Solving Intercultural Communication Problems
Sherwood Fleming 's Intercultural Communication Insights
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Solving Intercultural Communication Problems
You are here:Home » Intercultural Communication » Solving Intercultural Communication Problems
intercultural comunication problemsAre you are a manager or leader of an intercultural team? Or do you work within an intercultural company? If so, are you experiencing intercultural communication problems? Take a look at the photo — is that how you try to solve your intercultural communication problems?
Accustomed as we are, in the West at least, to cause and effect thinking, we are convinced that surely there must be a formula somewhere that we haven’t found yet. However, the flaw in this logic is that this is the wrong way to look at such problems. Intercultural communication problems are not a puzzle to be solved. That is why I prefer to use the metaphor of a dance when discussing these, this is closer to what happens when we communicate.
In a dance, such as a tango or waltz, everyone knows the basic steps. Then the dance changes slightly, according to who we dance with. This forces both partners to adapt. We prefer some partners to others. And we dance better with some people and worse with others. We also enjoy ourselves more with particular partners. There is always someone who leads and someone who follows; both roles are important and it is clear which is which in an actual dance.
The practice of speaking and listening within intercultural business contexts is fundamentally the same as in this dance example. All of us know the dance steps of requests, offers, promises, declarations and opinions, which are the five main dance steps of human communication. And all of us, using English as a second language in intercultural business contexts, know the basic vocabulary and grammar for those speech acts. We also
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Home
Services»
CLEAR Method
My Book
Articles
50 Actions
Glossary
About
Q&A
Contact
.
Solving Intercultural Communication Problems
You are here:Home » Intercultural Communication » Solving Intercultural Communication Problems
intercultural comunication problemsAre you are a manager or leader of an intercultural team? Or do you work within an intercultural company? If so, are you experiencing intercultural communication problems? Take a look at the photo — is that how you try to solve your intercultural communication problems?
Accustomed as we are, in the West at least, to cause and effect thinking, we are convinced that surely there must be a formula somewhere that we haven’t found yet. However, the flaw in this logic is that this is the wrong way to look at such problems. Intercultural communication problems are not a puzzle to be solved. That is why I prefer to use the metaphor of a dance when discussing these, this is closer to what happens when we communicate.
In a dance, such as a tango or waltz, everyone knows the basic steps. Then the dance changes slightly, according to who we dance with. This forces both partners to adapt. We prefer some partners to others. And we dance better with some people and worse with others. We also enjoy ourselves more with particular partners. There is always someone who leads and someone who follows; both roles are important and it is clear which is which in an actual dance.
The practice of speaking and listening within intercultural business contexts is fundamentally the same as in this dance example. All of us know the dance steps of requests, offers, promises, declarations and opinions, which are the five main dance steps of human communication. And all of us, using English as a second language in intercultural business contexts, know the basic vocabulary and grammar for those speech acts. We also