Cultural Communication And Intercultural Contact

Globalization and English language

Discuss about the Cultural Communication and Intercultural Contact.

A “global citizen” is someone who is a part of the emerging community and contributes to building the values and practices of that community (Edwards & Gaventa, 2014). I contribute to the “globalized society” by taking added responsibility apart from preserving my own traditional identities in terms of ethnicity; political beliefs and loyalties to my country. In order to contribute to the “globalized society” I try to understand the classmates of different country and show understanding of their culture. I contribute to the globalized society by accepting the differences among the people who are different from me. I also cooperate with friends from different background and as a global citizen I never discriminate among them.

In future, I am interested to interact with people from different community in order to know their values and practices. I would like to take part in advocating the society regarding the equal human rights; gender equality. By proving transformative education to the children, I can bring the global values to their life that will help them to become global citizens. Technological change or political regulation alone cannot create global citizens. Thus, I am interested to contribute to a globalised society through providing education to solve global challenges.

It is important to have one global language in which people should able to communicate with other person in the growing globalized society. Major newspaper, magazines, television shows find English as a theme of globalization. Politicians all over the world speak in English; advertisement; symbols and so on, are represented in English language. Therefore, this is a global language. However, it is surprizing to me that, not everyone speaks in English; neither English is official language of every nation. However, this language is spoken in many countries as their mother tongue like in, Britain; Australia; US; Canada; Australia; New Zealand; United States; South Africa and in Caribbean countries. No other language is ever spoken as mother tongue in other countries (Pennycook, 2014). Therefore, English has got a global status. In countries like India; Singapore; Nigeria; Ghana; Vanuatu and so on, English is official language. This status is hard to achieve by other languages like Spanish; German; French and so on. English has familiarity with other foreign languages, as its vocabulary is made up of various other words from other languages. This gives it a cosmopolitan feature and an advantage for becoming a global language. Hence, according to me, it is not surprising that this language has become global medium of communication, considering its features.

Intercultural mixing at La Trobe University

According to me, the campus at La Trobe University reflects a place of “extensive intercultural mixing”. Like many other universities in Australia, there are huge number of international students in this university. They are from different country with different culture and social values. In this university, there is no separated group according to ethnical homogeneity. Student from different background has created cross-cultural mixing. At La Trobe University, the intercultural learning is often embraced. According to me, the Australian students are less likely to mix across the cultures while the international students are more open to diversity. They do not form any social group based on their nationality or ethnicity, rather they interact with other international students as well as domestic students. I see this campus as a place for extensive intercultural mixing because, domestic students of this university cooperate with the international students and international students take initiatives to communicate with them. It is often seen that, students with different background roam together after the class hours. This indicates that, there is extensive mixing of different culture in La Trobe University.

This is true that students try to develop their spoken English at the same time they are studying in Australia. There is hardly any employer in Australia who speak in language other than English. I, personally, did not have any kind of experience in La Trobe that hindered opportunity to improve my spoken English.

In Australia, there are significant scopes of mastering the skill of English speaking. The employment opportunity also provides opportunity to gain valuable international connections. There are many companies who look for part-time workers and help to gain exposure for further career development. In this country, there are wide range of industries, where the workers have plenty of options for communicating in English. This helps to improve the speaking skills of the international students. In retail shops; hospitality and tourism industries, the students are required to communicate frequently. They get chances to communicate with the customers, that will improve their ability to speak in English. By undertaking some demi-pair duties, the international student can improve their spoken English skill. This kind of part time jobs include child care; cleaning; laundry and so on. These jobs offer the students to get familiar with the use of language and with Australian culture as well.

I have taken two interviews in the campus of La Trobe University. I focused on the topic intercultural communication. I asked the students about the challenges or opportunities for understanding the intercultural communication. I have identified some of the problems at La Trobe University that students face while communicating with people who belong to other culture. I have also discussed with the students regarding the problem of cultural stereotypes. It is also important to manage the differences among people and I think internal perception and values must be shaped while communicating with others.

Scope of mastering English in Australia

Culture is defined as way of thinking; set of attitudes; norms and values reinforced by the members of same cultural background. By culture, it is meant that appearance of people on the basis of national; political; economical context.  It consists of unwritten principles to guide how a person should interact with the people outside his or her own community. People are united in terms of religion; ethnicity or race. Cultural understanding about the world affects the communication style. According to me, culture influences our behaviour and the words we speak.

Intercultural communication establishes relationship between people from different cultural background. Acquisition of skills and human attribute enhance the intercultural communication. Intercultural communication enables us to negotiate; exchange and mediate cultural differences by means of language and gestures (Carbaugh, 2013). In theory of intercultural communication, it is defined as a skill to promote an appropriate attitude towards intercultural knowledge dissemination. It builds up awareness about the beliefs of others. By application of theoretical knowledge about others’ culture and cultural values, management can manage situation or a government can come up with appropriate policy for a mixed society. Intercultural communication is necessary to improve for avoiding the misunderstanding the conflicts between the social groups. This kind of communication develops trust and it enable us to cooperate with each other.

However, miscommunication takes place in intercultural communication due to the fact that we often assume that our act will be universally accepted and any other behaviour is negatively viewed. Miscommunication mostly arises due to differences in languages. Moreover, I believe that body language; gestures etc. also helps to communicate and this differs across the culture. Cultural stereotypes include some pre-determined concept regarding some social practices. It leads to wrong expectations and notions, which may further lead to bias and discrimination (Neuliep, 2014). In order to avoid cultural misunderstandings, I believe that we should understand the real meaning instead of face value.

I have found that in La Trobe university, students are not aware of the concept of global citizen. They are familiar with the phrase but do not exactly know the meaning. However, like me the others also claimed themselves to be a global citizen (Carter, 2013). This is because; they are also trying to understand the diversity of culture and difference among the races and religions. I have also found that some students do not consider themselves as global citizen as they think that their personality and behaviour should be changed in order to be a global citizen.

Challenges in intercultural communication

These people believe that since world is not a single community, some change has to make for communicating with new community, as there is nothing common in them. The people at this university believes that culture is the tradition and customs of a particular society. They agreed on the fact that at this university there is multiple culture. Therefore, communication is affected by this, as people do not feel isolated and feel as strangers. There is social relation among the students of various background. Hence, I believe that multiple cultures in the university has led to better communication. The students are well aware of different culture and they communicate in a proper way. This has led to cooperation among student; social relation and academic success.

I believe that it is good to cope with cultural challenges, as this might help to improve personality. This will have positive impact on students as they try to become best through their friend’s culture. Student must change or develop personality in order to deal in the global world. However, it is not possible for everyone to cope with new culture. This is one of the challenges that few students face. In such cases, students avoid such interaction to avoid conflict with others. According to me, personality can be changed by keeping the traditional values same. Hence, cultural views should not reflect in one’s personality while communicating with people of other community.

I have identified that cultural stereotype is big problem, where we have some pre-assumed positive or negative images about other groups. Students believe that social media often indicates cultural stereotypes. It generates misconception among the people. I also believe that family is also another source of cultural stereotypes. Some literatures; friend circle or subordinates are also responsible for cultural stereotypes. According to me, cultural misconceptions can be cleared out by communicating. Communication can change the perceptions and new aspect of a culture or society can be explored. By making friends from different background is the easiest solution to the culture stereotypes.

It is not always to change one’s traditional beliefs; values and perception. However, I believe that one can work on his or her personality without losing the basic attitudes. We should not affect our way of communication because of our internal perception. I have found that some people are reluctant to cooperate with each other. By showing mutual respect and showing interest to know each other’s culture, the differences can be managed. It is recommended that people should understand the differences among the cultures and should respect it in order to avoid any conflict. Even if certain reactions from individual from different background is not acceptable, one should not react. Therefore, it is beneficial to develop intercultural relationship among the students as well as among other people of society. The understanding of different cultures at La Trobe University will help the student to become a global citizen. By building social relationship with people from different background cultural misconception will be eliminated and the world will become a more globalized one with peace and harmony.

The intercultural communication plays major role in understanding the different culture and different values of the people. It helps to develop strong idea about the different community and removes misconceptions regarding different religion; race; ethnicity and so on. Therefore, by restructuring personality one can make communication easy even among with group of people with different background. According to me and some student it is not always possible to change own characteristics to cope with new culture. But with urge to learn new cultures or mutual respect to each other can develop a better society, where there is mix of many ethnicity; race; religion but a single global community.

References

Carbaugh, D. (2013). Cultural communication and intercultural contact. Routledge.

Carter, A. (2013). The political theory of global citizenship. Routledge.

Edwards, M., & Gaventa, J. (2014). Global citizen action. Routledge.

Neuliep, J. W. (2014). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach. Sage Publications.

Pennycook, A. (2014). The cultural politics of English as an international language. Routledge.