Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks
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Intercultural Communication stumbling blocks
The population of the world is increasing every day, and with so many countries in this world, we have so many different cultures too. And all these cultures, are made up of different languages, customs and traditions. However, in this fast growing economic world, where good international relations are so important, for individuals and countries to rise, we need to have a good communication among all countries, and this is only possible if we are able to overcome the intercultural communication Stumbling blocks.
Like stated in the text, Americans are generally too much open, and they would smile and start a conversation with any random person they come across. However, it is not the same in the Asian countries, and I can say that because I am from an Asian country too. And it is true that people back there are not so open. They are quite conservative, and we would not usually smile at anyone we see. Smiling and talking is usually done with people you know already or people you have some kind of business with. Except for that nobody has any interest in knowing the other person. When people like me come to United States from such a background, it is obvious that we would be practicing the same things that we have been doing back home, and we cannot bring about a sudden change in our personality, and traits that have been building in us since we were kids.
We might not smile at every person we come across, and start talking to them but that would definitely not mean that we are not willing to be friends with them or not wanting to talk to them. The Americans are also correct in their own perspective towards it, that this act of ours may look weird to them because they are not used to of our culture, and they might take us as an odd one out because of our attitude towards them at times, but looking at a different face I believe they should be keeping this thing in mind, that every ethnicity, race, custom and culture is not same. And what seems weird to them might seem good to us, and what seems good to them might be weird for us.
Like Americans sometimes think that international students are rude, we might be thinking the same way for them too, as they get offended very easily. Once I casually asked my roommate her result for the test she was really tensed for the other day, she really got offended and showed me that she did not like my asking that question to her. At first I was very judgmental but then I realized that I shouldnt be that way because people here are generally not used to having being question about personal stuff even such as test scores.
I completely agree with the Korean student (p 71) where he tells us about how straightforward and abrupt Americans are, because that is true. Americans are not at all formal like most Asians are, we say things that we dont want to at times, like if somebody offers us something