INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIVE STATEMENT

Individual reflective statement

INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIVE STATEMENT

Introduction

I was born and raised in Tunisia; my mum is French and my father in Tunisian. I have been always travelling to France to see my relatives there and due to this reason I learned the French culture. In my opinion every human group shares a body of common understandings, its culture, which serves to make communication within the group intelligible and which guides behavior and enables the group to achieve common objectives.

Common understandings, communication, and behaviors set each group apart from other groups. To a greater or lesser degree, there is overlap with the shared understandings of other groups. Nevertheless, critical points of difference in these understandings, however minor they may seem to outsiders, give rise to convictions of being a separate group and reinforce a shared identity. While separate cultures may share varying amounts of their content, their points of difference establish boundaries. These cultural boundaries are potential obstacles to communication. (Whorf, 2006, pp: 201)

Communication is the act or process of imparting or exchanging meanings, such as information, opinions, thoughts, and feelings. Intercultural communication is the act or process of imparting or exchanging meanings across cultural boundaries. Anything that humans seek to transmit from one individual or group to another within a specific culture (intercultural communication) may also be transmitted between different cultures (intercultural communication).

HOW DOES YOUR CULTURAL BACKGROUND AFFECT THE WAY YOU RESPOND IN THESE DIFFERENT SITUATIONS

Intercultural Miscommunication

In my opinion Intercultural miscommunication occurs when intended meanings are unclearly, inadequately, or mistakenly communicated across cultural boundaries. All human behavior, including business behavior, is enacted within specific cultural contexts. When we are operating within our own native culture, we may take culture for granted. However, when we find ourselves within a culture different from our own we are operating culture blind. Whether we realize it or not, different rules of behavior may apply. Anything we do or say can unexpectedly, upsettingly, and sometimes destructively, explode in our faces. Such intercultural errors may negatively impact the situations in which we find ourselves. (Tylor, 2008, pp: 23)

There is growing understanding among businessmen and businesswomen at all levels of the importance of understanding foreign cultures and of the necessity of business individuals and business organizations to adapt their behaviors and operations to their host foreign cultures (Ferraro, 2006;Torstar & David, 1991).

Intercultural Errors and Business Individuals

Simply by behaving normally in our own cultural perspective, we may unwittingly commit intercultural errors. Intercultural errors follow a typical pattern:

Innocuous Start: The intercultural visitor (e.g., business-person, government official, student, and tourist) says or does something that would be considered entirely appropriate in the visitor's home culture.

Inexplicable Response: The intercultural host reacts in an unexpected way, such as stunned silence, embarrassed laughter, frosty or angry retort, abrupt departure, and some-times even physical violence.

Confusion: The intercultural visitor is unaware or only vaguely aware of his or her error, or the visitor is shocked and confused. (Brisling, Kushner, Cherrie, & Yong, 1986)

Understanding Of Own Culture And The Impact It Has On Others

Residence ...