Introduction
It essential to understand all the opportunities and challenges of intercultural communication in today’s world as we live in a period of globalization and have to be aware of its various outcomes. A plethora of businesses and international companies employ people from different parts of the world, tourists travel abroad more often than in the previous decade, and trading relationships between different countries develop rapidly. The following memo is intended to discuss several aspects of intercultural communication, the opportunities and challenges it presents, and how it influences people’s lives.
Low-Context and High Context Cultures
The classification of high-context and low-context cultures are intended to describe the way of communication used among people from a certain location. Individuals contributed to high-context cultures use an abstract language and style of speech to express their thoughts. There is no need for them to specify particular points as their audience is usually familiar with the cultural aspects presented by a speaker. People perceive the information, regardless of its details and separate sentences (Fischer 1600).
Therefore, it is necessary to seek appropriate words for every situation in high-context cultures. In low-context cultures, it is important to explain everything in detail and ensure that the quality of the given information is always appropriate enough for other people to grasp it (Fischer 1600). In conclusion, it would be proper to state that the importance of every word is higher in low-context cultures than in high-context communication style.
Sometimes it is hard for people of different origins to understand one another. The role of a context is significant in international communication (Baylis et al. 56). For instance, individuals of German ethnic background find it challenging to communicate with their French colleagues as people from the northern country tend to explain things that might be obvious, whereas French citizens’ speeches always lack detailed information. The same example can be given with such nationalities as Americans and Japanese, Arabs and British, and so on.
International Communication in Business
It is a well-known fact that some corporations implement the outsourcing strategy, and have to communicate with their foreign partners. Therefore, business negotiations are somewhat limited due to the diverse origins if their participants. Even if an interpreter does his job flawlessly, people of various ethnic backgrounds might perceive the same information differently (Kaul 35). Usually, such misunderstandings lead to dissatisfaction with other people’s work and certain business processes in general. The recommendations below are intended to reduce the limitations and biases discussed above to the minimum:
- Hiring an interpreter who has experience in working with representatives of both cultures at a particular meeting.
- Showing respect to individuals of other ethnic backgrounds to let them know that their words are not neglected.
- Being honest and open to every colleague or partner to establish a trustworthy relationship with him or her.
In today’s world, international business communications are inevitable due to globalization. Therefore, people’s cultures and manners become alike, regardless of their habitats (Kaul 35). There should be no difficulties with understanding one another in several decades.
Conclusion
Nowadays, it is necessary to adapt to other people’s cultures when having a conversation with representatives of different countries and mentalities. It is hard for individuals from low-context cultures to communicate with their colleagues or friends from high-context cultures. These limitations might be eliminated by hiring a professional interpreter, respecting other people’s cultures and nationalities, and being honest with them. However, globalization slowly makes all cultures closer and erases the borders between countries. If you have some questions about the content of this memo, feel free to contact the author via electronic mail.
Works Cited
Baylis, John, et al. The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Fischer, Ronald, et al. “Culture of Corruption? The Effects of Priming Corruption Images in a High Corruption Context.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 45, no. 10, 2014, pp. 1594–1605.
Kaul, Asha. Effective Business Communication. Prentice Hall, 2015.