Why is cross-cultural communication important? Why is it so necessary needing the skill of communicating cross-culturally?
Communication in itself is not something that is necessarily easy in our own culture, so why do we have to even start worrying or thinking about how to communicate with other cultures? Is it not already challenging and often misleading enough with people of our ‘own kind’?
Our world is becoming a smaller place. Unlike 50 years ago, it has become a very normal thing to see mixed nationalities, mixed marriages, people from different cultures and countries in our workplace and living among us. Due to ongoing technological advances, it is now much easier to find business opportunities with people living on the other side of the world or to look for jobs abroad when the county’s economy we are living in isn’t doing too great.
Not just that, people migrate and flee from war-torn countries and travel to other places to find peace and start a ‘normal life’ again. How can we help these people, understand and accommodate them more if we have absolutely no idea of how to best communicate with them?
So we need a cross-cultural understanding to broaden our world view, to give us a deeper and better understanding of the world around us and to help us share views and ideas from around the globe.
My website Cross-Culture Café is here to help develop a stronger sensitivity and awareness for other cultures and to develop a better sense of the similarities and differences between countries. It is for those who seek to communicate more successfully across cultural borders and to help understand and interpret behaviour context-appropriately.
The insights provided are kept ‘general’ to some extent, but by no means stereotypical. Even within countries themselves there are vast differences when it comes to etiquette and communication. Therefore, the most common ways of the countries, possible differences with your country and potential obstacles will be highlighted, looked into and explained.
On my site you will find cross-cultural lessons as well as business English lessons for EFL/ESL learners who seek to improve their communication skills for the corporate world. I have created and used all of these lessons myself and am still working and improving in this area with every lesson I make.
The lessons are to help those who are looking for ideas for their own lessons, to use as a basic framework or to simply use as they are. Teacher notes and handouts are included.