Some of you probably know that Baruch College has been ranked as the most ethnically diverse campus in the U.S. by this year’s Princeton Review. Working at the campus that has the most diverse student body in the nation, we often come across difficulties in cross-cultural communication, the topic which Szidonia’s last posting illuminated beautifully. I also have been working with many international students in Great Works, who make their extra effort to cope with the linguistic and cultural predicaments that they face. Having come from Korea, I can particularly relate to Asian students with their nervousness and discomfort in the classroom where they are expected to engage in discussion by challenging other people’s opinions and where they find a dissent sometimes valued more than a consent. This can be quite a novel idea to those who had different cultural upbringings. On the other hand, I have to confess that I felt perplexed the other day when a faculty member asked me why his Chinese female student is not vocal in class and whether it is because of her cultural background. I wished to give him a better explanation than just blaming it all on culture, but didn’t know where to begin.
I think the issue of cultural difference/misunderstanding/stereotyping is all the more compelling because it raises the kinds of questions that can’t be resolved easily, including those which Szidonia and Yukiko already brought up. In what occasions should we give a person the “cultural baggage bonus” or grant a cultural easy-pass? How can they be unjustly given or not given? In miscommunication, at which point does cultural difference stop playing a major role and others such as sexual, regional, generational, disciplinary, and individual differences factor in? One thing I’d like to add is the fact that people change, things move, and “culture”, like everything else, continuously evolves.
I don’t presume to have answers … simply observations. I’ve facilitated numerous communications programs, most recently Networking with Confidence for the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences and Communicating with Confidence for NYU Wasserman Center for Career Development. Both audiences were diverse in many ways, paticularly cross-culturally, and there was a loveliness in the way students of varying backgrounds chose to participate.
I have suggested that it is not necessary to change personality to adapt to today’s expectations or to be uncomfortably bold when communicating. However, I do believe students are able to flex their personal communications style, move out of their comfort zones from time to time, and take some measured risks when communicating socially or professionally. This takes preparation and practice and asking the question … “what’s the worst that can happen if I speak up.” Oftentimes, the voice inside our heads tell us we can’t or we’ll be harshly judged and fear sets in. The first step in changing behavior is changing the negative voice that frequently prevents us from pushing our boundaries.
I am working on a program, Communicating Confidently Across Cultures, and would be very interested in hearing from others on the challenges of cross-cultural communications and perhaps how they’ve overcome some of those challenges.
One of the keys to International Business success, is to have the knowledge of the impact of cultural differences on others while you are working in an International Business Environment. I strongly believe that all International companies who are involved in business globally need to enable their employees to become more cultural sensitive by improving their levels of cultural awareness. I also found that cultural insensitivity can easily leads to discrimination due to ignorance and lack of knowledge. Proper training to employees on all levels together with a well structered employee handbook, is a possible answer to the problem.Jay-D OlivierOlivierLex – http://www.olivierlex.com
Oregon, USA
Wow, I didn’t know about Baruch’s ranking, though I always felt that teaching in a NYC classroom is like working at the UN only, I hope, more effective.Yes, this is a complex issue, and one should never “blame culture” for all the things that strike us as different. Indeed, we should all profit from a “well structured employee handbook” that would guide us in reference to cultural awareness.Still in an elections-aftermath mood, however, let me just emphasize how much I learned about appreciating difference in America, more specifically, in the American classroom. I know that many things are waiting to be improved still, but, as member of an ethnic minority in Eastern Europe, I never felt so validated and so supported in being me as throughout my years in the US. In my country, it was not even called discrimination that my high school had one classroom assigned for minority students at the end of the corridor and that we never managed to compete with majority students taught by the best professors who would not stoop to teaching the “weak” minority class. We had no idea we could call this discrimination; it was “normal,” no matter how bad it felt.So, if President Obama says that the American Dream is alive and kicking and he needs a “legal alien in New York” to agree with him, I’m in for the game.
It is amazing to observe how ‘non-alien,’ incredibly talkative and enthusiastic students can be when surrounded by others who speak their language, even (uncomfortably for the teacher) in an English-speaking classroom. The ‘cultural baggage’ argument about Asian students being quiet somehow doesn’t seem to work…
I agree, Olga, such a general “Asian students” approach doesn’t work. As my adviser used to point it out while I was trucking away at getting an MA in Sociolinguistics (because language and linguistic identity have always been my big issues as well), “Contextualize, always contextualize!” I heard the same thing from Salman Rushdie when I went to see him at a conversation at Columbia the other day. He told a famous old story about some Hindu singers invited to the court of a very powerful Muslim king. They preferred to commit suicide instead of performing for a Muslim ruler. I know, this brings up ancient issues about Hindus versus Muslims, but the way Rushdie put the whole thing stayed with me. He said, we need to pay attention to history and understand that some people would rather die than change their views. That’s it, period. And I have been thinking about what he said ever since because I believe in being able to educate people, and I believe in the fact that people can change….
I certainly agree that creating a level of comfort for learners is essential to communication and we all tend to gravitate to those who share our language, our culture, our experiences. I don’t necessarily believe people have to change or alter their cultural orientation in order to be successful in the global community. However, by becoming more self-aware, exploring self-perceptions, understanding other people’s cultural framework and learning to overcome barriers that interfere with successful cross-cultural communication, everyone succeeds.