Approaches to studying intercultural communication

Intercultural communication (or cross-cultural communication)

- is a discipline that studies communication across different cultures and social groups,
or how culture affects communication.
- It describes the wide range of communication processes and problems that naturally
appear within an organization or social context made up of individuals from different
religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.

Many people in intercultural business communication argue that culture determines how
individuals encode messages, what medium they choose for transmitting them, and the
way messages are interpreted with regard to intercultural communication proper, it
studies situations where people from different cultural backgrounds interact. Aside from
language, intercultural communication focuses on social attributes, thought patterns,
and the cultures of different groups of people. It also involves understanding the
different cultures, languages and customs of people from other countries.

Intercultural communication
Plays a role in social sciences such as anthropology, cultural studies, linguistics,
psychology and communication studies. Intercultural communication is also referred to
as the base for international businesses. Several cross-cultural service providers assist
with the development of intercultural communication skills. Research is a major part of
the development of intercultural communication skills. Intercultural communication is in
a way the 'interaction with speakers of other languages on equal terms and respecting
their identities.

The study of intercultural communication requires intercultural understanding, which is

an ability to understand and value cultural differences. Language is an example of an
important cultural component that is linked to intercultural understanding
Approaches to Intercultural Communication
There are two main approaches to intercultural communication:

The Culture-General Approach: In this approach the focus is on building a general

understanding about the importance of culture to human existence and in examining
ways to either neutralize the impact of culture so that it does not get in the way of
communication or to communicate within culturally diverse groups without stereotyping
or discriminating. This approach is often used in diversity training.
The Culture-Specific Approach: In this approach, individuals usually try to learn as much
as possible about a particular culture or group of cultures often by comparing them to
their own cultural background or a particular nation's predominant culture so that they
can avoid communication challenges. This approach is often used in international
business.
Combining these two approaches prepares individuals to approach intercultural
encounters with a set of practical principles and behaviours so intercultural encounters
become skill-building opportunities. When conversing with someone from another
culture we can misinterpret or be misinterpreted on a number of pre-verbal, verbal, non-
verbal and post-verbal cues including directness, pre-formalities, oculesics (use of the
eyes), facial expression, proxemics (placement of the body in the available space).
haptics (touching behaviour), gestures, intonation, volume and emotional valence.