As
a human being I can admit that at times I find confusing things and people I
don’t understand. Through my continued education in the education field I have
been using those lessons and strategies taught to better understand those
around me, children, families, and even colleagues. Before learning different
strategies I would only have basic communication exchange, your name,
profession, and small talk. When communicating
with people of different cultures, I would myself getting shy and putting up a
block because I did not know how to effectively communicate which made those
around me look at me as if I was a mean person. I also found it very difficult
to effectively communicate because at times even families would have up this
wall and I had no clue how to knock that barrier down.
The three strategies I learned this
week that I feel will better help me in communicating with persons of different
cultures are as follows:
·
Recognize my own patterns of nonverbal
behavior (2010).
·
Learn as I interact and be willing to
adjust my behavior as I learn and resist thinking my culture has all the
answers (2011).
·
When something about a family’s
practices bothers me, try to look at that practice or behavior through their
viewpoint rather than my own (2010).
References
Beebe,
S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal
communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn &
Bacon. Chapter 4, "Interpersonal Communication and Diversity: Adapting to
Others" (pp. 85–114)
Gonzalez-Mena,
J. (2010). 50 strategies for communicating and working with diverse
families. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
All of your strategies sound wonderful. We would all be better communicators if we could follow theses strategies as we deal with students, families, co-workers and others.
ReplyDeleteThat was great. I believe it helps if we realize our weaknesses in communication, we can learn more. I have learned to be a little more open in talking to people that may appear different and then learn how much we have in common.
ReplyDeleteSha'Keema,
ReplyDeletegreat strategies, It always makes sense to examine our own patterns of verbal or non verbal. This has been a good experience for me.
Thank you for your post
We have selected similar strategies. I believe if we make conscious efforts to incorporate these strategies, our communication would benefit greatly.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing,
Sonia
Understanding Cultural Diversity is nothing more than a difference from the majority. In any culture there is a majority and many minorities. Culture is a set of norms that set standards for a society of what is acceptable behavior. In every culture, there are basic standards for social interaction such as personal space distance, eye contact, amount of body language displayed in public, negotiating style, etc.
ReplyDelete