Monday, May 20, 2013

Communicating wtih Different Cultural Groups

I do not think that I communicate with people from other cultures differently.  My husband is from Venezuela so I deal with a different culture daily.  As I think about the others including race, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation and varying abilities it has caused me to pause and reflect on my behaviors.  In our last class on diversity we learned about the Christian privilege and it was eye opening for me due to my lack of awareness. 

Because of my aha moments regarding lack of awareness I feel confident that I have probably communicated differently with people from other groups than myself.  It is not that I have purposefully set our to treat them different or communicate with them different, but I am sure it has occurred. 

The strategies that I will incorporate into my daily life will be as follows:   first, social decentering, which is a cognitive process in which you take into account the other person's thoughts, values, background, and overall perspective.  Second, becoming other oriented, focusing on others rather than yourself.  Lastly, develop a third culture, which is created when the communication partners join aspects of separate cultures to create a third, "new" culture that is more comprehensive and inclusive than either of the two separate cultures (Beebe, et al., 2011).

References

Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

1 comment:

  1. Yes, I think we all unintentionally communicate with certain groups differently. Well, not differently in a bad way but for example you wouldn't speak with a less educated person the same way you would speak with a college professor. Even when working with children, we speak with them differently than we would as colleagues. Speaking to somemone differently doesn't mean your communication with them is ineffective.

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