5 Strategies For Positive Cross-Cultural Communication

Positive cross-cultural communication requires self-awareness, openness, and mindfulness.

Here are 5 strategies for improving your cross-cultural communication.

1. Feel first. The next time you are communicating with someone who is culturally different from you, observe what is going on inside you emotionally. Shine an internal spotlight on the emotion and acknowledge that it exists. Tell yourself, “This is anxiety that I’m feeling” or “I’m excited to learn.”

2. Change perspective. You see people, places, and things everyday though your own cultural lens. See what you can learn by trying on the cultural lenses of others.

3. Suspend judgment. Suspending judgment does not refer to personally refraining from evaluating someone else’s behavior. Suspending judgment means that people in conversations “hang” their beliefs, values, and assumptions out so that they can be examined, discussed, and, as a result, better understood.

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What Do I Know From Kosher? Lessons Learned From a Cross Cultural Writers’ Group

“You don’t understand my culture.”

That was a cry heard often from one member of my fiction writers’ group who was Muslim. Nearly every point of criticism was met with it during the first two years the group was together.

“If the story doesn’t start until chapter five, I won’t get far enough to discover your culture,” was my response.

By virtue of the diverse world we live in your writers’ group is likely to be filled with people of different ages, and religious and ethnic backgrounds. Having started and ditched two writers’ groups and infiltrated a third, I’ve learnt a few things along the way. The experience of being in a writers’ group needs to be respectful from a personal perspective and worthwhile from a writing perspective.

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Friendly Cross-Cultural Relationships – Five Tips on Making Friends From All Walks of Life

Establishing solid friendships with people who look, think and act like us can be difficult enough, but what about making friends from other backgrounds or cultures? Bridging the gap with someone outside our homogeneous surroundings can be frightening and formidable. This article discusses tips on how to build cross-cultural relationships.

Avoid an Ethnocentric Attitude

The first tip to developing solid cross-cultural friendships is to avoid being too ethnocentric. All cultures have good and bad aspects. In order to gain the respect of someone from another culture, it is important to develop an accurate view of your own culture including the good, the bad, and the ugly. Americans are notorious for going abroad and sharing about how American ways are so much better than the ways of the host country. This type of ethnocentric babble is a huge turn off and will result in disgust and disdain rather than friendship. A better way is to be humble and look for best of both cultures.

Be Curious and Open-minded

Instead of talking so much about your own background and culture, take an interest in the ways and ideas of your new friend’s neighborhood or country. This means to be curious and open-minded. Ask questions and then be quiet and listen to the answers. Ask about their families and their customs. Get out of your comfort zone and try their favorite foods and visit their favorite places. When you curtail the need to live within your comfort zone, you will be able to be adventurous and gain greater insights into other practices from other parts of the world. You must also decide in advance to be willing to appreciate the differences you discover. Being curious and open-minded will open the way for a long-term cross-cultural friendships.

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