Presented By: Malcolm Brown & John Koss

What Is Intercultural Communication? Generally speaking Intercultural Communication refers to when two people from different cultures speak to each other. Some of the Intercultural barriers that people could have to deal with are age, race, nationality, religion, socioeconomic status, and gender. An example of an intercultural barrier could be some of the barriers between a parent and a child. Although it isn’t a large barrier, they still have to deal with some because they are of different ages, time periods and just overall cultural values.

What is the Overall Importance of Intercultural Communication? Entering college every individual has an increased level of intercultural contact. Since there is so much diversity on each college campus it helps to know how to communicated through some of the cultural barriers that are there. It can improve intergroup relations and self-awareness as well.

Enhanced Business Effectiveness. By having better intercultural communication skills, you are opening up a world of different business opportunities for yourself. Seeing as so many companies are outsourcing work to different countries. It helps to have better communication skills. This is especially important in countries like America, with such diverse workforces. By communicating better you are giving yourself a large advantage in your profession.

Globalization By spending time studying intercultural communication, domestic and international business has flourished. Due to the trend of globalization, more cultures have started to mesh together and grow. New technologies have made international trade much easier and allowed business’s to grow to different countries through things such as outsourcing. This allowing international business to grow exponentially. But that doesn’t mean all ventures have been successful. For example the Disney corporation decided to open up Euro Disney outside of Paris but it nearly didn’t work because of the cultural barriers between the French and American supervisors.

Improved Political Relations With improved intercultural communications, it can also benefit our relationships between countries and particular ethnic groups. Although cultural barriers are always going to be there, it helps when you know what some of the social etiquettes are of a different culture. The fastest way to learn a different cultures practices is by immersing yourself in it. In doing that you are allowing yourself the ability to learn all of the intricacies of the country or region that you are communicating with. But you must also realize that even if you know a lot about a culture, it is still really difficult to know what is perceived as socially and culturally acceptable.

Jimmy Carter and Intercultural Communication What some may not know is that President Carter was very adamant in getting better intercultural communication with other countries. After entering office in 1977, President Carter went against the opinion of his advisors and decided to initiate peace talks with Egypt and Israel. He sent Secretary of State Cyrus Vance to the Middle East to invite the leaders to Camp David. When they suggested he pursue only the general outlines of an agreement during the summit, Carter chastised his team. "You are not aiming high enough," he said, setting as a minimum goal for the talks a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

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