I need 2 responses to each student discussion board post. Please keep separate and in order. APA format
Tuesday Sep 4 at 8:55pm
Is it important for you to achieve a certain level of intercultural communication competence?
I currently work in the sales and marketing department of my company, part of my roles and responsibilities are to communicate with my clients. I work primarily with apartments and townhomes/condos. In several of my areas, Spanish is the language that is primarily spoken in the home. Fortunately for me and those I work with, I speak Spanish, while I'm not quite fluent anymore, I know enough to be dangerous. Clients and I can usually communicate well enough to get our point across through their broken English and my broken Spanish, but this is mostly due to the desire of both parties to communicate effectively. Another area of mine has many immigrants from Somalia, and they usually speak little to no English, so this area tends to have much more difficult communication barriers. In this area we tend to communicate through mediators, sometimes it's someone who speaks both languages, but sometimes it's typing phrases into Google Translate and hoping the message comes across clearly. Sometimes there are complete breakdowns of communication where we're using hand gestures and making faces at each other. Being able to communicate effectively with this area would help sales and retention of customers amazingly.
In the text, section 2.2 the author gives an example of technicians using highly specialized Tech talk in an attempt to communicate with a Sales Manager. We have a position called a Sales Technician, that was created to bridge the gap between Tech talk and Sales talk. I never realized how important this role was until I was able to spend some time with our Sales Technician and watch him bridge the gap between these two worlds.Being able to communicate between these two different worlds effectively is the difference between saving a contract and losing one.
Yesterday Sep 5 at 3:37pm
I work in a diverse organization and with a diverse base of students. I currently am working with a man from Saudi Arabia, Puerto Rico, Germany, and student’s across the United States of all origins. Although I do pretty well speaking to those who do not speak English as a first language or call the U.S their birth country, I admit that is the extent of my intercultural communication experience. When we communicate, I do not change my tone or word choices to conform to them. This is because I a work in adult education and speaking to those who seek education from the United States for a reason. However, I do make sure to check for understanding more often and I do ask questions of their past educational experience outside of the U.S. so I can gain a better understanding of their background and expectations. I refrain from slang for all professional communication as language as slang is different among cultures (Baack, 2012) and can cause confusion and miscommunication.
I believe understanding intercultural communication differences can only help everyone in their personal and professional lives. It may not always be relevant to all situations, but it still increases understanding, enhances communication, sensitivity and increases diversity. In example, if you greet someone according to their culture rather than yours; such as bowing, you are showing a genuine interest in that person’s culture, showing acceptance and respect, and builds rapport (Baack, 2012). This can only assist you in business communication and remove other barriers that may exist or occur, especially if you work for a global company and may end up visiting that country. I have made many friends in my professional life because I ask them how to correctly pronounce their name or ask questions about their birth culture.
References:
Baack, D. (2012).
Management communication
. Retrieved from
https://ashford.content.eduLinks to an external site.