怎样加强跨文化交流能力How-to-improve-intercultural-competence.doc

钟琪瑶 126班 2012220094
How to improve intercultural competence
1. As for ourselves
To improve intercultural competence, we should begin with our own culture. Human beings are carriers of culture; a person’s root is his own culture. Our own culture influences our language, our lifestyles and even our characteristics. Firstly, we need to know how our own culture influences us and what influences it brings to us. For example, we Chinese put gratitude to parents in the first place, which gives Chinese people awareness that it is our obligation to support and look after our parents when we become economically independent. Secondly, how our brains work is also related to culture. We have to accept that what we like and what we hate are all reflections of cultural value orientation. Everything has two sides, but our own culture decides which side we’d like to stand. It is very easy to be improved. Different authors from different country write differently, and compared the authors from one country with those from the other; we will see their ideas far apart from each other.
2. As for other cultures
When we communicate with people who have other culture and learn other cultures, we’d better slow down. At first, we should pay attention to their languages. It is not necessary to be as fluent in the language as a native speaker, but we should learn the way they use their own language. Language is just one of the codes that people use to send messages to each other. Besides, nonverbal languages such as bode language play an important role in communication and tend to shift from culture to culture. Being sensitive to the small signs people using in language is one of the hallmarks of a competent intercultural communicators. Then we should try to understand them and develop empathy – be able to see things from the point of view of others. It doesn’t mean we must agree with others. We can hold our different ideas, but we can’t be judgmental. There is no definitely right or wrong in communications. While communicating, it is more like discussing. Finally, we can try to express our own opinion and spread our cultures to them in a proper way.
3. Balance
For intercultural communication to be successful, we must balance two or even more cultures. First, keep being suspicious and critical to a new culture. We must be clear if a new culture is adapted in the other country. For instance, Chinese Dama(mid-age and old women) danced to very loud music in Moscow and announced they are spreading Chinese culture, being driven away by Moscow’s police. Upon this issue, questions hit some scholars. Is that dance can represent Chinese culture? If our culture like this annoyed others, should we continue to spread it? It is a good example that those women who regard themselves as cultural communicators did not balance Chinese culture and Russian culture. Something we appreciate may be bad in other cultures; something we pursue may be valueless with reference of foreign people. “between of identify” is the most hard goal we need to reach.
By and large, to be successful as an intercultural communicator, we must take fist step on our own cultures. Then we further toward another culture, and finally try to find a balance between our own culture and the other one.