BARRIERS TO INTERCULTURAL

COMMUNICATION
 FILTERING

• Refers to a sender manipulating information

so that it will be favorably by the receiver
 SELECTIVE PERCEPTION
• Receivers in the communication process
selectively see and hear based on their needs
motivations. Experience, background, and
other personal characteristics
 DEFENSIVENESS
• When individuals interpret another’s message
as threatening, they often respond in ways
that retard effective communication
 LANGUAGE
• Words mean different things to different
people
 EFFECTIVE LISTENING
• Make eye contact
• Exhibit affirmative head nods and appropriate
facial expressions
• Avoid distracting actions or gestures
• Ask questions
• Paraphrase
• Avoid interrupting the speaker
• Don’t over talk
 FOUR RULES
• Assume Differences until similarity is proven
• Emphasize Description rather than
interpretation or evaluation
• Practice Empathy
• Treat your interpretations as a working
Hypothesis
• PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT LANGUAGE
COMMUNITIES often perceive the world
DIFFERENTLY
• THE ATTITUDES WE HOLD ABOUT PEOPLE
FROM OTHER CULTURES CAN INCREASE OR
DIMINISH CROSS-CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
 MAIN BARRIERS
• STEREOTYPE: is an attribution of supposed
characteristics of a whole group to all its
members ‘Latinos are all good dancers’
• PREJUDICE: is an intolerant, irrational, unjust
disposition toward others "all students are
lazy’
• ASSUMING SIMILARITY: when none exists .
• The English language is spoken worldwide by
perhaps a billion people, but not by the
policeman in streets of Moscow
• ETHNOCENTRICITY: makes us dismiss other
cultures as inferior
 LANGUAGE DIFFERENCES
Maltese Finnish
Sormi =my buttock Sormi =finger
Harja = piece of shit Harja =brush
Illala = goddam Illala = evening