CULTURAL DIVERSITY

I live in Holland, a kind of home away from home for me. I work at an International school, where my three sons also attend. My colleagues come from all over the world, Australia, England, America, South America, and Holland. There is a combination of woman and men, Caucasian and black African. There is a lovely mix and Dutch and English spoken between people. A true melting pot of culture.

The assignment for this week is to analyze my interactions with the different people around me. This class has confirmed that I have been correct in the way that I communicate, in the sense that one adapts to different cultures. I know that when I speak to Japanese parents my communication is very different to when I talk to Latin American or Greek parents. By individually recognizing and adapting ones communication to suit different cultures I believe it shows respect and cultural awareness.

When I interact with the Japanese families at school I am aware to speak softer and quietly. I do not use too many hand gestures and always speak slowly. To bow one’s head is a sign of respect I tend to do that when I have an exchange with them. Each culture has different nonverbal gestures or actions that they use when communicating, it is important to understand them as they can be easily misinterpreted (Gonzalez-Mena, 2010).

I feel that it is important to communicate with respect for one another even if that means creating a third culture (Beebe, S. A, Beebe, S. J, & Redmond, 2011). There are colleagues that are closer to my culture, which is a more relaxed and outspoken culture. These colleagues I can be more casual with and less formal. When I am chatting to my Latin American colleagues they always greet with one kiss and some of my Dutch colleagues that are friends will greet with 3 kisses. The American like to hug hello, while formally with Dutch (even from a very young age) you shake hands. Age also plays a role in communication and the way that you speak to someone. I am more respectful when speaking to people that are older than myself.  When I talk to my Australian colleague who is younger me the interaction is much more playful and a lot of joking and laughing. This week’s reading has reinforced the importance of understanding other cultures and how we can learn from them and become effective communicators

          (O'Hair and Wiemann, 2012). I think the more one gets to know and truly understand other cultures the better you can communicate with them. Humor is another important factor in cultures and we all have such different forms of humor and what is acceptable and not. By being able to predict someone’s culture we can ensure that we have appropriate communication with them and find common group to relate to one another (Vuckovic, 2008).  I find it essential to understand the background of the learners, their families and my colleagues that I work with. I knowing their background I can ensure a meaningful interaction with appropriate communication.

References

Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2010). 50 strategies for communicating and working with diverse families. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Vuckovic, A. (2008). Inter-cultural communication: A foundation of communicative action. Multicultural Education and Technology Journal, 2(1), 47–59.

You can tell a lot from Nonverbal Communication

This was a fun assignment and very interesting to say the least. I always felt that body language and non-spoken communication can give us a very clear indication of peoples emotions and feelings. I have a colleague that I work with and although she is very friendly and smiles a lot I could tell from the moment that I met her that there was a lot going on in her in life and that she great burdens. I later found out that that was true to say the least.         

I choose to watch a Dutch day time soap opera, I had a good excuse now! When I first watched the episode and having the sound turned off I was far more focused on the body language and gestures between the actors and actresses. The series is called “Goede tijden, slechten tijden” (translated as “good times, bad times)

Non-verbal communication has the ability to give a powerful message without the need for words (O'Hair & Wieman tell us, 2012). On the flip side of this non-verbal communication can be misinterpreted. 

What do you think the characters' relationships are based on the ways in which they are communicating?

What are they feeling and expressing based on the nonverbal behavior you are observing?

The scene that I watched had a female and male in a hospital room with a woman lying in the bed. I watched closely and felt that the two were very concerned and seemed to be arguing, the female seemed angry and frustrated and the male much calmer and not as worked up. The person in the bed just slept so there was no communication or emotion there. The female touched the man’s shoulder and gazed into his eyes, he did not touch her back and looked down to the ground, almost in shame. I felt that they were lovers and she was sad and angry about something. He looked remorseful and ashamed. I could not work out what the link to the person in the hospital bed was.

I then watched the scene with the volume on, I was able to put the pieces together and see where I had misinterpreted things that I had observed without dialogue.

What assumptions did you make about the characters and plot based on the ways in which you interpreted the communication you observed?

Would your assumptions have been more correct if you had been watching a show you know well?

I was right that there was a romantic connection between the two but I was wrong to assume that she was angry and he was remorseful. In fact they were talking about the person in the hospital bed and she was very emotional and he was as sad but showed it very differently. It was not clear in the one episode but I think that they were somehow involved in the accident that caused the persons hospitalization. There were of course more scenes that I watched and some I interrupted more correctly than others.

I realized that because I was not familiar with the show, characters and storyline it was challenging to read their body language and make predictions on their body language and behavior.

I think if I had done the same exercise with a show that I was familiar with that I would have been far better in interpreting what the storyline and interactions were about. I would have been able to use previous information and recall my memory about the show to link to my predictions on the scenes I watched (O'Hair & Wiemann,  2012). 

This exercise made me realize how much I depend on people’s dialogue and also how things are said as appose to text messages where you can also very easily misunderstand messages. I feel that body language and gestures convey a strong message and one needs to keep this in mind when dealing with families and especially families that may not have English as their first language.  I will remain dedicated to open communication and effective listening when it comes to parents, keeping in mind that parents have their family and children and the core of their interest (O'Hair& Wiemann, 2012).     

References

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

A competent Communicator

As we have read and what I fully believe is that in order to a competent communicator one needs to not only master the required skills but it also needs to come naturally (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012).  Good communication  needs to become instinctive and intrinsic.  I feel that when someone can communicate well and efficiently it inspires people to achieve their goals and aim high.

Quite a few names came to mind when I thought of a good communicator that I knew. The one that came to mind first was a teacher that I worked with many years ago that later became a close friend.  She had the ability to communicate with ease and clarity. She had a presence about her that made people comfortable.  When ever she addressed people she knew exactly how to set a tone and engage people into a conversation that would lead to good communication and desired results.  She was confident without being arrogant and always willing to listen to others ideas and questions. She had such a good balance of humor and seriousness, compassion and efficiency. I personally have problems with being direct with people if I do not agree. I don't want to offend anyone and so I tend to be too passive. I hope that this class will give me the skills to be more direct in my communication with others.