Cross-Cultural Communication and Cultural Understanding

Cross-cultural communication theory explores how people of different countries, ethnicities, and cultures can work together to communicate most effectively. This means overcoming language differences, understanding multicultural nonverbal cues, and working together to understand how to best convey ideas across cultural divides.

Given the prevalence of remote work and the continued globalization of the economy, cross-cultural communication is likely to become more important than ever in the years ahead.

Cross-cultural communication allows people to avoid miscommunication and misinterpretation, instead opening up the possibility of fruitful relationships across previously daunting cultural barriers. This form of multicultural communication enables the free exchange of information among people of vastly different backgrounds, empowering everyone to profit from the flow of valuable data.

Knowing how to converse across cultures is useful in both your personal life and within the business communication process. Have tools at the ready to learn how to communicate across cultures with anyone in your near proximity.

Cultural differences might present themselves even within a specific country or territory, not just internationally—for example, people from New York might approach work and life differently than people from Los Angeles, despite sharing the same language and nation.

With each passing year, you’re more and more likely to find yourself in cross-cultural situations. Here are three basic elements of all forms of cross-cultural communication:

1. 1. Language: Verbal communication is how people most explicitly convey information from one person to another, so knowing how to speak different languages greatly empowers people to connect across cultural divides. Once you overcome language barriers, you remove the greatest obstacle to free-flowing communication. A conversational level of fluency might be all that is necessary.
2. 2. Nonverbal communication: Sometimes body language—such as eye contact or facial expressions—might be all it takes to communicate certain information across cultures. Still, nonverbal communication often takes on different meanings among different cultural groups. For instance, an inoffensive hand gesture in one culture might be offensive in another.
3. 3. Social norms: Different cultural norms lead to different communication styles. For example, in high-context cultures (such as in Japan and China), people talk around a subject gingerly rather than take a more blunt approach. By contrast, low-context cultures (such as in the United States and Germany) generally prefer more direct forms of communication.

Cross-cultural communication takes finesse and hard work. Try out these strategies to start honing your cross-cultural communication skills:

• Be friendly. Though people of different cultural backgrounds might characterize the specific actions of friendliness differently, approaching intercultural communication with a friendly attitude is easy to appreciate universally. When you act with common courtesy and goodwill, team members will understand your desire to communicate with them in their own cultural vernacular—even if you might occasionally miscommunicate or misinterpret what they’re saying.
• Educate yourself. Try your best to increase your cultural understanding on your own. It can prove offensive when you act as if it’s another person’s responsibility to tell you how to adapt to and interact with someone of their culture. Consult trusted advisors and resources on how to best converse across cultural boundaries. Human resources departments for a wide variety of companies are also doing what they can to provide cultural training resources for employees of all backgrounds.
• Embrace humility. Surmounting cultural barriers might lead to embarrassing miscommunications or unfortunate misinterpretations at times, so remain humble, forgiving, and open-minded in these circumstances. A culturally sensitive work culture will allow for occasional mistakes like this, so long as it’s apparent they were made in good faith.
• Keep an eye out for unconscious biases. You might believe you have no preexisting points of view about various cultures, but keep a vigilant eye out for signs you might be acting out of prejudice or bias. By addressing these sorts of preconceptions and stereotypes, you lessen the chances of acting on them and decrease the possibility of offending someone.
• Remain adaptable. Keep an open mind in any work environment or situation in which you might need to engage in cross-cultural communication. Adaptability will serve you and your team members well as you seek to understand one another’s different cultural contexts and work together as optimally as possible.

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