Intercultural Communication

During the last decades, intercultural communication has been drawing assiduous attention of the world public. The rapid technological and informational development has led to great changes in economical, political, ideological, cultural, and demographical fields worldwide. Increasing migration waves are the typical feature of the today's reality when states are interested in multiracial professionals and workers. In addition, universities make exchange students and international teaching staff their priority. As a result, this globalization makes the issue of intercultural communication the subject of numerous brisk debates among journalists, politicians, and experts. This paper discusses three key experiences that are related to the linguistic difficulties and obstacles cased by different ethnic backgrounds and cultural traditions that strike a habitant of China in Australia.
As my numerous peers, I left the native city of Hong Kong in order to pursue the Western education in Australia. Upon arrival to the campus, I experienced cultural shock in Adelaide. The divergence in my daily routine in China and the mode of life in Adelaide posed obstacles to my free communication with surrounding people. The paper presents my reflections on overcoming the hardships of intercultural communication.
First, it is crucial to provide the definition of the key notion. Intercultural communication is a type of relations between individuals that target sharing information across different cultures and social groups. The primary object under consideration is the way the representatives of different states and cultural backgrounds interact and see the picture of the world. The peculiarities caused by dissimilar religious beliefs, ethnic, educational, and social experiences are easy to observe. Therefore, intercultural communication is very important as the form of everyday communication between individuals that have come from different parts of the world. My personal belief is that the effective intercultural communication is the major condition of peace and success in today's reality of globalization processes in the world.
The first extraordinary experience that I encountered was the foreign language. I have chosen it as an example of intercultural communication because we cannot live, interact, study, and achieve success without understanding other people and expressing our ideas to them. Language is the key tool to the exchange of thoughts in the community. Moreover, my view of the issue is supported by the research of the International Association of Universities, which argues that the language barrier is one of the three greatest obstacles to internationalization by universities in Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, I suggest the issue of linguistic obstacles in the foreign community as my first and major experience.
Living in Hong Kong, I communicated with my family, friends, and other people in Standard Mandarin; now, I must English. This fact is embarrassing because I feel the lack of words to express my ideas and feelings. During my first days in Adelaide, I was afraid to say a word to avoid an awkward situation. Everywhere I went, I heard English words that seemed to be some barbaric tune I could not understand. However, my sad perception of the new circumstances in the foreign country changed in several days. In this new environment, I began to distinguish familiar words, facilitating the communication by using proper facial expressions and gestures. The friendly attitude of the surrounding people encouraged me to talk. Even more, I find that I miss the initial attempts of my linguistic struggle. Currently, I communicate with my new friends, neighbors, and other individuals freely. I should say that I still face some linguistic obstacles during my interactions, but I am improving.
My reflections on the personal experience of the oral communication can exemplify intercultural interaction in the contemporary world, proving the experiment conducted by Tsui. The researcher observed the medium of communication among the university students, who studied in ten faculties in Hong Kong. Approximately 22 thousand students took part in the experiment. In the study cited, over 6 thousand students came from 72 non-English speaking countries. The Chinese counted about 60% of the experiment participants. The outcomes of the research demonstrate that being a 'lingua franca', English moderates processes of intercultural communication between representatives of various ethnicities. The researchers argue that students' perceptions of whether they had been granted access to these processes depended on their perceptions of what the mediating language should be.
Striving for monolinguistic practice, the participants of intercultural communication appeared in to be in acute discomfort. Individuals expected to speak only one language and were denied the usage of other languages to facilitate understanding. Besides, the participants of intercultural communication with their plurilinguistic view were in a more preferable position. Therefore, the usage of several dominant languages should be introduced into practice. I subscribe to this point of view because I consider any language to be the tool of comprehending the ideas of other individuals. If the participants of intercultural communication feel free speaking several languages, then this practice should be supported.
My second experience of intercultural communication in Adelaide is related to the ethnicity issue. In Hong Kong, the community is predominantly homogenous, consisting of approximately 94% Han Chinese. This fact demonstrates that difficulties caused by the difference in racial background are not relevant in the city. The rest of the Hong Kong population includes Indenesian, Filipino, Indian, Pakistani, and representatives of other ethnicities. Their number is so minor that it does not cause any problem in the field. As for my new location, I should acknowledge that the Chinese are rather exotic in Australia. However, I cannot say that this fact negatively affects my personality. Despite different color of skin and race, my new friends and I have a lot in common, which decreases the impression of the racial diversity.
Personally, I consider racial discrimination to be a dangerous way of thinking for numerous reasons. Currently, the epoch of globalization takes place, making the idea of the borders of nation-states be old-fashioned and ineffective. Despite my deep respect to national identity, I prefer multiculturalism that developed a 'melting pot' attitude. Fortunately, I have not experienced racial prejudice in Australia. The country appears to be friendly to foreigners.
My positive experience is supported by the examples from relevant literature stating that the cordial attitude to foreigners in Australia has historical backgrounds. At the first period of colonization processes, newcomers avoided contacts with the local Aboriginal people. Later, the planners of the South Australian colony wished to establish a peaceful settlement in which black and white could live side by side as brothers. Dispersing of the English civilization and assimilation took place, erasing the borders between the local and western ethnicities. This fact led to the predominant Christianizing and civilizing of the indigenous population. Researchers state that internationalization did not necessarily lead to intercultural understanding and social integration. During different periods, individuals with various cultural backgrounds faced racial discrimination and felt uncomfortable in a new country. At this time, the above-mentioned problem does not exist, which is proved by my personal experience.
Regardless of my own perception, the scientific data indicates a different picture. Being conducted among the students of one of the Hong Kong universities, the survey demonstrated that students of non-Chinese ethnicities were reluctant to participation in student activities. They explained their behavior as the reaction to the student events that did not correspond to their values. The individuals appealed to concepts that touched their personal interests. The students were broad-minded and willing to answer the questions about their actions. However, they rejected activities connected with the history of China or cultural events. The students explained that those subjects related to the traditions of other nations, were boring to them. Moreover, one of the students was Caucasian. He was indignant when somebody confused his nationality and called him American or European. These facts prove the necessity to regard the issue of ethnicity as one of the top potential difficulties facing individuals in a foreign country.
Reflecting on my ethnicity experience, I admit that it is very important because numerous conflicts and misunderstanding happen regarding the diverse ethnicity background of the participants of intercultural communication. Therefore, I chose this issue as the second major one in my paper. My personal perception of the ethnicity issue is positive, which has helped me to avoid numerous potential difficulties. In order to escape the ethnic problems at educational establishments, it is crucial to educate the students by lectures about the rich culture and traditions of other ethnicities as well as sharing the facts from the biography of celebrities belonging to diverse ethnic groups. Therefore, this would greatly contribute to overcoming the above-mentioned problem.
The third experience is connected with the cultural customs and traditions. I must acknowledge that the Chinese culture differs from the Western one. Communicating with my new friends, neighbors, and surrounding people, I found that the major part of them represent the Western culture. The great majority of individuals are Christians. However, Muslims and people with other religious beliefs communicate in a free way. I do not consider the difference in culture and religion to be a serious obstacle. My point being that everyone should respect other people and their perception of the world. The tolerant behavior has numerous benefits, preventing possible conflicts. Moreover, intercultural communication between representatives of various lifestyles contributes to enhancing aesthetic, moral, and intellectual heritage.
The cultural aspects of my experiences are numerous. First, I discovered that pop and rock music genres are popular in Australia. Second, a lot of my new "mates" are Christians in belief. Third, the Australian cuisine makes a strong impression on me. I have never eaten such a variety of local dishes made of meat and seafood. In Hong Kong, visitors can find a great number of ethnic cuisines such as Italian, Japanese, French, and American. Hungry individuals can enjoy pizzas, sushi, and hamburgers in cafes and fast food restaurants in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, the local population prefers the traditional Chinese food such as dim sum. On holidays, the Chinese like rice flour balls in sweet soup, pomelo, persimmons, a plate of long noodles meaning long and happy life and red eggs shared when a baby is born.
In addition, alcoholic drinks are the part of Australian culture as well, being represented by rum and a great number of wines. In my view, cultural interchange is vital. However, tolerance has to be introduced to all the cultural differences, especially towards the religious issue. My idea is grounded on the analysis of the relevant literature. Depicting representatives of other religions, experts state that while they share a common religion, Australian Muslims are a culturally...diverse group. The great majority of them arrived in Australia from other states such as Lebanon, Turkey, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq. They belong both to Sunni and Shiite. Many immigrants with Muslim beliefs obtained Australian citizenship, mastered the English language, and pursued education similarly to other Australians.
Regardless of the dissimilarity, I have found a great number of amazing things in the Australian lifestyle. The communication between the representatives of different cultures makes our life more interesting.
To summarize, the current phenomenon of globalization causes migration waves. Arriving in Australia, I faced linguistic, ethnic, and cultural problems. Analyzing my personal experiences, I found their explanations in the relevant literature. Taking into account the information, I developed my personal position and recommendations for exchange students.
Upon arriving in a foreign country, a person experiences a culture shock because he or she cannot understand the foreign situation. Despite potential problems, the personal perception of the intercultural communication by the participants of interactive process is of the greatest importance. Any foreign languages, diverse ethnicities, and cultural traditions would not aggravate the situation if participants of intercultural communication have positive and friendly attitude towards each other. Therefore, tolerance is to be cultivated. Exchange students' social inclusion or exclusion, integration or accommodation strongly depend on the manner of communication.
Despite certain difficulties, I do not consider my experiences to be negative because the wise attitude towards the intercultural diversities makes our communication and the lifestyle more interesting, adding new attractive foreign details to it.
About the author: Luna Anderson is a bachelor in English philology and sociology at California University. She is currently working as one of the best writers at the https://essays-writer.net/psychology-essays.html She also studies feminine psychology.