Understanding Intercultural Communication

By summarizing the components of culture we can clearly see its definition points from an anthropologist that describes culture as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. As to fully understand them, would mean more studies in intercultural communication are needed, as it is vital in an international business.

Interpersonal communication patterns in different culture are vital, as they are the coding systems in which that certain culture comprehends certain things. These communication patterns are how certain cultures understand verbal and non-verbal communications, show emotions, relationships and authority figures in social contacts. All this patterns are how intercultural communication between cross-cultural environments or individual decodes their understandings towards one another.

Another aspect to better enhancing the understanding of intercultural communication is to understand their history for that particular race or culture. Revolution, war, political changes, unification, religion practice are all strong influences that shape the development and maintenance of a culture. For example you can only understand German’s fear of inflation until you did a background check that happen on their country (currency reform 1923~1948).

Ecology, the external environment where a certain culture lives in is an important factor to the shaping of certain values in culture. The weather condition, the climate and availability of certain valuable resources are all the things we must take into account when we want to communicate with intercultural prospects. Example Communication between people can be affected when certain resources are treated with minor respect such as water, the people from Sahara would interpret such behavior as lack of cultural etiquettes .

Changes in this technological era would spur a new breed of modern culture in which we refer to as teens or “younger generation culture”. This means technology is a main part of steering our culture in various ways. For instance China, their main means of transportation is bicycles but when a foreigner from a modern technological society arrives there, you can’t expect them to ride around on bicycles all day.

The institutional network (social, political and economic system) is one of the most important influences on cultural grounds. As the network would actually shape the communication systems used in a certain culture. This can be seen from certain countries that have mix culture although they come from a specific descendant of race. This can be seen in Taiwan where they have very few chair at home and sit on the floor this is due to the Japanese influence during World War II.

All of the above elements are interrelated as they shape the culture of certain societies from small ethnic groups to major countries. Each of these forces affects each other giving birth to an interconnected loop where one gives births to the other. And by understanding them, one can better comprehend the communication barrier that is in at hand. But please take into consideration as these components are dynamic and are changing in time meaning there will always be room for improvement in intercultural communication .