities give you some shared conviction as a beginning stage for structure connections and cooperating. A similitude doesn't need to be something as unmistakable as an approach; it very well may be a mutual trait like interest.
In the wake of going to the class on 'the nature of intercultural communication' in the second week, I could capture how intercultural communication influenced one's way of life strongly. Additionally, the class was attended by several students from various nations communicating their own remarkable culture. The class turned out to be somewhat helpful and energetic as the subject disclosed different terms. For the most part, the term culture can be decoded diversely by various individuals. Even though it sounds self-evident, yet it is a complex idea to stick to one explicit definition.
nonetheless, various scientists concocted different definition of culture. A pattern of learned, group-related perceptions including both verbal and nonverbal language, attitudes, values, belief systems and behaviours that is accepted and expected by an identity group (singer,1998:5). After attending the lecture, culture to me literary entails the structure through which communication is formulated and interpreted, it deals with the way people live together, and when cultures interact, adaptation must take place for the cultures to communicate effectively. Freire, argues that it is simply the human reaction, Wang, Brislin, Wang, Williams & Chaos further ascertains that it is the human part of the environment. My actual understanding and interpretation of culture encompass all this concept, Other than culture being brought up, and it additionally should secure through the impression of the general population and the earth we live in. Intercultural communication is the primary communication approach in different associations also. For example, the language we talk, the outfit we wear, sustenance we eat, and the qualities we have are similar to the point that our observation on any of these never affected any people in at any rate. From what was taught culture is something learnt, it can be learned from parents, media, schools and community.
We secured various of subheadings like intercultural communication. And from the definition intercultural communication is the communication process among individuals from varied cultures. The study of intercultural communication addresses the need to increase our knowledge and understanding of other individuals and their cultures, and this is archived through examining the interaction and how they interact with each other. Along with intercultural communication we also tackled the barriers which hinders communication among different people. Most profoundly, I got teaching that some cultural phenomena are external which is quite distinct and visible like gender, language and age through an iceberg concept of Culture.
It was honoured to be a piece of multicultural understudies where I had hands-on involvement with different societies. In class, embracing into certain societies aren't that intense, so social incorporation would be credible threat, especially back home because, the way of life I adjusted from here may have the antagonistic effect to the general population of my nation. In any case, I am confident that I can deal with circumstances no ifs and or buts. Also, I feel balanced that I can work with multicultural associations in years to come. It will be a lot simpler and can be trying for me to work with individuals from the various cultural foundation.
Week 3 class covered the fundamental topics on cultures such as values, semantic differences, attribution and Perception, Work attitude, attitude towards women, religious differences, and individualism and Collectivism. I well understood the importance of values as a concept that distinguishes what proper and improper behaviour is, I am exposed to the reasons as t o why we need values in society. The lecture further explored the impacts of Cultural Values in International Business,
While in the class, I got enamoured by the topic of 'Attitude Towards Women' under differentiating social qualities. Attitudes towards women are majorly influenced by cultural roots, in different cultures, the attitude is that women need to have the same rights to men. Social mentalities towards ladies differ as enormously as individuals from society themselves. From culture to culture, general insight about ladies and expectation related to gender differences contrast significantly. Lately, there has been an incredible move in frames of mind towards ladies all-inclusive as society looks at the positions that ladies should serve, and the esteem that ladies possess in society. In other cultures, women are considered to be subordinates to men while some cultures the attitude is that women should be granted equal rights as men, for example in labour force the remuneration for women should be considered and that they should be compensated accordingly. The pay gap between women and men should be bridged, for instance in Australia the gender inequality is still rampant in workplaces women are lowly paid. Another
Gender inequality worldwide is one of the social problems around the globe. About half of the world's ladies are in the labour force, while 80 per cent of men are utilised by address. I am lucky to fall under 50 generally, yet internationally it is a worry. The tendency must modify its course towards uniformity, because giving similar rights to ladies can inspire the business execution, as ladies tend to pull in better ability pool.
Additionally, ladies are great at overseeing business issues with increasingly different brilliant ideas. Consequently, the demeanour towards ladies currently are changing in the majority of the nations, particularly in the workplace. Vitality Australia began to pay ladies workforce comparable to men, who share approach employment.
This unusual topic made me think further. According to Oberg, K. (1960). "Culture shock tends to be an occupational disease of people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad. Like most ailments, it has its symptoms, cause, and cure Initially", I thought having been conceived in the agreeable profound culture, I have had not come across culture shock until I attended this class, we tackled the stages of cultural shock, alleviating cultural capital, aspects of cultural capital, relationships and public and private self. From the learnt concept I can interpret culture shock as the trauma an individual experience when he/she moves into a culture which is different from his/her own learning. It is the issue of communication where you don't understand either the verbal or non-verbal cues, customs, values, and the ways of the other culture. It is evident how people struggle while adjusting to the changes they encounter.
It has come to my explicit attention that cultural shock can significantly impact on someone's life. Personally, I have under the five stages of cultural shock. It was fascinating at the start, but upon reaching, the realisation of the differences in the form of the behaviours, meal, clothing, communication and norms, I got shocked. Nonetheless, it was a fantastic feeling starting life in absolutely new condition with new individuals, that activated extreme measure of pain and psychological maladjustment. Learning Cultural Shock has helped me in coping with a new culture specifically through substitution and synthesis. However getting adapted to a new environment needs more time, since it is a gradual process, it requires an individual to stretch to accept the culturally different society and feel at home.
With the quick procedure of globalisation, the person's capacity to adjust to the new culture is a standout amongst the most critical components of a fruitful task. Subsequently, anybody taking a shot at a global responsibility must have information about the cultural concepts of the areas they are moving to.
Living a diverse culture isn't simple now and again in light of numerous reasons? culture stun is an issue we face up to consistently, mainly when we travel abroad and think about. "Culture stun is a characteristic response when moving to another nation. It is normally felt inside an initial couple of weeks after entering another condition that is abnormal and diverse to the way of life you involvement with home.
Concerning result, we can realise that generally, individuals feel entire that it's critical to know the detail, culture for the nation which you will go, create information concerning the country. It is useful for an explorer to get familiar with some history, sports, expressions, laws and traditions for this nation. First talking and speaking with new individuals isn't advantageous and straightforward. You need to handle the language early if you go to one nation, that is fundamental to impart to the neighbourhood individuals, and you can know more things about this nation. To deal with culture shock one need to implement the following:
Be adaptable: Knowing what contrasts you may expect is insightful. Work on flexing between your own and different styles, for example between direct and indirect communication, formal and casual collaborations. Closed into one method won't work well for you in the borderless work environment. What you get ready for and what you may experience, in any case, are two distinct things. The guide isn't the region so dependably be prepared to change continuously.
Act naturally mindful: When we begin working crosswise culture, we are regularly hungry to learn. It's mentally interesting! Never lose that interest, yet don't disregard self-learning. Our very own social foundations altogether form us, and a huge factor in creating social insight is realising what we are adjusting from just as what you are changing to.
Challenge your suppositions: We can cling to suspicions notwithstanding when the proof is revealing to us something else. Additionally, we tend not to look for different data once a presumption has been made. One supposition I regularly find in virtual groups is that because a removed partner talks the 'official' language of the group easily, the person must be socially comparable. Regularly, you have a restricted window into such an individual's reality.
Challenge 'our direction is the correct way' considering: Often joined by sentiments of predominance this kind of reasoning obliterates correspondence and harms connections. The 'right way' is one that has been arranged, and has common proprietorship and duty.
Week 5 was most likely the fascinating week, an exciting class. The class was Language & Written Communication Patterns, and the teachings were on the: role of language, informal and alternative Languages, high and low context language, forms of Verbal Interaction, Vocabulary Equivalence, translation, Written Communication, Language and Culture in business communication. The first lecture was on the role of language in the community, and indeed language plays a vital role in culture. Language controls the way we shape concepts, our thinking, the way we perceive and how we judge our fellows.
The part I found most interesting was on a high and low Context Language. From the lecture I could now distinguish the high-context culture and the low-context cultures. Typically upper- context cultures utilize the non-verbal methods to convey viable information in a conversation, this includes facial expressions, eye contact, and tonal variation. It is to my conviction that through high-context individuals are more comfortable communicating with each through facial expression than through actual words.
Taking eye contact into consideration, it is a major component of non-verbal communication, although following the specific cultures it depicts varied meanings in different circumstances. However, the connection can be hindered by several barriers like accents, language diversity, and application of native tongue in the work place, and slang. These barriers hinder our communication with different cultural groups in different countries. The lecturer went further and explained the various aspects that influence language which inhibits translation of words difficult. It is through my attendance of this lecture that I first knew the most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin sincerely speaking I never knew this before that Mandarin has 955 million native speakers around the globe.
Set an agreeable pace: Take more breaks when conveying crosswise over cultures. A few people may communicate in second or third dialects which can require significant exertion. Some of the time there is the additional worry of listening eagerly to a hard accent for long.
Keep track of language: It is in every case great to keep it basic and maintain a strategic distance from figures of speech and superfluous language. Moreover, recognisable words can be confusing. A similar word can mean unique things in various styles. Give extremely close consideration to the setting in which something is stated, and any disparities in desires following the utilisation of a word or expression.
The lecture also explored the business communication of different cultures around the globe, and how it is taught in other religions. Differentiating content errors and Lexical errors as barriers for effective communication is something I had no idea about before until the lecture gave us the full explanations on the differences between the two. I believe the content error is the most profound barrier in communication, and this is because each cultural group have got their own words they use for communication which have a specific meaning.
Lastly, what we tackled was the written communication and the recommendations when using a specific language. The teacher grabbed the various types of written communication individuals use for interaction, analysing all the given examples I realised that most of them are just applied through the internet. When constructing written communication one needs to consider the various factors, and most importantly one needs to get an understanding of the Language to write and the Sentence structure.
Cultural Reflection Journal. (2019, Dec 18). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/cultural-reflection-journal-essay
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