Barriers to Effective Cross

Cultural Communication
Barriers
1. Ethnocentrism
2. Stereotyping
3. Perception
4. Language Barriers
Ethnocentrism
• We tend to judge other cultures according
to the beliefs, values and traditions of our
own group or culture. We then categorize
groups other than ours as bad, weak,
immoral, stupid, crazy and so on.
• Ethnocentrism may be said to be almost
universal. Members of nearly all the
world’s cultures regard their own way of
life as being ‘better’ than even closely
related neighbors.
• We often ascribe generalized, unfounded
and negative attributes to other cultures.
Our reactions can be summarized as
follows:
Ethnocentrism
• Ignorance: we are often very ignorant of other people’s culture – their
history, religion, art, customs, values and so on.
• Fear and anxiety: we are often afraid of novelty, embarrassment and
conflict. We suffer anxiety and stress because we do not know what to
do in certain situations.
• Laziness: we are often lazy, sometimes for good reasons, such as time
pressures. This makes us reluctant to learn and practice tolerance and
understanding. We also often prefer to take the easy way out by
assuming similarity rather than attempting to understand actual cultural
differences.
Ethnocentrism
• Our reactions to a cultural situation which differs from our own
experience often follow the sequence given below:
▪ we observe what is happening;
▪ we try to communicate;
▪ we find it difficult to understand;
▪ we interpret the situation according to our own limited knowledge, our own
values and possibly limited experience;
▪ we become judgmental and often in exasperation make our prejudices apparent.
Cultural Diversity
• Different cultures have different
norms and expectations of behavior
in both formal and informal
situations, for example, social
interaction, meetings or
negotiations. A lack of awareness
and understanding of these
differences can create
misunderstandings and, in extreme
cases, even offence.
Assuming similarity with one’s own culture
• There is often a tendency to assume similarities between the foreign
culture and one’s own, rather than understanding the differences. An
example is the British and American perceptions that there are very
few differences between their cultures, although in reality there are
many subtle ways in which the two cultures differ, and this is only fully
recognized when the two live and work in each other’s culture.
Stereotyping
• Stereotyping is as a group of beliefs and
attitudes towards people who are
members of another distinct group.
People form pre- established
expectations about how members of
other groups are likely to behave and
what they believe in. Experiences often
do not fit into our preconceived
categories and we are then faced with
ambiguity.
Stereotyping

• Stereotyping provides a quick, simple way of

classifying people, particularly those from
other cultures, but it does not allow for
variation and may be positive or negative.
Stereotypes are usually harmless if used only
as a general rule of thumb, but can be hurtful,
dangerous and racist if taken to be the whole
truth about another group of people.

• This all stereotypes contain value judgments.

They are not based on personal experience
but are often acquired from the media or the
prejudices inherent in our own social group.
Stereotyping
• Stereotyping can take two different forms:
➢Traits that we admire – ambition, modesty, cleverness, bravery;
➢Traits that we deplore or dislike – laziness, stupidity, lack of ambition
Stereotyping
• Stereotyping can take two different forms:
• traits that we admire – ambition, modesty,
cleverness, bravery;
• traits that we deplore or dislike – laziness,
stupidity, lack of ambition
Perception
• Perception lies at the very heart of cross-
cultural communication. We all tend to
categorize our experiences in order to make
sense of the world we live in. The problem is
that when we encounter a new world we are
not familiar with, we are faced with
ambiguity, which in turn causes insecurity.

Faced with insecurity, our natural tendency is to fall back on our own
norms and values and perceive the person we are dealing with as alien
and even hostile. Our negative emotions come to the fore and we
stereotype the person we are dealing with, and these stereotypes are
frequently negative.
Perception
• We assume quite
incorrectly that we all think
about and perceive the
world in basically the same
way. We have a tendency
to see things not as they
are but as we are.
Cultures and Perceptions
• Differences in culture are very often because of differences in
perception.
• The problem is that when we communicate internationally, we often
misunderstand the total context. We make mistakes in perception and
we see things negatively that the speaker in his or her environment
would consider totally non- confrontational. A good example is direct
and indirect criticism.
• The potential for communication failure is therefore greatly increased
when the sender and receiver do not share the same cultural
perceptions.
Cultures and Perceptions
• We often assume other people experience the same physical,
intellectual and emotional reactions as we do. We believe that what is
pleasing or distasteful to us is pleasing or distasteful to others. This is
clearly not the case in reality. We therefore need to understand why
this is so and at least to recognize our differences of perception.
Overcoming cultural perceptions
• Accept difference: we should accept that others are different from
us.
• Recognize ignorance: we should recognize that we do not know
precisely how others differ from us. We choose to fill in or ignore
contextual information in attempting to make decisions and use our
own preprogrammed cultural bias.
• Take responsibility: we should accept responsibility for our feelings
and reactions when dealing with others.
Language barriers
• Language is considered as the most crucial barrier in cross-cultural
communication. Since verbal communication is important in every
context, the understandings of the meaning of words are also
important. The language barrier occurs not only because of
differences in language but also in the forms of a variety of dialects.
The examples are of Chinese and Filipino language where different
dialects are used in several parts of the country. If one communicator
is not aware of the exact meaning, it will create misunderstanding
and lead to a conflict of ideas.
Common words can have different meanings

Original Word Tagalog Cebuano

Libog Aroused Confused
Bitaw??? Let go Really??? (Talaga)
Hold one’s breath
Utong Nipple
(underwater)
Libang To entertain one’s self To defecate
Holy person like priest,
Balaan Warn
saints
Language barriers
Language barriers
STAR approach
• STOP: in situations of ambiguity, our natural tendency is to speed up and
extricate ourselves from the uncomfortable situation. In fact, we need to
do the opposite, that is, slow down and reflect.
• LOOK AND LISTEN: look at the people and listen to how they speak. What
does this tell you about their style and manner?
• FEEL: feel the atmosphere. Is it friendly, hostile or neutral?
• DON’T ASSUME: making assumptions is the most natural thing in the
world, but can be the most dangerous.
• ASK: if you think something may be wrong, ask politely if there is anything
you can do. This will not cause offence; in fact, people will be pleased that
you are showing an interest (Tomalin and Nicks, 2010).
4 basic rules to understand the importance of
cross- cultural communication:

1. We should accept that others are different from us.

2. We should accept that we do not know precisely how others differ
from us.
3. We should accept responsibility for our feelings and reactions when
dealing with people from other cultures.
4. We should remember that linguistic fluency does not necessarily
equal conceptual fluency.