What is the purpose of intercultural communication?
As business and media globalize at speed, people increasingly have to work with others outside their own nation or culture. That's why 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 is a direct route to a stronger bottom line, and studying intercultural communication at university opens up real opportunities for students too.
Different Values and Level of Context
Values differ across the world. Because of cultural differences, someone from a contrasting culture may find your actions offensive even when you intended a positive signal — one example being how much context matters in discourse. Similarly, in intercultural management, even the meaning of eye contact varies from culture to culture.
Examples of International Communication
- A Latin American businessman discusses a deal with his North American client.
- A group of Asian employees is asked to work under a French manager.
- A Chinese diplomat converses with Swedish officials.
This article looks at the obstacles to intercultural communication and offers ways to learn it.
Study cultural differences
Understanding other people's ideas and sharing information effectively requires studying different cultures and cultural communication theory. Learning to use cross-cultural communication tools and building real skills matters just as much. To study international communication, students or professionals can enroll in a university program or take the training offered by Marc Prager Conseil.
Barriers to Intercultural Communication
There are many barriers to effective intercultural communication in business. Below, we cover the most important ones.
Stereotypes and Chauvinism
Culture shapes an individual's personality, but stereotyping based on cultural or social background is a mistake — many other factors influence a person's identity and behavior. Ethnocentricity is another major barrier to international communication: even people who respect other cultures can subconsciously consider their own superior, which creates real communication problems.
Language and Gestures
Reflecting on organizational discourse analysis, a research paper identifies language as a fundamental part of how social reality is formed.
Language plays a particularly important role in business, and can easily become a cultural communication barrier. Even when everyone shares a common language like English, idioms, cultural context, and dialect can still get in the way of understanding and sharing information.
Like language, gestures and non-verbal cues carry different meanings across nations and cultures — learning them is essential for building real international communication skills.
Studying International and Intercultural Communication
Given how much intercultural communication matters, learning about it is genuinely key to success in today's global village. Let's look at why — and how — you should study international communication.
What are some examples of intercultural communication?
There are several ways to learn intercultural communication and build your skills.
First, students can enroll in an International and Intercultural Communication Studies program at university. Second, students or professionals can join an online course and study from there — module-based courses that let you learn on your own schedule and work through the material at your own pace.
Professionals can also join Marc Prager Conseil's training program to learn cross-cultural communication and master cultural competence.
With decades of consulting and global corporate experience behind them, our experts use proven communication techniques and a fresh approach to strengthen cultural relations within your organization, with a sharp focus on building critical social skills and cultural competence.
Contact us to learn more about our intercultural communication training course.
This article was written by Marc Prager.