Introduction
In recent years globalisation has had an exponential growth, becoming an influential factor in today’s societies. The continuous movement all over the world of people from varying countries and cultures has lead to an increase of cross-cultural communication. Australia is quickly developing into a multicultural nation attracting tourists from a vast range of countries. As a result, it is has become more important for people in Australia to be culturally sensitive and aware in order to successfully interact with these visitors of different cultures. These interactions are especially important in international airports (Lie, 2003). Staff members are required to communicate with people coming from a range of cultural backgrounds, with varying degrees of proficiency in English, and who speak different languages. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the top international visitors in 2014, from non-English speaking countries, are China, Japan and Singapore. The purpose of this Professional Development Resource is to educate airport employees to effectively communicate with travelers from these three countries. This literature review will focus on the background research done in order to obtain the knowledge behind constructing this PDR. Concepts discussed will be the relevance of cross-cultural communication, verbal and nonverbal communication, the communication traits of China, Japan and Singapore, and communication within airports.
Cross-cultural Communication
Cross-cultural competency is a key learning objective for this Professional Development Resource. In order to become competent one must understand the aspects of cross-cultural communication and the theories that have been proposed in the literature....
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...ication traits their society’s culture possesses, indicates the degree of difficulty imaginable for other cultures to successfully learn and communicate in that language (Chiesa et al., 2012). English has become not only the official language for a great amount of countries, but it has also become a nationally acknowledged language in many other countries (Chiesa et al., 2012). The use of English as a tool to assist in international travel has led to numerous variances of the language arising. Which in turn leads to more dissimilarity in communication within the English language. International airports are seen as “modern cities” (Lie, 2003), which are the very product of globalization, leading to the increasingly important requirement for people of all cultural backgrounds to be culturally sensitive and aware in order to successfully communicate with each other.
It is highly imperative for Company ABC members to know how to engage probably to avoid misunderstandings, conflicts and potential loss of business clients. In the case of verbal communication, the obvious challenge lies in language difference. Although increasing amount of people are learning how to speak english, not having basic understudying of Mandarin or other Chinese dialects can have negative implications on the success of Company ABC. Even with the use of an interpreter, lost in translation or miss representation of meaning can be a problem. For example, when people say “yes” in the U.S, it suggests that they agree with what is being communicated. However, when Chinese say “yes,” it simply means that they are paying attention.
The initiation of intercultural effectiveness can be derived from behaviour impacted by its cultural differences and “cultural self-awareness includes recognition of one’s own cultural influences upon values, beliefs, and judgements, as well as the influences derived from the professional’s work culture” (Winkelman, 2005, p. 9)
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Chinese-Americans authors Amy Tan and Gish Jen have both grappled with the idea of mixed identity in America. For them, a generational problem develops over time, and cultural displacement occurs as family lines expand. While this is not the problem in and of itself, indeed, it is natural for current culture to gain foothold over distant culture, it serves as the backdrop for the disorientation that occurs between generations. In their novels, Tan and Jen pinpoint the cause of this unbalance in the active dismissal of Chinese mothers by their Chinese-American children.
Martin, Judith N., and Thomas K. Nakayama. Intercultural Communication in Contexts. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.
This method teaches through and to the students’ strengths. This kind of professional development training does not occur during a one day training, course, or reading book. The cultural proficiency process takes time and is an ongoing but has to start somewhere (Diversity Toolkits). I would implement the five basic cultural competence skill areas in my professional development for my staff. Each of the basic cultural competence skill are individualized based on schools, educational system, and educators. The skill areas consist of (1) Dynamics of differences in which one knows how to respond to a cross-cultural communication that has or can go wrong situations. (2) Institutionalizing Cultural Knowledge and Adapting to Diversity in which institutions and educators can step to institutionalizing cultural knowledge that can better serve and adapt to diversity and diverse populations. (3) Valuing Diversity instills educators to respect and accept cultural backgrounds, differences, values, traditions, customs, and ways of communication. (4) Knowledge of
The intimacy between culture and communication exists in the fact that actors interact by way of communication which is a technique used to continue the established patterns of meaning, thinking, feeling and acting. There are common characteristics in most definitions of culture. These characteristics are that culture is shared and is a stable construct, consisting of patterns, values, symbols, meanings, beliefs, assumptions and expectations. The characteristics of culture mean that culture is socially constructed and, therefore, must be learned.
China has an area of 9.6 million square kilometers and a coastline of 18,000 kilometers (Network Center of MOFCOM, 2004). It has a population of 1,401,586,609 people as of 2015 (Worldometers, 2015). In China they tend to eat a lot of the same foods. Some of the local food consists of rice, noodles, fish, vegetables and meats (Parkinson, 2011). “China is described as a collectivist country because it “emphasizes the needs and goals of the group as a whole over the needs and wishes of each individual ().” “Upholding a stable and harmonious society has been viewed as the most important role of ethics (Werth, 2013).”
In addition, research for this project enabled me to identify five essential elements for acquiring cross cultural competency which I will use as guidelines in conflict resolution in my future occupation:
The language barrier is potentially high in situations where cultures are widely differing and languages may not even share a common alphabet, for example between the West and China, making it extremely difficult for expatriates to acquire a high degree of language ability (Selmer, 2006)
Intercultural communication is an evolving discipline that occurs between individuals from contrasting backgrounds. It include...
In the contemporary global economy which can be categorized as dynamic and evolutionary in nature, one needs to be cognizant of change that is inevitable within the tourism industry. Due to the demands of the global customer the world can be viewed as being more so inter-connected, owing to this fact the traditional workplace has become more diverse. With diversity in mind the barriers to communication have become prevalent. Within the ambit of the essay such barriers to intercultural communication outlined by LaRay M. Barna shall be explored; anxiety, assuming similarity instead of difference, ethnocentricity, stereotypes and prejudice, nonverbal misinterpretations, language and modern technology will be further discussed. In going forward it is essential to define culture and communication.
Since communication affects almost all aspect of our life, it is important to enhance the skills of communication. Difficulty in expressing or conveying your message may lead to your communication becoming unaffected. And, ineffective communication will lead to your message becoming confused and misunderstand. Thus, recognizing the barriers in communication is the first step in improving communication. There are many factors that cause the failure in communication such as language, gender, culture, and interpersonal barrier. However, it is clearly that the different culture has a different pattern in transferring message and has a strong influence in our communication skills. To avoid the barrier in culture, this paper will try to analyze the differences in culture between Asia and America that impact on the two ...
The way people communicate varies widely between, and even within, cultures. One aspect of communication style is language usage. Language has always been perceived as a link between people but it can also constitute a barrier. Across cultures, some words and phrases are used in different ways. For example, even in countries that share the English language, the meaning of "yes" varies from "maybe, I'll consider it" to "definitely so," with many shades in between . Furthermore, communication between cultures which do not share the same language is considerably more difficult . Each culture, has its distinct syntax, expressions and structure which causes confusion in intercultural communication. For example , in Asian countries the word “no” is rarely used, so that “yea” can mean “no” or “perhaps”. Therefore, an American traveling to Japan might be considered impolite if he ignores this rule. Furthermore, individuals who are not comfortable with a certain language may not be taken seriously. Such is the case in the classroom, where a student who has a perfect knowledge of the subject in question may have difficulty expressing his idea due to his inability to write properly and therefore he would not receive the grade he truly deserves. Similarly intercultural communication is dominant in the workplace. In the past, many companies and organizations could operate entirely within their country of origin and conduct their activities exclusively in their own native language. But now, due...
To elaborate, by mentioning intercultural understanding, I meant that each cultural group has different ways to communicate. For example, Western culture encourages people to be up-front and straight-forward with their communication; contrastly, people who are influenced by Eastern culture might be less outspoken about their ideas and pay a lot of attention to nonverbal language of the people around them. Culture is something that if one have never encountered or exposed to it, he or she would never know. I hope that after this project, besides of the knowledge we gained from the research itselves, all four of us would improve even more on our intercultural and interpersonal communication skills. Because at the end of the day, the knowledge that one have learnt might be forgotten, but all of the skills that one have gained will stay for a very long time.