What is Culture???

Provides patterns of

acceptable behavior & beliefs. May be based on. Nationality Race and Religion Historical Roots All of the Above

Culture
Culture is the "lens" through which you view the

world. It is central to what you see, how you make sense of what you see, and how you express yourself. Culture" refers to a group or community with which you share common experiences that shape the way you understand the world.

Communication
Derived from word communis means to exchange.

It means communication is the process of exchanging

ideas,feelings,opinions and information from one person to another through a medium.

A Communication Model
Context Channel

Sender

Message

Audience

Feedback

Cross cultural communication

Interaction, communication, and other processes which involve people or entities from two or more different cultures

 Cross-cultural communication exists when people from differing cultures have reached a certain degree of understanding regarding their differences. For understanding to take place, both people must have some form of knowledge or awareness regarding the

CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

norms or customs that exist in each other's culture.

HIGH CONTEXT VS. LOW CONTEXT CULTURES

High Context Cultures

Emotional expressions Touching Body orientation Silence Maintaining harmony Indirect Emphasis on how something is said Eg:Japan,India.

Low Context Cultures

Intelligence; Expert knowledge I Explicit logic, proof, linear organization Silence = disagreement, rejection, hostility, weakness, unwillingness to communicate, shyness Emphasis on what is said, specificity Eg:Europe,Latin America

Summary of Verbal Styles

Flexibility Cooperation: Intercompany Interaction

Negotiation Styles from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Adapted from Table 77: Negotiation Styles from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Cross-cultural Benefits
Building Relationships
Globalisation Workforce Diversity Creativity

6 Barriers to Intercultural Communication

High anxiety: When a person feels inconvenient, when he or she

does not know how to behave in some situations. The result is that the communication transaction fails.

Assuming similarity instead of dissimilarity: In order to prepare

yourself for various circumstances it is very important to assume laws, habits, and attitudes of another society.

Ethnocentrism : It is based on the idea that your own race, nation,

or group is better than any other. Usually ethnocentrism is common for people who come across the culture shock

 Language problems: There are five actual factors that

generally produce the difficulties in the translation. They are lack of equivalences in vocabulary, idioms, grammar and syntax, experiences, and concepts.

Nonverbal misinterpretations:

it can be stated that in a conversation this is more problematical to understand the nonverbal symbols without sharing the same nonverbal codes.
.

 Stereotypes and Prejudices : Stereotypes are the perceptions about that certain people have particular qualities or abilities because they belong to a particular race, sex, or social class. Positive examples : Japanese people are good in mathematical sciences. Negative: Russians Mafia Vodka Prostitution Cold winter; the Arabs are terrorists. Prejudice can be defined as an unreasonable dislike and distrust of people who are different from you in some way, especially because of their race, sex, religion. Example: Indian people in Arabic countries, it can be affirmed that Indians do get less salary than other nationalities.

Ten Commandments of Intercultural Communication

Be aware of differing social values;

Be aware of differing status symbols and

how to demonstrate them;

Be aware of decision making customs: not

all people like to make decisions quickly and efficiently; like to see time as money;

Be aware of concepts of time: not all people

Be aware of personal space: people from different cultures have different comfort zones'; Be aware of cultural context

 Be aware of body language: learn the

basic differences in the way people supplement their words with body movement;
or manners: what is polite in one culture may be considered rude in another; behavior;

Be aware of different etiquette rules

Be aware of legal and ethical

Be aware of language barriers:

English is the most prevalent language in international business, but it's a mistake to assume that everyone understands it.

CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION ISSUES IN INDIA

Cross-cultural misunderstandings

can be seen among people working across MNCs with diverse cultural backgrounds. These misunderstandings often tend to create repetitive phenomena involving cross cultural conflicts, dissatisfaction leading to communication problems, and reduced employee performance. The management techniques learned and developed by a manager in his original or home culture do not apply equally in other cultures and thus produce several clashes and ambiguities.

Examples
Honda introduced their new car "Fitta" into Nordic

countries in 2001. If they had taken the time to undertake some cross cultural marketing research they may have discovered that "fitta" was an old word used in vulgar language to refer to a woman's genitals in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. In the end they renamed it "Honda Jazz". American Motors tried to market its new car, the Matador, based on the image of courage and strength. However, in Puerto Rico the name means "killer" and was not popular on the hazardous roads in the country

Some Humourous examples

Things weren't much easier for Coke's arch-rival

Pepsi. When they entered the Chinese market , the translation of their slogan "Pepsi Brings you Back to Life" was a little more literal than they intended. In Chinese, the slogan meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave General Motors had a perplexing problem when they introduced the Chevy Nova in South America. Despite their best efforts, they weren't selling many cars. They finally realized that in Spanish, "nova" means "it won't go.

 Slow Down : Slow down, speak clearly and ensure your

pronunciation is intelligible.

Tips for improving cross cultural communication skills

Separate Questions: Try not to ask double questions such as,

"Do you want to carry on or shall we stop here?

Avoid Negative Questions: misunderstandings have been

caused by the use of negative questions and answers. In English we answer 'yes' if the answer is affirmative and 'no' if it is negative. In other cultures a 'yes' or 'no' may only be indicating whether the questioner is right or wrong. For example, the response to "Are you not coming?" may be 'yes', meaning 'Yes, I am not coming.'

Write it Down: If you are unsure whether something has been

understood write it down and check.

Be Supportive: Giving encouragement to those with weak

English gives them confidence, support and a trust in you.

Check Meanings: When communicating across cultures never

assume the other party has understood. Summarise what has been said in order to verify it.

Avoid Slang: Even the most well educated foreigner will not
have a complete knowledge of slang, idioms and sayings.

Maintain Etiquette: Many cultures have certain etiquette when communicating. It is always a good idea to undertake some cross cultural awareness training or at least do some research on the target culture. Example, in a society where people

dont kiss when they greet each other, a kissing person might be judged as a vulgar and without manners

Good Intercultural Communicators Are.

Aware values &

behaviors not always right.

Flexible & open

to change.

And..
Sensitive to

verbal & nonverbal behavior. Aware of values, beliefs, practices of other cultures. Sensitive to differences within cultures.

Conclusion
In the end we conclude that culture is the lens through

which we view the world in a same way.So we should respect the cuture of every country in order to eliminate conflicts and barriers. In this diversified environment productivity and satisfaction can be achieved when people of different cultures working in an organisation works in harmony
Cross cultural communication is about dealing with people

from other cultures in a way that minimizes misunderstandings and maximizes your potential to create strong cross cultural relationships.