Intercultural Communication paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Intercultural Communication paper - Essay ExampleWhen Bill uses the term dear, he is not consciously being condescending, yet Margaret interprets it to have that gist. Helen, older and more familiar with Bills style easily accepts the term as a term of gender endearment. This example illustrates how communion changes over time and through generations because of the way we visualise our burnish.In the case study, Helen was an effective communicator. As the receiver of Bills messages she was able to interpret them and act on them accordingly. She was playacting within her cultural context. Margaret was also effective in her communication. Though she misunderstood Bills in ten dollar billtions, she was able to place the communication in the current cultural context and was reign about her feelings in reference to it. Bill was the least effective communicator. He has assumed the role of dominance and not accounted for cultural change. When he requests a cup of coffee, he is transm itting a message and an image. To Margaret, this was the image of a waitress or a servant. His true intentions, to get a cup of coffee, were masked by his inability to communicate across the culture and understand the differences. The message he transmitted was not a request for coffee, but a statement of Im in charge.Mens dominant position in the workplace has been challenged in recent decades. The recent Time magazine article that listed only males as the ten most powerful people in America has been challenged (Samovar, Porter, and Stefani, 51). The request for a cup of coffee and the use of the word secretary carry cultural meaning and have been altered in recent years. Asking an administrative assistant to do your shopping places the female in a subservient, or traditional wife, role. This has encountered foe in the last decade as women have struggled for equality in pay and position. This equality go out also have to extend to our understanding on communication.Intercultural Communication is About Change and ChallengeThe world is a rapidly changing landscape due to globalization, communication, and transportation (Samovar, Porter, and Stefani, 3). The words we use and the images we project will be interpreted based on current cultural trends. World views on pollution will affect the ways in which other cultures view industrial expansion. Within our own culture, the rise in political power of ethnic and minority populations has made many words obsolete or derogatory. It requires unceasing learning to assure that our speech and the images we project will be received with the message we intended to send. Problems of Being an Effective Intercultural CommunicatorCommunicating with a different culture requires a depth of understanding of the culture that goes beyond the simple history of the people. It requires an understanding of our, ... social relations, concepts of the universe, and views of suffering... (Samovar, Porter, and Stefani, 16). To communicate effectively we need to understand the cultural set that the people are made of. It also requires an understanding and tolerance for the individual. These requirements mean that there will be no absolute method of communication. It is forever break and is tailored to each individual person and event. These make the task ever changing and challenging. Works CitedSamovar,