Communication In Intercultural Communication

Putting one’s own foot into another’s culture is like stepping into that person’s own little world, it is only then when we understand that individuals culture we can become competent communicators (O’Hair, Wiemann, Mullin & Teven, 2015). To understand intercultural communication, We had to choose a cultural context where we ourselves felt like outsiders or “out-group” members. I chose a Buddhist temple out of my curiosity for this religion and I felt like it was one of the places where I felt like I would be an “out-group” member. Religion itself has always been of interest to me. Growing up I was raised a Catholic by both of my parents, but I was never baptized and we weren’t really “strict” Catholics. However, recently for the past year

I could tell that he’s from a high context culture. He never flat out told me that I was wrong and never criticized me. Instead, he was being very indirect about it and being verbally vague which is a factor of a high context culture (O’Hair, Wiemann, Mullin & Teven, 2015). A high context culture according to Hall, “use contextual cues---such as time, place, relationship, and situation---to interpret meaning and send subtle messages” (as cited in O’Hair, Weimann, Mullin, & Teven, 2015, p. 126). I also consider myself as a person from a high context culture. I never would just blatantly disagree with someone and say, “Oh you’re wrong” or “That’s not right” instead I would send subtle messages to indicate that I disagree. Subtle messages such as a head nod or sometimes maybe even a facial expression that is unintentional. Since I am from a low context culture as well, I understood the contextual cues and subtle messages that he was

Collectivist cultures, “... would more likely describe themselves in terms of their social relationships and roles (“I am a good son, brother and friend”)” (Cherry, 2016, para.9). Knowing this, I can assume that this person that I was communicating with is most likely from a collectivist culture. He did describe himself in ways that are more collectivist oriented. For example, when I asked him what his religion was he said, “We’re Buddhist”. He said “we’re” when he was only by himself. According to Triandis, “Individuals from collectivist cultures perceive themselves first and foremost as members of a group - and they communicate from that perspective” (as cited in O’Hair, Weimann, Mullin, & Teven, 2015, p. 129). He identified himself as a member of a group by describing himself as one hence when he said “we” instead of “I”. He was probably raised in a collectivist environment. Maybe his parents are from collectivist cultures and he learned from