Saturday, September 21, 2013
Communicating Effectively in a Culturally Diverse World
I often find that I am excited to meet someone from a different culture where language and beliefs are different from my own but sometimes feel intimidated that I might not be able to effectively communicate that person for fear of offending or not understanding their conversation. I found this YouTube video by speakfirst in which the speaker, Sneha Khilay, offers four strategies to effectively communicate with people of different cultures :
1. Observe the other's person's behaviors (YouTube, 2009).
2. Appreciate the other person's differences (YouTube, 2009).
3. Do not make assumptions about the other person (YouTube, 2009).
4. Be patient when talking with the other person (YouTube, 2009).
I appreciate that Sneha gave concrete examples for each strategy to help illustrate the importance of each strategy as well as how to use each strategy (YouTube, 2009). I also appreciate that Sneha mentions that cultural diversity encompasses more than language and beliefs but also gender, attitude, and attitude differences (YouTube, 2009).
I hope you enjoyed watching the video and find the information useful and helpful.
References
YouTube. (2009). Cultural Diversity: Tips for communicating with cultural awareness. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDvLk7e2Irc
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I too find myself afraid to communicate. Sometimes when they speak another language but can kind of speak English, and you can barely understand them. I feel so bad if I have to ask them more than twice what they said, it almost embarresses me and I feel SO BAD! I just hope that it wasn't a question and shake my head and act like I understood. I know its frustrating for them, but I hope they understand it's also frustrating for us. Great post!
ReplyDeleteShanda,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. I hope you are able to use some strategies so that you do not feel as afraid to communicate with people of different cultures. Try not to get into the "us" and "them". I particularly liked the one tip that Sneha indicated when she said not to make assumptions that the person you are talking to represents everyone in that culture.
Thank you for your honesty:)!
Nicolette
Nicolette,
ReplyDeleteGreat post and the video on strategies were all so beneficial in this week's topic of considering and appreciating those differences.
Not everyone is representative of that group, that is so true! Some people are so quick to make these assumptions based on their own personal perspectives! Great post and video.
Thank you Charlotte for watching the video and your comments! I really enjoyed watching it myself and realizing how much it applied to our discussion this week.
DeleteNicolette
Hey Nicolette, I thought your post was very creative and I like the way you organized it...Very informative and enlightening...Keep up the good work...
ReplyDeleteThank you for your constructive and thoughtful comments! I am glad that you found it informative and enlightening.
DeleteNicolette
Nicolette,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing this great information with all of us. I think that it is important to become more effective communicators in an effort to improve our personal and professional lives. I learned some great tips that I will use to become a better communicator. Thanks so much for sharing! Great job!
Thank you for your comments Amber:)! I appreciate your input and happy that you found the information useful! I absolutely agree that we need to become more effective in our personal and professional lives; I think we often take our personal lives for granted sometimes when we are so engrossed on being a better educator.
ReplyDeleteNicolette