Why study intercultural communication?

1. Why study intercultural communication? Chapter 1

2. Study of Intercultural Communication • The study of intercultural communication is about the study of communication that involves, at least in part, cultural group membership differences.

3. Eight reasons for studying intercultural communication • Global Workforce heterogeneity • Domestic workforce diversity • Multicultural health care • Creative multicultural problem solving • Intercultural relationship satisfaction • Deepening self-awareness • Global and interpersonal peace • Role of Technology

4. Adapting to Workforce Heterogeneity • All of us most likely will work with employees and customers from dissimilar cultures (face-to-face or CMC).

5. Adapting to domestic workforce diversity • Intercultural communication skills are needed to solve problems, manage conflicts, and forge new visions. • Demographic change in the United States impacts the domestic workforce diversity.

6. Improving multicultural health care communication • Many immigrants and multicultural citizens have high expectations that health care workers will respect their personal beliefs and health care practices. • Learning basic intercultural communication concepts and skills can help professionals and service providers practice respectful intercultural attitudes and adaptive communication styles.

7. Engaging in creative problem solving • A synergistic perspective means combining the best of all cultural approaches in solving a workplace problem. • According to creativity research, we learn more from people who are different from us than from those who are similar to us. • Mindful listening and careful perception checking.

8. Enhancing intercultural relationship satisfaction • With the dramatic rise of intercultural marriages and dating relationships in the U.S, intimate relationships are a fertile ground for culture shock and clashes. • Culture-sensitive intercultural communication can increase relational and family closeness and deepen cultural self-awareness.

9. Role of Technology • Technology impact what we listen to, what we download, what we want to look like. • Technology creates sense of global community and a co-culture itself.

10. Deepening self-awareness and other-awareness • Ethnocentrism vs Intercultural knowledge • Ethnocentrism means seeing our own culture as the center of the universe and seeing other cultures as insignificant or even inferior; cultural socialization occurs on a very unconscious level and encourages the development of ethnocentrism. • Intercultural knowledge can deepen our awareness of who we are, where we acquired our values in the first place, and how we make sense of the world around us.

11. Fostering global and intrapersonal peace • Many organizations have been dedicated to promoting peace, cultural, and spiritual development, and betterment of human kind. • You can get a degree in Peace and Justice at various educational institutions. • We need to display mindful listening attitude even if we do not like the individuals or their viewpoints.