Learnings from Intercultural Communication

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What have you learned?
Throughout this course, I have learned several things that have greatly influenced my understanding of communication and society. One of the things that stood out for me is the idea that every time I am having a conversation with a stranger, the goal should always be to reduce uncertainty and increase predictability behavior. Often, when people are strangers to each other, they can become suspicious and refuse to divulge any meaningful information concerning themselves. However, this becomes an impediment to communication, and it is highly unlikely for a relationship to develop between such people. Therefore, like an onion, people need to let down their social walls and reduce uncertainty by letting strangers into their lives. It is true that this needs to happen with moderation, however, it is the only way that a relationship gets to develop between two people.
Secondly, I learned how microcultural groups could develop out of simple attributes like people living in the same place. Further, I learned that microcultural groups often develop their own language, and this allows them to communicate “outside the dominant or majority culture’s context or value system” (Neuliep, 2021). While trying to cement their independence from the dominant culture, microcultures find ways to curve paths that are outside of the reach of the majority culture. So, at times, aside from them having physical attributes that separate from the majority culture, they proceed to have behavioral attributes that further distinguish t...