Reflections on cross-cultural communication

Reflections on cross-cultural communication

Cross-cultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds endeavour to communicate. Outwardly, there should be no major problem with interaction between people whatsoever, since we all inherit same general patterns of human behaviour but, in fact, we create or acquire individual and social behaviours that differ us, our families and cultures.

Intercultural communication involves interaction between people with different perceptions and systems of values. Some cultures pay attention to time, whereas the others focus on people and relations between them. It can be very complicated for the representatives of these two completely different worlds to cooperate because they have totally different priorities, goals and views on elements associated with the systemic nature of communication (i.e. occasion, time, location).
Therefore, for me, the core of cross-cultural communication is to establish and understand how people with different backgrounds deal, talk, do business and simply coexist with each other. Hence, its aim should be to formulate some guidelines due to which people from different cultures can communicate more effectively. That is crucial, especially when you realise how many barriers cross-boundary communication has to face. Language differences, diverse perceptions of social organizations, and varied values we believe in can make it extremely hard not only to communicate, but to be understood.