Health Campaigns: Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges

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Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges
Communication is important to the way people relate in business or personal terms. Effective communication is important in building interpersonal relationships. It is challenging for people from various background to communicate effectively because of the cultural differences. Different cultures have varying ways of thinking, hearing, seeing, and interpreting the world (Qili & Dong 403). Same words can have varying meaning to different people especially those from different cultural backgrounds. A language barrier is the first major obstacle to cross-cultural communication. Language is complex to understand even if conversing with a person from same cultural background. Communicating using a language they are not well versed with can prove to be more problematic.
The next barrier to cross-cultural communication is differences in behavior. There could be different behaviors in various cultures that affect verbal and non-verbal communication. Behaviors could determine whether one looks the other in the eye or not, whether one interrupts the other when they communicate, or whether they be direct with their points or go around issues (Parthab, Nicolle & Maguire 38). Certain cultures demand that people must stand at some distance whenever they are in communication. Rules of politeness differ from culture to culture.
Emotional constraints differ from culture to culture and they influence the way people may communicate. The way cultures regulate the display of emotions may vary. There are cultures that get very emotional when debating certain issues while some cultures do not. Others cry, exhibit anger, yell, show frustration, and their feelings openly (Ting and Marie-Claire 213). Other cultures keep their emotions intact, only share what they think is rational. All the differences above tend to...