We live in a culturally diverse world. People will encounter individuals from different races, religions, and nationalities in their day to day encounters. Communicating across language and cultural barriers at home and abroad will challenge your skills. There is often anxiety surrounding unfamiliar cultures and much hype concerning understanding cultural differences. What manners are acceptable? What will offend a person from a very different background? It can be paralysing to deal with other people if we do not know what to expect. Undoubtedly, bridging the culture gap is challenging but can be more easily done when you have an idea of what to look out for in cross cultural understanding. But, first, you must first learn what culture actually means...
Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms for behaviour that we learn as we grow up. These elements of culture have been passed on to us by our parents, teachers and anyone else of significant influence. It is said that most of our cultural learning is done by the age of seven. Subcultures, in turn, are distinct groups that exist within a major culture: these might be refer to class and social status, or professional types, even leisure activities.
Here are my suggested guidelines to help with cross cultural understanding. These are the main elements to contrast and compare between your cultural value-set and other peoples':
- Be aware of differing communication styles: do you favour direct or indirect communication? Being able to say ‘no' in your culture means you have a direct way of communicating. Some cultures have many ways to say ‘yes,' most of them meaning ‘no'!
- Be aware of differing social values, status symbols and how to demonstrate them: is your culture more egalitarian than hierarchical? In power-based, hierarchical cultures every degree of ‘superiority' needs to be recognised and respected.
- Be aware of decision making customs: not all people like to make decisions quickly and efficiently. Group-minded consensus decisions take time to arrive at.
- Be aware of concepts of time: not all people see time as money or as a commodity. Time can be regarded as either fixed or fluid
- Be aware of silences, body language and personal space: people from different cultures have different ‘comfort zones'. Learn the basic differences in the way people supplement their words with body movement.
- Be aware of acceptance (or not) of strangers: different cultures have differing attitudes towards outsiders, some are openly hostile, some maintain a detached aloofness, and others are friendly and cooperative toward strangers.
- Be aware of cultural ‘contexts': people from cultures called ‘high-context cultures' (Far Eastern, Arab) rely far less on verbal communication and more on the context of nonverbal actions and environmental settings to convey meaning. People from ‘low-context cultures' such as the USA and Northern European cultures rely more on direct, verbal communication to convey meaning; what they say is what they mean.
- Be aware of different etiquette rules or manners: what is polite in one culture may be considered rude in another; watch and learn. If in doubt, ask.
- Be aware that political correctness, morality and ethical behaviour differs around the world: for many cultures ‘corruption' is a way of life and those who are used to it often are suspicious of those who don't practice it. They cannot understand what you are ‘getting out of it' and that there must be another different agenda.
- Be aware of language barriers: English is the most prevalent international language, but it's a mistake to believe there is no difference between English/American English and ‘Globish,' or the international English spoken by foreigners. You cannot assume that everyone understands English as spoken but native speakers.
There is no ‘quick fix' to understanding cultural differences. Learning as much as possible about another culture will enhance your ability to communicate with its members but takes a desire to learn and a willingness to listen and learn. Why not arrange for cultural awareness training in your organisation to enhance cross-cultural communication, learn about specific cultures or talk to people who have mixed or worked with diverse people. Find out more.