Do you find yourself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures?
If yes, in what ways do you communicate differently?
I do find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures. However, I don’t consider myself as fake, prejudice or inconsiderate, but I do change the way in which I communicate with the group or person I’m communicating with. If I’m in a professional setting I try to use proper English and give a lot of eye contact. I strive to be an active listener when I’m in a professional setting because I want to ensure that the individuals I’m communicating with know that I’m giving 100% of myself. However, when I’m with my immediate family I find myself not to be an active listener because sometimes my son will ask me a question and I will say “yea” and he will know that’s the wrong answer and he will say “what” and then I will realize that I wasn’t even listening to what he was saying. I often do the same thing with my husband as well as my coworker, friends and other family members. However, I am going to strive to become a better listener to members of my family, friends and coworkers.
One particular situation I can remember when I did alter my communication in relations to communicating with an individual for another country/culture was about ten years ago involving
a remarries of my husband’s sister. First remarriage involved her marrying a man from Italy
when she was stationed over there so that was very challenging for our family and then they
divorce and several years later she remarries someone from Ecador and this was also
challenging however his personality was somewhat like ours and communication wasn’t quite
as difficult. Needless to say it was still hard communicating because they both have such
different culture and views than our family has.
Betty,
ReplyDeleteLike you I find myself communicating differently when I am speaking with a certain group of people. When speaking with others whether they are the same ethnicity as me, I tend to use proper English. When speaking with my family and friends I may use slang. I have selective hearing when communicating with family. I am a very active listener when speaking to others outside of my family. I know that I should be attentive when speaking with anyone so that can know that I care about what they are saying.
Hi Betty. I have reached similar conclusions. I think most of us do alter our communication styles when addressing different cultures. In addition to being human nature, I believe that most of us, as you, do it out of respect and consideration. Excellent blog post.
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