Making Sense of Your Experiences Using a Theory

Making Sense of Your Experiences Using a Theory Name Institution Date Intercultural communication competence can be defined as the "overall internal capability of a person to manage the key challenging features of intercultural communication which include; cultural differences and unfamiliarity, intergroup postures and the accompanying experience of stress" (Barna 1983). In Barna's article on intercultural communication stumbling blocks (ICSB), he outlines five stumbling blocks which include; Assumptions and similarities, Language differences, Nonverbal misinterpretations, Preconceptions and stereotypes, Tendency to evaluate, High anxiety and Culture stock. In this essay, I will discuss two stumbling blocks which include assumptions and similarities and culture shock against my own experience as a college student the U.S. American people tend to believe and assume that similarities in things like food, clothing, and lifestyle among others between people of different countries make communication easy and alike. Having stayed in America for two years, I am now used to their cultures, beliefs, customs, attitudes, and values. At first, they assumed that because I spoke English, I wore clothes like them among other similarities, I was just like them and communication could never be a problem, but that was not the case. Americans smile a lot even to strangers. In my home, smiling at a stranger is not much welcomed but in America, smiling is a way of greeting a stranger. Americans will meet a stranger in a street and smile at them not wondering what the stranger has thought of them if he or she smiles back. "The assumption of similarity does not extend to the expectation of a common verbal language, instead interferes with caution in decoding non-verbal symbols signs and signals". (Barna 1994). Nonverbal language is different among different cultures. For example, a smile as stated earlier in America is a way of greeting while in Arabia it means people have noticed a problem in one's clothes, hairstyle etc. And they want to inform him or her. Americans also speak a lot and listen less. In college, we would hold discussions and I would never get a chance of giving my opinion. Since the Americans believe people are similar in everything and have that confidence that comes with similarity, they would not understand that I was different from them in the way I was expressing myself and just give me a chance to do it. I seemed uninterested and uncooperative which was not the case. Ten...