Cultural differences and communication
The way we speak, our behavior, our attitude to other people, and our way of life are influenced by culture. Cultural differences are one of the main reasons for misunderstandings between people. Cultural differences affect communication in different ways.
First of all, culture affects the language. For example, low-context communication is used in the USA while a high-context one is accepted in Asian culture. A low-context communication includes verbal expressiveness, explicitness, and directness in contrast to high-context communication with nonverbal expressions, implicitness, and indirectness (Markel, 2009). These differences may hamper successful communication between people of different cultures.
Culture influences not only the way of communication but the vocabulary of the language. There are many words in different languages that perpetuate stereotypes. Any language contains some derogatory names of other nationalities. Sometimes people are not aware of the fact that this or that word may be offensive for other people. For example, it is not polite when you refer to a black man as Jim Crow or to a Jew as a kike. Such words are difficult to eradicate from the language as far as they are historically rooted. Discrimination and the holocaust are historical facts that should be remembered.
Language barriers and offensive words
More than that, there are a lot of words that may be offensive for women or men that are known as sexism. Although in Asian countries women are considered to be lower than men, Western cultures seek equality between men and women. Such words as policeman, fireman, businessman, and others containing the root ‘man’ are considered to be offensive for women taking these positions (Cross-Cultural Gender Differences, n.d.). There are a lot of words perpetuating racism and sex inequality in modern languages. These words are a barrier to communication between different cultures.
Differences between assimilation and acculturation
People of different cultures may live in the same territory and work at the same working places. The junction of different cultures may result in two processes known as assimilation and acculturation. Acculturation is the process of adoption of the customs, beliefs, and attitudes of a majority cultural group by a minority one. Having adopted the culture of the majority, a minority cultural group still keeps its traditions and attitudes altered in some way by a majority group (Hall, 2009). Assimilation is nearly the same process when a majority cultural group influences a minority one, but the consequences of such interaction are more cardinal. A majority cultural group absorbs a minority one completely. For example, the relationships between African Americans and Hispanic Americans are the process of acculturation as far as different cultural values and language barriers hamper the process of assimilation. The Hispanic Americans fight for keeping their culture. The African Americans have become Americanized. The black Americans are fully absorbed by the dominant cultural group as far as they had to adopt the values and traditions of the dominant group to survive (Assimilation versus Acculturation, n.d.).
From the above said, we may conclude that cultures influence the way of communication. There are some difficulties in communication caused by cultural differences. These cultural differences have become steeped in a vocabulary of a language too. The existence of different cultures in one territory may result in assimilation or acculturation. Despite all differences between cultures, it is impossible to keep all native traditions and attitudes in a multicultural society.
Reference
Assimilation versus Acculturation. (n.d.) Web.
Cross-Cultural Gender Differences. (n.d.). Web.
Hall, G. (2009). Multicultural Psychology. New York: Prentice-Hall.
Markel, P. (2009). Cultural differences impact workplace communication. Web.