The Importance of Intercultural Communication

This piece strives to uncover why intercultural communication is crucial.

The importance of empathy in multicultural environments

Empathy may well be a desired quality to have, but it is vital when it comes to understanding people from different cultural backgrounds, i.e. when dealing with customers and business practices. Its value shouldn’t be underestimated as it can drive success. If you wish to discover what your clients’ wishes are, then market research and surveys are powerful tools that will reveal how people think and which choices they are likely to make. Without this necessary information, doing business would be too much of a risk, which would get in the way of a path to success. Interculturally, the same applies but even more so. There needs to be a deep understanding of precisely what those cultural differences are and how they affect those concerned. Only then, can concrete steps be taken to avoid loss of business, for example. There’s no better way to prove that companies need to invest in cultural awareness than when it is clear that they can lose money if they don’t, and the next section will do just that.

Seeing beyond the stereotypes

Cultural stereotypes are everywhere and can be toxic or harmful to the perception of peoples. The Dutch, for instance, are often considered to be rude, but most people in the know acknowledge that they are merely direct with no intended rudeness whatsoever. This way of perceiving people can cause members of other cultures to misunderstand them, to even fear interacting with them, and ultimately, could result in the other culture moving away from any perceived threat to potentially avoid being treated improperly. After all, lack of awareness triggers fear. The British, on the other hand, are considered as being very polite. However, this is a generalisation and one can find rude people in any country. Some might say that non-British people may feel intimidated by the Brits as they use softeners and indirect language, which may seem complicated or strange to people who are unfamiliar with them. A good example would be when a Dutch student directly declared ‘I must escort you’ to her English teacher should he desire to go for a wander. While the British equivalent would be: ‘just to let you know, I’m afraid it’s company policy that I need to escort you’. Another example is in English ‘nice’ is often considered boring or not expressive, while in Dutch, for example, it’s perfectly acceptable to say you enjoyed a 'nice' evening. Now imagine an English presenter presents to a Dutch audience and wants feedback from his audience. He is then told: ‘it was nice’ and then goes home upset. Awareness is the key to unlocking the bridge between different cultures in the workplace and beyond. It goes without saying that when companies do business in multicultural environments, they need to invest in cultural awareness training to avoid the kinds of misunderstandings mentioned above.

Avoiding culture clashes

In order to maximise relationships with people from different cultures, it is necessary to learn about what drives them. We should all learn about each other’s cultures in greater detail so that we can have more than a superficial understanding of their attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. At work, it is always good practice to encourage team building activities, i.e. cultural excursions, sharing foods from people’s homelands and watching ‘foreign’ films. By bridging the gap between cultures, the goal is to achieve acceptance, harmony, tolerance, and enable members of staff to be more culturally sensitive and therefore become more developed. This brings us back to stereotypes, which can obstruct our judgement or get in the way of fruitful relationships. A lack of understanding of a culture as well as believing opinions without fact-checking them, can allow this to happen. Schools also have a responsibility to educate young people, i.e. by creating cultural awareness. Schools could contribute by offering opportunities to visit places of worship from a variety of religions, which could eliminate myths, prevent discrimination and gives youngsters a more open-minded attitude, so they can be open to learning about others and be willing to adapt and challenge the thoughts that others may have, which can only be positive.

Related blogs by Daniel Israel

https://interlingua.nl/expat-diary-cultural-differences-british-dutch

www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/cultural-stereotypes-dutch-directness-vs-british-daniel-israel

www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/cultural-differences-tact-diplomacy-daniel-israel

Daniel is an English teacher and author, whose teaching?style could be described?as: creative-interactive-passionate-witty. He is also a keen traveller and film buff.