You have more in commony with family and friends of your own culture than
people in a different culture that may not know anything about your culture. Learning about different
cultures helps you to understand what someone else is all about. When you can
make friends with people different from yourself, you can be open to making new
friends with them in the same way as with anyone.
My first strategy is to become an effective listener with family,
friends and colleagues.
The second of my strategies is to learn more
about the Platinum Rule to communicate with others; learn to care more about others
than myself to make my communication more efficient.
Lastly, I
learned not to be so judgmental and see what’s wrong through someone’s eyes (Gonzalez-Mena,
2010).
Gonzalez-Mena,
J. (2010). 50 strategies for communicating and working with diverse families.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Kathleen,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. The Platinum Rule will help us to learn more about other without being judgmental. Great posting!!
Kathleen,
ReplyDeleteI also chose the strategy of becoming a more effective listener. Becoming knowledgeable about others who are different from us involves being able to listening carefully. Bebee, Bebee & Redmond (2011) point out that “Seeking information about a culture or even about a specific communication situation enhances the quality of intercultural communication” (p. 105). When discussing the role of listening, Bebee, et al. state “When you encounter a person from another background, asking questions and then pausing to listen is a simple technique for gathering information and also for confirming the accuracy of your expectations and assumptions” (p. 106). You mention that communicating with our own family is impacted by the fact that we have much in common with them. I had not thought about this before but it occurred to me that because of shared understanding, I find that when talking to family, I sometimes don’t feel like I need to listen as carefully as I would when talking with someone who has a different culture. Thanks for sharing your strategies. I will be trying the same methods for improving my ability to communicate effectively.
Geralyn
Reference:
Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Chapter 4, "Interpersonal Communication and Diversity: Adapting to Others" (pp. 85–114)
Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/201420_02/MS_MECS/EDUC_6165/Week%203/Resources/Resources/embedded/beebe_ch4.pdf
Kathleen,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I do not think I communicate differently with people from other cultures. Obviously, communication will be easier with people that we are familiar with. You spoke about family and friends. I think the key issue in communication is how much we have in common with the other person. I do not think it has anything to do with race or culture. When we do encounter situations where we are communicating with people who do not have much in common with us, we must apply the Platinum Rule. This way we can listen and learn something new without judging. Thanks!
Mary Jo
Kathleen, I can identify with what you said regarding discrimination and it's affect on others and while it is true that one culture is no more important than another, I must say that when I communicate with some of my families, I must think of culture. I had an Indian family enroll in one of my centers and although the mother enrolled the child all communication about the family or child had to go through the father. It was because in their culture, the father makes all the decisions and therefore whatever we needed of or from the family had to be obtained by asking the father. The mother did interact and attend some of the meetings, but the communication was done by her husband. So in many cases, because of culture, it will make a difference in communicating.
ReplyDelete