Name : Romi Andriansyah Raspati

NIM : 4330017003

1. Cross Cultural Understanding have means understanding the culture of the people in
every country. So that we can reconstruct our attitudes and world views. Therefore, we
become more tolerate toward strange ways that may be shown by the target language
people(Tomasouw, 1986).

Cross-cultural understanding means the basic ability of people to recognize, interpret, and
correctly react to people, situations that are open to misunderstanding due to cultural
differences. Cross-cultural understanding plays an important role in communicating with
people in various countries. Therefore, language or culture learners must learn both to avoid
misunderstanding and miscommunication. If we want to communicate successfully across
cultures, we must recognize the power of language. Think about how language can be
conveyed with feelings, how it can galvanize and cause upheaval(Pandiya, 2007).

Also, the importance of understanding other culture will avoid misunderstanding and
make inappropriate value judgements. Therefore, at the end we are not considered that our
culture is better than other.

2. Although, some students of English programs, show their linguistic competence a lot, for
example: their speech is grammatically correct, their conversation may sound
inappropriate and even strange. Lack of cultural knowledge contributes to inappropriate
use of language. One person's cultural factors can cause a person to appear intolerant and
less generous towards other cultures. The need to interpret the behavior, attitudes and
communication styles of people from different cultures correctly(Pandiya, 2007).

3. Some people use their subjective mood when dealing with strangers, for example: using
metaphors when talking to strangers who can easily cause misunderstandings. In Indonesia,
these words can mean the opposite / negative because people also communicate with their
body language or gestures. (Saying 'Let's eat' means 'let me eat my food', that doesn't mean
asking someone else to share my food.).

I will give another example of cultural misunderstanding. An female and male who
unmarried tourist lives together in Indonesian, then their neighbours kick them out, why so,
because they think it doesn’t a big matter and in their country it was legal, but it’s really a
big matter in Indonesia, because that matter is illegal in Indonesia. The second examples is a
man from Western come to Indonesia and he attracted to one of Indonesian women, he said
to that women like this“You like an bichon fries dog”, then the women left the man with
 angry, it’s happen because in Indonesian dog is interpreted as the one of many word to vilify
people, while in Western dog is considered good. The third, the Arabian family move to
USA, in there they invited by their neighbours, than the owner who is American people offer
them a food but the guest (Arabian people) refuse it, until the second offer they still refuse it,
then the owner won’t offer them again, that’s happen because in American culture refuse the
offer from the owner it’s can been seen as a rude, meanwhile in Arabian culture the people
often refused again and again.

4. Language is an understanding or thought that functions to communicate between people

which is very important for social life.

Culture refers to all aspects of life in a community. This involves: how to do things, how
to express themselves, how to look at things, what things they should value, what is
expected of and what they expect from others(Draine, 1997).

5. Culture and language are interrelated because language is the result of a culture. The
main functions of language such as language become the main means of communication,
language reflects the individual's personality and cultural history, and language enables the
growth and transmission of culture, the sustainability of society, and the functioning and
effective control of social groups.

So, culture and language are interrelated. When a person learns language, at the same
time they must learn the culture of the country and the people from which the language
originates. Culture and language cannot be separated because the two are really related and
help one to learn one from both. For example, when we want to learn English, we actually
have to know about the country's culture such as people's habits, weather, art, etc. And
conversely, how can we learn about culture if we don't understand it or we don't know their
language.

References

Tomasouw. 1986. Cross Cultural Understanding, Jakarta: Penerbit Karunika.

Pandiya. 2007. The Importance of Cross-Culture Understanding For Polytechnic Students, in
Ragam, Vol 7 No. 1, April 2007: 1 – 8.

Draine. 1997. Culture Shock, Singapore: Times edition Pte Ltd.