How much do you think cultural differences affect your ability to communicate, or otherwise communicating with other people from different backgrounds? Many feel its out of their comfort level when they are around others that are different then them, and feel that it’s better to just avoid the situation instead of trying to make the most of it. In our world today cultural diversity is all around us, and trying to appreciate it instead of fear it could make a difference in the way we live. Cultural heritage is one of the reasons why we have communication barriers between diversity groups. The purpose of this essay is to explain the relationship my cultural background and how it affects my way of communicating with people. Starting with what my cultural background is, how it affects my communication styles in public and private settings, and how my heritage have shaped my communication styles. To figure out how my cultural differences affect my relationship with communicating I will first start by defining what my heritage is.
For my family, our cultural heritage would consist of ties from mostly Great Britain, Holland and Czechoslovakian. Meaning that I am a European American, and basically I have had that privilege to be apart of the majority of American lifestyle. Being female and white has given me I guess the part of “ethnocentricity” where I’m the target group of believing my cultural ways and lifestyle are above others different from me. Although this then has the down fall of how I am able to communicate with others with different backgrounds then myself because I am perceived to have a stereotypically view of these people. My cultural background also affects different aspects of my communication settings.
Communication settings in my life can be broken down from private situations to public styles of communication. From my experience I would think that the two would be different from each other. An example of this that comes to mind is when I’m in a private setting with people or a small group I am more open and comfortable, able to make jokes share my ideas and thoughts. When I’m in a public situation like a large classroom I feel more comfortable not to speak because there are so many students, it’s intimidating. Some of these styles my have been affected by my cultural background, which we’ll explore now.
I believe that a person’s cultural background would be a significant feature and direct link to how they develop communication styles. The fact that intimidation and comfort levels have so much to do with being able to communicate, I would imagine that minorities or people who all ready feel unsure of how people perceive them would make them even more nervous to have to share there feelings and ideas with people who might judge them or make them feel even more unlike by there peers. Now this isn’t the case for everyone just something that I have come to notice happens quite often. Being that my cultural heritage has placed me in the majority selection, I suppose I shouldn’t have to feel as unsettled by what others think because there like me, right? As much as we like to think that it’s not true. Some people my get the notion that all European Americans think the same and except each other’s ideas when they share them because were alike. It’s not true especially now, with cultural diversity being more and more around us.
The more and more I write this essay I have already discover more about myself then I knew from before. My cultural background of being European American, or in reality white, has made it appear to make my communication styles simpler then others of different backgrounds. After I have thought about how my cultural background affects my communication styles, I realize that communication is apart of you comfort level, and if you already feel uncomfortable about your cultural background cause of your minority status it’s becomes even more difficult to develop good communications with others. Living in North Dakota, where we don’t have much diversity, is a major factor on how cultural background affects our relationship to other minorities, because it’s not a huge factor on or lifestyles, unlike places like Chicago, LA or New York. In this class I hope to better understand myself as so I can communicate better with others that are the same as my cultural heritage and those that are different then me.
