Cultural Diversity And Communication

As I consider the many traits of culture surrounding me around my family, church/family friends and co-workers both civilian and military I honestly find myself communicating slightly different. I have a diverse background of cultures of African American and Pilipino. My husband is Native American, and my Brother and Sister in law are Caucasian and Vietnamese.  My co-workers are from different parts of the world including Japan, Argentina, Philippines, Korea, Mexico and some of my friends include people from Jamaica.  I communicate differently based on the comfort level and the environmental setting I come in contact with. (Those that are a part of my communication circle) For example, the way I communicate with a Captain (military personnel that holds the position of a leader) at work while wearing the uniform will be slightly different if I were to have lunch with her in civilian clothing at a public restaurant. Also another example would be talking to my (Baptist) church family. When I great my pastor and discuss issues and questions that are happening within my life the answer most likely involves prayer and faith even though in theory sometimes I think the pastor has “all the answers” I have to word things differently to make sure I’m being respectful towards the pastor as well as the situation. Subconsciously I know I’m unable to just bluntly say what I want to a pastor. As work around many different cultures at work I come into contact with several people that have different religious cultural backgrounds as well as talking different languages to one another. I speak with them respectfully but also am mindful about their background so I’m not offensive. For example a few weeks ago I spoke with a co-worker from Argentina who expressed her concern about her daughter dating someone outside of her religion (catholic). She asked me what this particular belief meant and I was completely honest with her and told her I wasn’t sure but to do some research on her computer. Based on what she found she disagreed with her daughter’s boyfriend’s belief. We had a discussion on different beliefs and I told her “Well, you are the mom and if you do not agree with your daughter’s boyfriend’s belief then you should speak to her.” I felt she was venting to me as well as asking me “why this and why that? And this is what I believe and this is what his belief should be” I continued to be respectful as possible trying not to impose on her daughter’s choice of a boyfriend but I kept on letting her know to talk to her daughter if she was uncomfortable with it.

            From what I learned this week about communication the three strategies I would like to use is to be an effective communicator is to first be a little more understanding of each person’s communication context whether it be (background, gender, beliefs and age). Next strategy is to not only gain more knowledge of the people I’m communicating with but be mindful of verbal as well as non-verbal cues people display as they communicate with me. And the last strategy I want to work on to be an effective communicator is to be an active listener. I believe the hardest part of my communication is being an effective listener. I will be honest and say a great majority of the time I speak to other people I’m a bit selfish about the other person giving them their full blown attention to me and listening to my issues rather than me listening to them and helping them with their situations too.