I am a Hindu by religion. Speaking in terms of Edward T. Hall, ours is a High-context culture. We have several customs like saying “Namaste” to greet and show respect for a person, taking blessings of elders by touching their feet, avoiding meat on auspicious days, fasting to pray for ones goodwill and these come naturally to us. There aren't rigid rules to be followed but since it is our culture, we learn it. Similarly, those growing up in families with different religious and cultural beliefs have different values because they’ve learnt what they’ve seen. However, two individuals sharing the same race and ethnicity need not share cultures too. They can have different cultures in terms of generation gap, sexual orientation, religion or beliefs. It is not a cake walk to mingle with a person having different beliefs and values than yours. Thus in this world of globalization and global exchange, one must possess adequate interpersonal and inter-cultural skills to hit off an effective communication.
We have learnt that gestures play an important role in communication. Within a cultural group there are non-verbal cues used unconsciously and frequently during communication. It is possible that those cues are local to that group and are completely unknown to a person from some other cultural group. For example, the V sign can be used as a sign of victory for some or peace for others. It is used as a sign of bunny ears in informal photo-shoots. It means a bad sign in some European countries and is taken as an insult.This clearly shows that how cultural diversity can cause miscommunication of highest order!
To avoid such misconceptions while communicating, the listener must not only understand speaker’s words but also his gestures and tone of speaking. Surely, it takes two to tango. So, besides appropriate speech, active listening is also important for an effective communication. It involves both hearing and interpretation. Active listening and understanding a person is extremely essential to relate to him/her and so is an integral part of interpersonal communication.
In my two weeks of close inter-cultural interaction with my team mates, I observed how different we are in the way we speak. Some of my team mates talk slowly while some talk fast. I think I am the loudest of all in my group! Some of us use our hands to express ourselves while explaining something or while giving presentations. During our discussions we tend to inquire about each other’s culture and traditions or talk about our past incidents. All these discussions are inter-cultural and interpersonal interactions and improve our cultural quotient greatly.
4 comments:
Yes, I have tried to find mistakes in your blog, but I could not see any of them clearly. You have written a good entry, and have been successful in attract me reading it.
Just like in the first post, I feel that you have enjoyed your writing and that makes your entry good. Paragraphs are connected greatly and softly, I mean, I didn't feel any gaps between them.
Furthermore, I appreciate your writing in the first paragraph. From this, I have learned something about your culture, as well as understood more about you. Yet it persuaded me that "one must possess adequate interpersonal and inter-cultural skills to hit off an effective communication".
However, your point about the importance of interpersonal communication is not so clear, and so short either. I think this will be better if you concentrated more on the third paragraph.
Anyway, you've done a good job, I think. And I have to agreed that in you are the loudest of all in our group, haha. I think this is good, isn't it ?
Hi Geetika,
Your post is rather easy to read. It has a very good introduction, talking about your own culture and then showing how two people with same race may not have the same beliefs as each other. This emphasizes the importance of communication as we need such skills even with people who are close to us.
I agree that gestures play an important role in communication. Research has shown that more than seventy percent of a conversation is actually through body language. Action speaks louder than words! Besides that, active listening is another point I find important in any kind of communication. If there is no feedback, we must well talk to the wall. Therefore, it is important to keep any kind of communication two ways.
Finally, I find that you did a good entry for this post this week. Maybe you could add some examples for active listening to more your argument more solid?
Hi Geetika,
You have written a good entry. Your introduction provided me with a lot of knowledge of your culture, when I know that sometimes people from the same race still may have different values and beliefs. It reinforces the idea that we need both interpersonal and intercultural communication skills to interact with others harmonicly.
Your example of different meaning of the same sign is effective in verifying the need for many cultures 's knowledge.
However, you wrote about the interpersonal communication quite short, making your whole body paragraphs less balanced. Maybe you can improve it by showing more examples of interpersonal communication?
Well written and well organized. I liked the link to your cultural practices which not only exposes the reader to different customs but also shows how they relate to intercultural communication. I also liked how the post covered the general concepts in intercultural and interpersonal communication while being concise. Lastly, I would like to see the interactions between in your team analyzed according to the concepts we learned in greater detail but it was well written nonetheless.
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