Intercultural Communication: Bridging Cultures for Personal Growth and Global Understanding

Understanding the importance of Intercultural Communication

I've chosen to write an essay on Intercultural Communication as it is getting more necessary in every work field. Through increasing globalization, the borders between cultures are continuously fading away. I visited or lived in cities like Sydney or The Hague and I began to understand the importance of gaining a sensitive attitude towards people of other cultural backgrounds than me.

Studying Intercultural Communication will help every individual to create a ‘collective identity’ (Nunez, 2017) together with people from different cultural backgrounds. The only entry requirement for studying Intercultural Communication is the willingness to develop a ‘growth mindset’ (Dweck, 2006) that is open-minded for other opinion and views.

As Gloria stated in the forum, one of the best ways of learning about different cultures is traveling. When I was traveling in Australia, I got confronted with all different kind of cultures. This was the first time I realized the various kind of values, habits and perceptions that distinguish cultures from each other and I recognized the way that I got programmed by my very own cultural background. I learned to exchange different views and opinions on global issues on the basis of mutual respect.

For the purpose of improving leadership skills, I, as a future manager, find it necessary to work on intercultural communication skills in order to overcome cultural barriers while working in a globalized world. The receiving of a message from a work colleague should not be interrupted by cultural noises. It is helpful to apply the TOPOI Model (Hoffman, 2012). This model can help to prevent misinterpretations and to gain a mutual understanding of each other’s values and goals.

I am 20 years old. My father comes from Morocco and my mother is German. Therefore, I come from two different national cultures. I have lived my whole life in Germany and I consequently do know the German culture the best. Nevertheless, my father taught me a lot about my Moroccan origin. I visited this beautiful country a few times already and learnt a lot about its culture. For the reason that my parents are divorced since I was born, I struggled to learn the language of my father as I saw him just once a week. On the other hand, I can speak a bit French which helps me to communicate in Morocco. I was raised as part of the middle-class in Germany which is therefore my subculture. Another subculture is the culture of football players and fans, as I enjoy playing and watching football.

In regard of Hall's key concept (Nunez, 2017), there are low context and high context cultures. For the reason that I was raised up in Germany, which is one of the most low context cultures in the world, it could be assumed that I am consequently a low context person. I can neither agree nor disagree with that. In my case, I realized that it depends on the language I speak and on the relationship I have with the person I speak to. When I speak German for example, I tend to be more low context as most of German people are, but when I speak English, I often catch myself speaking high context. Additionally, I noticed that I tend to speak more high context with people that I have a symmetrical relationship (E.g. friends) with and low context with people that I have a complementary relationship (E.g. teacher) with.

According to Kluckhohn's value orientations (Nunez, 2017), two values that distinguish cultures from each other are individualism and collectivism. As I am half German and half Moroccan, I come from an individualised and a collectivised culture. Therefore, I see myself as a mix of both but with a tendency to be more collective-oriented. It is a very important for me to have healthy relationships with my friends and family. I happily let them be a part of my circle of influence and listen with respect to their advises. On the other hand, an important value of mine is independence and the freedom of choosing my way of living without too much external influence and directions. For example, I did not like when my family criticized my decision to do a gap year in Australia. In this case I was individual-oriented, ignored the critics and did what I think was right.

As part of Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture (Nunez, 2017), there are masculine and feminine cultures. I can clearly state, that both of my national cultures are masculine. Regarding my cultural programming and my independent will, that both shape my behavior, I realize quite a lot of masculine driven characteristics in me. For instance, I always had the secret goal to get the best test results of my class. I like to compete with friends over the better results from gym workouts or the better football skills. I was always driven by success.

Exploring and avoiding cultural misunderstandings/dilemmas

This summer, I travelled with my father to my other country of origin, Morocco. I wanted to see my family there again and to deepen my knowledge about my father’s culture. As we were sitting in a very traditional restaurant in Marrakesh, I was telling a story to my father. It was somewhere in the middle of the story when I realized that my father felt increasingly uncomfortable. Suddenly, he interrupted me and told me that I should lower my voice volume because it is too loud. He argued, that it is disrespectful in the Moroccan culture to speak with such a loud voice in a public place. I felt surprised and a little bit annoyed that he interrupted me. Consequently, I answered: “I appreciate that you tell this to me, but I don’t like that you just interrupt me. I don’t think that I speak much louder than the other people sitting here. In Germany it is totally normal to speak with such voice volume.”

My father’s perspective: I was in a restaurant and talking to my son. He was telling me a story, but I could not really concentrate on it because he was talking too loud in a public place in my opinion. I interrupted him and told him my opinion. He seemed annoyed that I just interrupted him, but I just felt uncomfortable with him talking so loud and disturbing other people’s privacy.

I can relate to my father’s position, when I look back at the dilemma now. My father’s decision to interrupt me was based on his promise of teaching me more about his culture. He maybe felt intimidated by my voice’s volume because he was taught during his upbringing to lower his voice in public places.

The basic assumption that created this cultural dilemma is called ‘Personal Space’ (Hall, as cited in Nunez et al, 2017). In Morocco, people feel relatively intimidated in their personal space when strangers are speaking with a loud voice volume in public places. As a collectivised culture, they care about other people’s wellbeing. That is why my father cared about the other people in the restaurant. Me, on the other hand, was used to using this voice volume, because people in Germany do not feel intimidated so fast and care less about other people’s opinion. Another basic assumption is ‘Power Distance’ (Hofstede, as cited in Nunez et al, 2017). Morocco is a country with high power distance and therefore it is uncommon for a son to speak with such voice volume to his father. It is considered as a sign of disrespect.

I believe that there are several solutions for this dilemma. I, for instance, could have act in a more empathic way and could have just changed my volume without hesitating and questioning. I could have asked him: “What is an appropriate voice volume for public places here?” Then we would have quickly solved this dilemma.

On the other hand, my father could have waited for my story to end and then he could have shared his opinion about my voice volume. I think that I would not have felt annoyed then and consequently there would not have been a dilemma.

Awareness of the Intercultural development process and dealing/helping with culture shock

As I travelled a lot before I began to study in The Hague, I already experienced quite a lot of cultural differences and found ways to deal with them. Consequently, when I arrived in the Hague and met all the international students in my house and at university, I tried to be as open-minded as possible. I had countless discussions about several issues in the world and appreciated different views from other cultures than mine. After the first days, I noticed how everyone in my house, including me, adapted to each other’s expectations of how clean the kitchen should be and tried their best that everybody feels like home.

When I look back at the time since I arrived in The Hague, I can state, that I am more able than ever before to be tolerant and to adapt to other people’s culture. In regard of Bennett’s Intercultural Sensitivity model (Bennett, as cited in Nunez et al, 2017) I was at the stage of ‘Acceptance’ when I arrived in The Hague, because I acknowledged all the different kind of cultures. For instance, when I cooked with my Romanian housemates, I accepted their cooking methods which are quite different than what I am used to from Germany. But I still used the methods that I am most comfortable with. Since I cooked quite often with them, I even found myself adapting to their cooking methods. Therefore, I can state, that I find myself at the stage of ‘Adaption’ right now. I am able to experience norms, values and methods from the perception of other cultures.

In regard of Adler’s stages of Culture shock model (Adler, as cited in Nunez et al, 2017), I clearly lived through the ‘Pre-Departure Stage’ before I came to The Hague. It felt the same way as when I left for Australia one year ago. I was full of uncertainty and doubts if I made the right choice to move to The Hague and study ISPM. I did not know what kind of people will live in my house. I was evaluating what kind of ‘Human Nature’ (Kluckhohn, as cited in Nunez et al, 2017) these people will have and therefore if they are basically good or evil. I was going through different levels of emotions: From hysterical excitement to a slow realization and finally to a relaxing acceptance right before I moved.

Since the first day that I arrived in the Netherlands, I find myself in ‘The Vacation Stage’ (Adler, as cited in Nunez et al, 2017). I had a warm welcome by the other international students and teachers, who helped me to integrate very fast. Accordingly, my first weeks felt somehow like vacation even though I had a lot to study. There are a lot of Moroccan shops right around the corner from where I live, which gives me the feeling as I would be in vacation in Morocco. Additionally, the international outlook of The Hague makes my living environment quite different compared to back home. I push the bad things that I experience to the back of my mind, for instance the absence of warm water for a few days, and focus on the positive impacts on my life, for instance on fun activities with my new friends.

In my opinion, there are several reasons why I am currently in ‘The Vacation Stage’. First, since I arrived here, the whole environment is new to me which gives me the feeling that I have a lot to discover and simultaneously nothing to lose. This is the same feeling I have when I normally go into vacation.

Secondly, the open-mindedness and respect of the students I have met in The Hague so far reminds me of the kind behavior from the people I have met during my travels in Australia. Their positivity gives me the feeling of easiness.

My strategy for the culture shock I am currently in, is to maintain ‘The Vacation Stage’ as long as possible in order to avoid ‘The Angry Stage’ (Adler, as cited in Nunez et al, 2017). Consequently, I am aiming to keep the excitement that I experienced in the beginning, alive as long as possible.

For the purpose of achieving this, a strategy could be to go and discover the surrounding cities like Rotterdam or Amsterdam with my friends. This could maintain the excitement for my new environment.

Another strategy could be that I will regularly invite friends and family from home to my place in order to strengthen my relationship with them. This could avoid the feeling that everything would be better when I would be home. I would bring the familiarity from home to my new life which would help to avoid or postpone the beginning of ‘The Angry Stage’.

Reflections on self, learning and future development

In my opinion, it can be quite challenging in some life situations to behave culturally sensitive and be tolerant towards other people’s views or behavior. It is very important, when learning ‘Intercultural Communication’, to avoid a compartmentalization when learning about different cultures. Many superficial stereotypes about the behavior and values of different cultures are described in the literature about ‘Intercultural Sensitivity’. These stereotypes can easily transform into prejudices, which can be counterproductive to the objective of developing a better cultural understanding.

One time, when I lived with Italian people in a shared apartment in Sydney for three months, I expected them to be at least 10 minutes late when we wanted to meet. This expectation was based on the stereotype that Italian people would always come late to meetings, because it is rooted in their culture. Instead, I was surprised when they arrived five minutes prior to our meeting. This example emphasizes the importance of avoiding compartmentalized thinking that results in black and white stereotypes. In my opinion, it is necessary to respect people’s individual will more than their cultural programming that results in these stereotypes.

It is a challenge for me to develop a cultural understanding towards my counterpart’s culture when our communication is disturbed by language barriers. For instance, when I worked one time in a liquor store in Sydney, I was working with a South Korean guy who could not speak English very well. I was very interested to gain more knowledge about the Korean culture and tried to begin a conversation with him. We had to use a lot of ‘Google Translate’ in order to understand what the counterpart wanted to say. Therefore, I was not able to learn a lot about the Korean culture because the language barrier served as the ‘cultural noise’ (Nunez, 2017) in our communication. This situation shows, how challenging it is to develop a ‘cultural sensitivity’ when language barriers exist.

This year I did a lot to develop my intercultural competence. When I was traveling in Australia and Morocco, I learnt how to adapt and integrate to other cultures. I improved my open-mindedness a lot compared to previous years of my life. Consequently, I want to travel much more in the future in order to develop new ways for gaining a better cultural understanding.

Additionally, I am currently watching quite a lot of documentaries about other cultures and also about politics in other countries. This also helps me to gain more deeper knowledge about other cultures and is therefore another way to develop my ‘intercultural sensitivity’.

Last but not least, I can clearly state that the most effective way to develop such sensitivity at the very moment is to be part of the international study of ISPM in The Hague. All the encounters with all the different cultures that are represented through students in this program, help me to be more tolerant and open-minded towards other people’s values, views and behavior. Accordingly, I am convinced that my intercultural competence will be at the highest level when I will finish my studies in three years.  

References

1. Nunez, J. (2017). 'Intercultural Communication: An Introduction.' John Wiley & Sons.

2. Dweck, C. S. (2006). 'Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.' Random House.

3. Hoffman, L. R. (2012). 'Guidelines for Applying the TOPOI System of Analysis.' International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 12(1), 103-123.

4. Kluckhohn, F. R., & Strodtbeck, F. L. (1961). 'Variations in Value Orientations.' Row, Peterson.

5. Hofstede, G. (1980). 'Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values.' Sage Publications.

6. Bennett, M. J. (1993). 'Towards Ethnorelativism: A Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity.' In R. M. Paige (Ed.), Education for the Intercultural Experience (pp. 21-71). Intercultural Press.

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7. Adler, P. S. (1975). 'The Transitional Experience: An Alternative View of Culture Shock.' Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 15(4), 13-23.