International and Intercultural Communication

According to new research, cultural diversity at your organization can increase returns by 35% as diversity paves the way for innovation and global expansion. But when people from different cultures and nations work together, ensuring effective cross-cultural communication becomes critical but difficult.

What is the purpose of intercultural communication?

Due to the rapid globalization of business and media, people from the same nation or culture are required to work with different people. Therefore, studying and understanding the basics of international and cross-cultural communication is essential to building lasting business relationships.

For international organizations, fostering a cross-cultural work environment to improve their bottom line. Learning intercultural communication at any university opens up new opportunities for students.

Different Values and Level of Context

Values differ across the world. Because of cultural differences, a person having a contrasting culture with yours may find your actions offensive when you wanted to convey a positive signal through them. One such cultural difference is the importance of context in the discourse.

Similarly, intercultural management and the meaning of eye contact vary from culture to culture. To overcome these cross-cultural communication barriers, you can read this article on improving intercultural communication in companies to boost their results.

Study cultural differences

Understanding other people’s ideas and sharing information requires studying different cultures and cultural communication theory. Learning how to use cross-cultural communication tools and developing skills are equally important. To study international communication, students or professionals can either enroll in a university program or take the training offered by Marc Prager Conseil.

Examples of International Communication

A Latin American man talks about business with his North-American client.
A group of Asians asked to work under a French manager.
A Chinese diplomat converses with Swedish officials.

This article discusses the obstacles to intercultural communication and suggests ways to learn it.

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Barriers to Intercultural Communication

There are many barriers to effective intercultural communication in the business world. Below, we discuss the few most important ones.

Stereotypes and Chauvinism

Though culture shapes an individual’s personality, one shouldn’t stereotype based on the cultural and social background as several other factors influence a person’s identity and behavior. Likewise, ethnocentricity is a major deterrent to international communication. Despite having respect for other cultures, people subconsciously consider their culture to be superior, which creates communication issues.

Language and Gestures

Reflecting on organization discourse analysis, a research paper acknowledged language to be a fundamental aspect in the formation of social reality.

Especially in a business environment, language plays a key role and can become a cultural communication barrier. Even if everyone understands English or any other common language, idioms, cultural contexts, and dialects can cause some issues in understanding and information-sharing.

Like language, gestures and non-verbal cues have different meanings in different nations and cultures. So learning them is necessary for the development of international communication skills and competence.

Studying International and Intercultural Communication

Given the importance of intercultural communication, learning about it is the key to success in today’s global village. Let’s discuss why should and how can you study international communication.

What are some examples of intercultural communication?

There are different ways for learning intercultural communication and developing your skills.

First, students can enrol themselves in the International and Intercultural Communication Studies program at any university. Second, students or business professionals can join an online course on intercultural communication and study from there. These module-based courses allow you to study whenever you have time, enabling you to complete all modules easily.

Professionals can also join the training program of Marc Prager Conseil for learning cross-cultural communication and mastering cultural competence.

Having decades of consulting and global corporate experience, our experts use effective communication techniques and a new approach to enhance the cultural environment and relations. We focus keenly on the development of critical social skills and cultural competence.