Intercultural communications

Theme: intercultural competence

Introduction

 

Intercultural competence is the ability to communicate effectively, navigate complex environments and build relationships with people who are linguistically and culturally different.   An important point to note is that intercultural competence is not only learned in the classroom but people also gain intercultural competence outside the classroom or while they are in the community. Here, they share ideas and values and engages in goal-directed activities.  It is also important to understand that globalization has increased the diversity of cultures and for this reason, people need specific competencies to create social harmony. In order to foster intercultural sensitivity, competencies should be identified and promoted to help the individuals learn to live together.

 

 In trying to understand to what extent can intercultural competence be learned, Némethová (2014), asserts that intercultural knowledge is a key component of the effective language learning. In other words, the primary goal of language learning and teaching is to help the learners gain the global knowledge and engagement and more important be capable of interacting with people from a diverse cultural background.  However, it is not easy for individuals to develop intercultural knowledge and skills on their own since people focus on personal cultural perspective or in other words, they do not appreciate the action of diverse cultures.  To eliminate this barrier, there must be cultural systems and language learning where individuals from the diverse background will interact, ask constructive questions, understand set of rules how the rules are acquired, understand set of traditions and behaviors (Némethová, 2014). Generally, individuals should engage in a cultural system to evaluate the world's ideas and beliefs, learn the ways in which one can deal with other people and learn the forms of communication. 

  

Deardorff (2011) adds that as individuals enter in the cultural system and language learning, the teachers should ensure that individuals gain the intercultural knowledge that will enable them to manage cultural differences, inter-group posture, and stress.  In other words, intercultural competence means that culturally diverse individuals should foster intercultural relationships,   gain self-awareness and adhere to rules and norms, gain communication skills,   gain sensitivity and exhibit a positive character (Deardorff, 2011). In teaching intercultural competence, the teachers should be aware that the purpose of intercultural language learning is to provide individuals with culture-specific knowledge which they will apply in intercultural situations.  In other words, the main goal to should be providing cultural-sensitive knowledge so that individuals can understand the cultural elements, develop behavioral patterns and engage in critical thinking activities.

 

 In my opinion, there are various methods that one can use to understand and improve one's intercultural communication. The first method is the cognitive methods. This method involves the collection of knowledge through seminars or group discussion. The goal is this method is to assess whether individuals understand cultural diversity.  Second is behavioral methods-this means that one can observe behaviors of individuals in real intercultural situations and replace the negative behaviors with positive ones. The third method is experience-this means that one can understand the intercultural competence of individuals by communicating with them in training events, games and similar activities. Through experience, one will understand the kind of miscommunication and misunderstanding among the individuals (Lustig, Koester & Halualani, 2018).  Another method is cooperative activity-this means that one can engage in cooperative activities and have an intercultural dialogue. Through cooperative activity, group members will share, compare, listen, interpret, evaluate, empathize and more importantly learn valuable and meaningful things. Generally, all these methods will assist in understanding whether the individuals have intercultural competence. In this case, intercultural competence means the ability to foster intercultural relationships, ability to develop an international perspective, ability to understand others' perceptions, ability to communicate effectively with people from diverse cultures, cultural-self-awareness and open to diversity (Lustig, Koester & Halualani, 2018).

 

 Looking back at my studies, the course that had a strong influence on the development of my intercultural competence is intercultural communication. The purpose of this particular course was to help students gain intercultural awareness and skills through learning language and cultures. I remember we used to attend a seminar and we could develop group work and share ideas related to intercultural matters. In this course, I gained intercultural knowledge and skills which have assisted in dealing with misunderstandings and miscommunications that arise when interacting with people who come from the different cultural background. Despite the fact that as students we communicated and interacted in various setting such as clinical research environment, the ideas we raised were influenced by our cultures. Thus, we encountered communication challenges and it was not easy to understand or appreciate others' differences. Through this course, I have collaborated with individuals from different cultural backgrounds and through interaction and knowledge and skills gained, I   have developed intercultural competence. I now have the ability to communicate effectively with people from diverse cultures,  I can foster intercultural relationships,  I can relate with other people well,  I  am open to diversity and  I have gained self-awareness.

 

Conclusion

  People are living in a globalized and multicultural society and, for this reason, people need intercultural competence in order to function effectively in the cultural diverse situations.  In addition, people need to learn knowledge and skills that they will apply in the intercultural context.  It is important to understand that intercultural competence is developed through learning and this means that there must be a holistic approach that aims at engaging individuals in learning to provide them with the set of skills such as adaptability, stress management, and listening. Individuals also need attitudes such as tolerance of ambiguity, respect, and risk-taking. Generally, individuals can only build a meaningful relationship with people from different cultures if they only gain intercultural competence and the latter is developed through learning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

 

Némethová, I. (2014). Building Intercultural Competence through Language Education. Economica

(1585-6216), 7(4), 148-154.

 

Deardorff, D. K. (2011). Assessing intercultural competence. New Directions For Institutional

Research, 2011(149), 65-79.

 

Lustig Myron.,  Koester Jolene., & Halualani Rona. (2018). Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal

Communication Across Cultures. Pearson Education, Inc