Cross-Cultural Awareness - How to Effectively present over Cultures

If you are a good communicator in your own culture, does that automatically make you competent in other culture? The answer is no, if you only by comparison straight through your own cultural glasses and don't take cultural differences into account.

Since transportation happens on both a verbal and on a non-verbal level, understanding non-verbal signals in a conversation is just as leading as understanding what is said. To be able to by comparison non-verbal signals from other culture accurately it is first vital to become aware of your own non-verbal signals.

Hosting Compare

To heighten your cross-cultural transportation skills, compare and disagreement your personal preferences in the following areas of non-verbal communication. To know what the norm in your host culture is and how it differs from your own will help you to feel much more comfortable in social situations and become a more productive cross-cultural communicator.

Touch

All cultures have rules about touching in regard to communication. What are the rules in your culture? Do citizen greet each other with a handshake, an embrace or kiss on one or both cheeks? Is there patting on the back? Is there touching in social or would that be frowned on? Now compare with your host culture.

Eye contact

How do you use eye experience in communication? Do you by comparison direct eye experience as a sign of active listening, honesty, a sign of respect, or does direct eye experience make you feel uncomfortable? Do you see it as a sign of aggression? Once you are clear about your own interpretation, compare with the local culture.

Gestures

We all use our body to lead to transportation - our hands, face, head, torso, etc. What gestures are ordinarily used in your country? Which ones mean the same in your host cultures, which ones differ? To comprehend that many gestures are very localized, and what might be understood no ifs ands or buts in one culture might be negative or an insult in other culture can save you from a lot of embarrassment and misunderstandings.

Personal Space

Do you know what your "personal space" is? What length feels most comfortable to you during a conversation? This "comfort zone" will vary from person to person but there are norms within cultural groups and your personal space is most likely influenced by your culture. If you know the normal rule of thumb in your host country, this will make it easier for you to understand your discomfort if the space in the host culture differs from your culture. With this new understanding and understanding you can now custom to get more comfortable with the norm of the host country.

Becoming aware of your own way of communicating and learning as much as you can about the transportation style of your host country will help you to be understood and to understand other culture more fully.

Cross-Cultural Awareness - How to Effectively present over Cultures