Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

^{Another culture can be different, without being defective.1}

Communication is like a kaleidoscope. Many units of different sizes, shapes, and color make up the whole picture. Any action, shift, or change adjusts the pattern and the relationship of all of the units to each other, thereby altering the picture.

• Comment these statements. Prove your opinion with some examples.

When we attempt to communicate with another culture, it is of great help to start out with an awareness of the principal types of cultural differ­ences that can potentially impede communication  the arrival at acceptable shared meaning. We can classify these disparities as differences in percep­tion and as differences in the verbal and nonverbal processes of communi­cation.

Drawing on studies by sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and communication specialists, on personal experiences of multicultural people, and on other sources, we can construct a number of common and significant categories of perception and process that cause difficulties when persons of different cultures attempt to communicate.

We will first consider the common communication obstacles engendered by culturally different perceptions, and next we will examine the obstacles that arise from verbal and nonverbal processes of communication.

• How can we classify to Intercultural Communication Obstacles?

1. Obstacles of Perception

Perception is the internal process by which we select, evaluate, and orga­nize the stimuli of the outside world. CULTURE SHAPES PERCEPTION!

From the time we are born, we learn our perceptions and the resulting behaviors from our cultural experiences.² Behaviors “natural” to different cultures do not necessarily conflict,³ but when they do, the conflict frequently causes communication problems.

Monsieur and Madame Bertrand had invited a few good friends to dinner at their Paris home. It was a crisply cold winter night. After dining sumptu­ously and finishing late, Monsieur Bertrand was helping Madame Dubois into her coat. The hosts and several guests were standing in the foyer. Madame Dubois raised an arm to get it into the sleeve of her coat and knocked a painting off the wall onto the tile floor. She and the hostess bent down to examine the painting. Unfortunately, the fall onto the tile had dam­aged the frame. Madame Dubois fingered the damage. She said “It’s dam­aged. I’m so sorry.” Straightening up, she adjusted her coat and commented, “What an awkward place to hang a painting. I couldn’t avoid it.” After good­byes and effusive compliments about the wonderful delicacies of the dinner and the selection of wines, Madame Dubois and her husband departed.

Madame Dubois’s apparent lack of concern for the painting that she damaged would probably cause ill will on the part of North American hosts. In North American culture, respect for a person’s material possessions sym­bolizes respect for the person. More effusive apologies, and perhaps repa­ration, would have been both offered and expected in such a situation. But in France there is a different social network, and a possession does not symbolize the relationship. The friendship should be more important than a material possession, and the fact that Madame Dubois could rely on the relationship being more important than the damage to the painting was in­dicative of this cultural value and attitude, thereby reinforcing the friend­ship rather than causing a rift. This particular cultural difference between France and the United States is one that is especially difficult for both cul­tures to understand.⁴ It is not that a material possession is more impor­tant than a friendship in the United States, it is that demonstrating respect for the possession of another symbolizes the importance one places on the relationship.

The categories of perception that commonly cause difficulties in inter­cultural communication are shown in the Table below [Int Com. A practical guide, pp. 27-28].