First of all, the most important principle in inter-cultural communication is respect. Actually, every effective communication should be based on respect of each other; otherwise, communication may become quarrels or commands. Since people from different cultural backgrounds may have different values, religions, habits and so on, conflicts may happen more easily. Consequently, respect is even more important in this kind of communication. We may not expect every one to accept the same value, but we should respect and tolerate each other. Let us take Singapore, a multi-cultural country as an example. There are people from many different races and religions in this country and they live together harmoniously. This is the power of respect.
Secondly, as a group, we should try to learn and understand the culture and value of each other. By knowing others’ cultural backgrounds, we can behave in the manners more acceptable to each other. In addition, learning others’ culture is a good beginning to build the personal friendship between each other. It is difficult to develop friendship if we only communicate about work without any more personal stuff. Thus, we should find some time to talk with each other about our culture and backgrounds as well as other interesting topics to build up the friendship.
Thirdly, humor is an excellent tool in inter-culture communication. With humor, we can solve many problems difficult to deal with formally. However, we must be cautious when we show our humor because people with different cultural backgrounds may have different understanding of the humor. As a result, sometimes, a kind joke can be interpreted as serious offense. Therefore, we should communicate humorously, but cautiously.
Finally, we should never assume when communicating with people from different culture backgrounds. Culture is quite different from one place to another, and some aspects may be just opposite. Thereby, it is dangerous if we often make assumption on others culture. On the contrary, we had better ask if we are not clear with anything. Asking will not only clarify our doubts, but also show our respect to them.
At the end of the blog, I would talk about the performance of our team. I feel the team is operating very well as everyone is quite responsible for his part. As a result, we have successfully followed our plan and finished all the scheduled tasks. However, we must admit that there still exist some culture barriers among us since we come from totally different countries and do not know each other before this module. Thus, we can apply the principles I mentioned previously to step over the barriers. I hope in the following weeks, we are able to get to know each others’ culture better and begin to develop our relationship as friends in addition to colleagues. For instance, we can talk about some interesting things every time before or after our meeting, have lunch or dinner together, and so on.
I do believe there is such a thing as 'common' culture in communication. 'Common' culture means regardless of whether you are from Singapore, USA , China or India, there is still a basic set of behaviours which we do observe instinctively. For example lets say person A knows person B is from India, person A would instinctively know not to make a casual remark that would offend the Indian culture or society.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that it is dangerous to make assumptions often when communicating but sometimes making 'safe' assumptions would help prevent one person from offending the other. For instance, person A assumes person B is having troubles with school work and A offers help to B. Even if B does not need help in the end, B would at least know there is somebody out there who is showing concern for him/her.
I do agree at the same time that the group has to open up more and not just to meet up to discuss about work. I believe for a group to be successful, the group has to go further not just on the work aspect alone but rather on other aspect as well. Such as getting to know one another more. And in conducting such activities we are able to know one another more than ever before. We would know their likes and dislikes, avoid the subjects that would offend them.
Mutual respect between team members definitely plays an important role in fostering inter-cultural ties and communication between team members of different nationalities. Understanding the cultural background and values of each of the team members may be asking for too much as there are many other factors like time, diversities in the same culture and probably limited availability of resources. Definitely having conversations over lunch or dinner – like we had the other day – will help develop our relationship. I totally agree with you that we have been quite successful in meeting deadlines because of our ability to take up responsibility. Looking forward to our bonding sessions!
ReplyDeleteLakshmi Narasimhan