Module 3

Communicating across cultures is very important especially once you enter the business world because you will be dealing with different people everyday. You will come in contact with people from different cultures/religions and you will need to know how they communicate so you won;t do anything to offend them or disrepect them in anyway because what we find respectful could mean something totally different to other cultures. You want to consider diversity as part of audience analysis, begin to be aware of the values, beliefs, and practices in other cultures and become more sensitive to verbal and nonverbal beavior. You first want to understand what the meaning of culture is, which is our understanding of acceptable actions and beliefs.  You have high-context and low-context-cultures. Culture affects business in every aspect. It shows you how to show politeness and respect, how much information to give, how to motivate people, and how to talk to people. Nonverbal communication is very important, things like body language can be misinterpreted just as easy as verbal communication. For example eye contact is very important in America but in other countries it is respectful to drop your eyes when you are speaking to a superior. You also want to give people their personal space so they dont feel uncomfortable. I have some experience in communicating with people from other cultures and it is very different. I have to make sure I dont do or say anything that would make them feel uncomfortable so I go out of my way in order to please them and make them feel comfortable.