Communication Between Cultures

Nonverbal Communication

There are many ways of having nonverbal communication: facial expressions, the clues in our voices, hand gestures, body movements, touch, and personal space is using gestures, pictures. This is highly important in any interaction with others from different cultures. This is because using nonverbal cues are important when verbal cues are unclear. When communicating with people from different cultures in professional or social interactions nonverbal communication is very important. Since nonverbal communication and behavior arises from cultures are appropriate, normal, and also an effective way to communicate.

When using nonverbal communication depending on the culture it tributes different types of importance to verbal and nonverbal behavior. I work for a hotel and my housekeepers only speak Créole, this is a conflict because I do not speak the language. I have to use gestures, pictures, and demonstrations for them to understand. This is sometimes difficult for the employee and for management. When I am speaking to the housekeepers I have to speak very slow and pronounce my words correctly in order for them to interpret what I am saying. I also use gestures like whipping the microwave, to let them know it is dirty, or sweeping the floor to show them that they missed a spot. It takes time and effort to do this but it helps them as employees and me as management so that we both are on the same page at the end of the day.

In another aspect dealing with the guest can also be challenging. When dealing with guest I also have to use nonverbal communication also to help with interpretation and understanding. On a customer service side this is very hard, but sometimes the culture differences make it more difficult. Some elements of nonverbal communication are consistent across cultures. In a different respect to when emotions are acceptable to display in various cultural settings, and by whom. For instance, it may be more social acceptable in some settings in the United States for women to show fear, but not anger, and for men to display anger, but not fear. At the same time, interpretation of facial expressions across cultures is difficult. Men feel that they are stupid to the other culture because of the misunderstanding. Women show fear and intimidation because of the culture barrier. When dealing with the guest I have to remember this at times. A guest can come off as being rude, but it is because they are not familiar with the communication of the culture.

These differences of interpretation always lead to conflict, or escalate existing conflict. It is important to understand something about cultural starting-points and values in order to interpret emotions expressed in cross-cultural interactions.

Another nonverbal communication that causes a lot of conflict in cultures has to do with proxemics, or ways of relating to space. Crossing cultures,