Sunday, April 19, 2009
Week 3, Chapter 3: Communication across cultures
Give an example from your own life, either personal or professional, where you interacted with someone from another culture. Was the interaction effective, i.e. did the message result in appropriate action or response? If no, how could the communication have been improved? If yes, what made the communication work?
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I recently had a friend from Manchester come to visit me. Although or lifestyiles where very simular, our language was very differnt. We understood eachother for the most part. I think he actually understood me better then I, him. I think if we both would have slowed down just a bit, it would have worked a little better. Using the simpler words made things easiest, or giving eachother discriptions of the word we where trying to use. I found that we used alot of hand singals and found other words to discribe what we where talking about alot of the time. Sometimes it felt as if I was tyring to communicate with a small child. We did have alot of fun together and the way we communicated with eachother was great .
I usually deal with these kind of things at work all the time...We have a cute little chinese woman named Amy, and sometimes it is hard to understand what she is saying. She usually likes to mumble a little when she speaks to others, but i usually try and listen to what she says. I concentrate really hard on what she is saying so i can understand her. I's not too hard, I mean, if i didn't catch anything she said, i'll ask her to repeat it and she will.
So yes, sometimes i have troubles with her, but id doesn't cause any conflict and she is usually always happy.
During my Junior year of high school, we had an Albanian family move next door to us. They could speak little to no English, with their native language being Albanian. Their sponsor family was good friends with mine, so they asked if we could make them feel welcomed and help them with anything they may have needed. We often went to there home to visit; which was difficult do to the language barrier between us. To bypass the barriers, we used a lot of hand gestures. This made it easier to interact with them.
Since I am kind of a recluse, I do not have much contact with other foreign nationalities. The only thing I can think of is my work experiences. For instance, at Phillips Plastics there are a few Hmong people that work there. Their accent can be troublesome at times, but usually if I slow down and not only listen but watch their mouth move I can pick up on what they are trying to convey.
When I was working at Sears I was told to take a call from a gentleman who did not speak much English. He was trying to tell me about his stove not working. I had to ask him four times what he meant because he was not well pronounce, I am sure that he was having a hard time understanding me to. Although, the conversation was difficult I was able to set up a maintenance call for the gentleman and he received service for his stove. All went well. The communication could have gone better if he was better in the English language or if I would have been able to speak to him in his Native tongue. I think that repeating myself is what helped to make the communication work between him and I.
Well beging in a relationship with my ex-girlfrind for four and a half years was a really good for both of us. Jess was born and raised in New York and moved to Minnesota where she was goiong to school. For the frist 3 years we never had a fight about anything other then where to eat. Jess was half mexican and half puerto rican, she also had the accent that was real thick. And it was from the bronx. Sometimes I would half to ask her can you say that again. It was great to see her side as well, she was able to see the midwest. We still stay in contact to this day she now lives in Florida, she is now moving to Minnesota with the rest of her family. She has told me many times that it is so much cleaner and you recive more respect here in the midwest.
I have an experience in working with someone from a different culture back in high school. I paired up with a foreign exchange student for a project in a marketing class. She was from Germany and I think that we were both very nervous at first to communicate with each other. Once we started talking to each other about what needs to be done in order to do well on the project, things started to come together. We did well on the project and we ended up working well as a team by listening to each other and treating one another with respect.
I am in a relationship with someone of another race, and he comes from living in a huge city where everything is different. We often argue or disagree on many things and what is "right" with many just everytday situations. I find it very interesting to hear him out on things though and to exchange our stories and different beliefs on norms
I worked with someone who was Chinese and it was fun to learn some of the words she would use. I found it very interesting
I recently have met a few students at Globe University that are from another culture. I'm sure that they were born here in the United States, but they families are from another culture. They speak very good English, but tend not to want to be the first to speak up in class discussions. I'm sure that they think that other students are watching how they are speaking their English. Actually, this is not true for most of us anyhow, especially me. Once they have completed their communication classes like the one we have with Erica, they will definitely feel much more at ease with their speaking. It won't matter whether or not it is in front of a classroom giving a presentation, or whether it is just a one on one conversation with someone else. They will be just as great a speaker as the rest of us are going to be.
I interact with people all the time at work, who are from different cultures. It is hard sometimes to communicate with them because some of the people who are not originally from America do not quite understand how things are run, and certain things they have to do as customers at the register. An example would be where I was trying to ask an older lady who spoke little English, and her daughter who did. I asked her if she wanted something of hers in a bag, with another item and I had to listen carefully, but I still could not understand her; until her daughter told me what her mother was trying to tell me . It’s hard sometimes to communicate with people from a different culture, because of the language barrier. I learned after that, that from now on to better understand people from different cultures at work, I need to take more time and listen carefully, and to not assume that they know what I am trying to say.
On Easter, we had a family from Denmark come and visit. They have been to America before, but not as a family. The two boys were just beginning to learn English in school so they did not have a good understanding of our language. Trying to communicate with them was somewhat difficult, but they did understand. It helped to use simple words instead of complex words that they might not understand. It also helped to use hand gestures and point at things to simplify the communication process.
My interaction with a different culture is with my brothers mother in law. Her cultural orientation comes from North Korea. when we get together for family gatherings she will speek korean to her daughter and english to everyone else. The communication process is broken apart by the two differences in languages. I feel the communication could be improved by her allowing us to understand what she is saying as well.
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