Assignment; Differences of Culture in Communication

Topic: Differences of Culture in Communication

Intercultural communication is really interpersonal communication between people from different cultures. Although individuals within a culture differ, some similarities in communication styles exists within each culture. In some cultures, people are generally very direct whereas in others they don't. They value free speech and express their personal opinions openly, saying exactly what they mean. For example people from countries such as the USA, Canada, New Zea land, Cameroon, and England tend to communicate rather directly relative to people from other countries. On the other hand, people from other countries like Mexico, Japan, Korea, and China tend to communicate relatively directly. In order to avoid conflict, they rarely express disagreement or displeasure in public in order to not offend someone. They value silence and tend to speak in roundabout ways that individuals from culture with more direct communication style find confusing. Sometime if somebody bought an item that is expired, his or her response to the situation situation would likely be influenced by his or her culture. A person from a culture with a direct communication style would likely show it to a customer service . He might said;"excuse me, this product is defective, I would like a refund please". If refused he/she will might ask to see the manager and repeat the request. On the other hand the person from a culture with a more direct communication style might not even return the product in the store. If he/she did, that person might show it to a customer service representative, apologize for being bother, and hope that the representative would take the initiative to offer a refund.
Written by David Lateu