Cultural Differences in Communication

When communicating, my communication style with change to reflect who I am communicating with. Even talking with some of my best friends, I will talk with them differently. When communicating with people from different cultural groups, using different strategies may help me to become a better communicator.

One strategy that I can use is to simply embrace the cultural differences instead of acting as if there is no difference at all (Beebe, Beebe, & Redmond, 2011). There is nothing wrong with differences and they should never be ignored as our differences make us who we are.

Another strategy that I can use is to learn as much as possible about other cultures and what is considered culturally appropriate within each culture (Beebe et al., 2011). This will allow me to be able to communicate without offending anyone. 

A third strategy that I can use to communicate with people of different cultural groups is to remember that my culture is not necessarily the correct one (Beebe et al., 2011). I must value other cultures and the way they may do things, no matter how different from my own it might be.

If I am able to use these strategies I will be able to improve my communication with children, families, and other people of cultures that are different than my own.

References

Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6^th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

TV With No Sound

Let me begin this post to say that I rarely watch what I want on television anymore. The television is normally set to Disney Junior or Frozen if my daughter is watching, or basketball if my husband is home. I used to be able to binge watch with the best of them but having two children under two, a full-time job, and grad school, I am lucky to watch one show of my choice a week. 

            I chose to watch the pilot episode of “The Office” and am so glad that I did. Without the sound on, there were so many nonverbal behaviors that I was able to observe. There were a few characters that seemed to spend more time on screen and I was able to pick out a relationship between two characters (Jim and Pam) that seemed to actually like each other and were flirting. The boss (Michael) and one of his employees (Dwight) had a different relationship than that of all the other employees and boss as Dwight actually seemed to like the boss. All other employees seemed highly annoyed with their boss and generally uncomfortable when he was around.

            After I watched the same episode with the sound on, I realized that my observations of nonverbal behaviors were pretty accurate. There were more emotions that were evident with sound, such as anger which showed to me previously as annoyance. The language piece to the show helped to understand why the employees were so bothered by their boss as he thought he was hilarious but in many cases either rude or inappropriate.

            If I had watched a show that I am familiar with, my assumptions may have been more correct but I do feel that the language piece and tone of voice play a huge part in communication. I feel as though I spent a lot of time figuring out who each person was and perhaps it would have been easier if I already knew the characters.

            My husband sat and watched the show with and without sound and we were absolutely wondering what the characters were saying without the sound. When the sound was on we were laughing at some parts! I think this may be a show that we watch more of in the future.

An Effective Communicator

I have a co-worker that is very effective when communicating with families of the children she works with. She is able to effectively communicate with families that speak two other languages other than English as she is fluent in two other languages. For those that speak another language other than the three that she is fluent, she makes sure that she spends time to send home documents that are in the home language and tries to find someone to translate with the family during any conferences. While I may not speak a second language, I am trying to follow her example of always sending home documents that are in the language spoken at home. While I can almost always complete this for Spanish, it is when there is a different language that I have more difficulty. I would like to be a better communicator with families that speak a different language as my own since it is so important that they are welcomed and informed in all of the things that are happening with their child and in the school.