2/06/21; Week 5: Response to Cultural Miscommunication

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What does it mean?

Talking about cultural miscommunication.

We all know that cultural miscommunication exists. However, in practice, do we really consider that in our interaction with foreign people?



Something I used to hear from the American people is how weird (maybe rude) Brazilians are when they are invited to come over to a party or an appointment with friends,  and they say a big "YES" for that invitation, expressing explicitly that they will show up, but when the moment arrives they don’t show up. This situation demonstrates a real example of a cultural miscommunication. This used to happen because, in our culture, interpersonal relationship is important and you don’t want to look rude answering “NO” to an invitation, even if you don’t want to accept the invitation.  Some people think that saying “NO” will hurt the feelings of whoever is making the invitation. On the other hand, if the invitation is made by an American guy and you say “YES” and don’t show up, that guy will interpret this situation as rude and irresponsible. 


Professor John Ivers from the BYU-Idaho University explains that “miscommunication is rampant between cultures, and it causes a lot of difficulties; it may even cause wars. It can cause murders, it can cause sexual assaults, it can cause a lot of different terrible things. And so, it is very important to understand that miscommunication is always a big possibility”. Cultural miscommunication happens when your paradigms are violated. This can be a foreigner’s facial expression, a gesture, a voice intonation, a different way of talking, and so on. Professor Ivers says that even people from another culture can act in some weird ways for you “it’s just their communication styles that they learned culturally”.



Professor Ivers emphasizes that “not all people follow their cultural rules”, but being aware of cultural miscommunication and that, as he says, we “are all good people with good intentions” - at least the majority of us - can help us in our interactions.



Teachers who have students from different cultures may take advantage of this and involve the students in projects in which they can learn about cultural differences and build an appreciation for this diversity in our world.





References:


https://video.byui.edu/media/04%20Cultural%20Miscommunication%20/0_3aaa6xxh/28027982




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