COMMUNICATION

Communication



Communication

Good Listening Skills in Cross-Cultural Communication

Good listening is an essentially vital thing to be successful in cross-cultural communication. The analysis of the receiver assists people in formulating the communication strategy, which a person can understand. If one communication strategy is successful in one country, there is no guarantee that the same will be prosperous in other country. Good listening allows people to understand the feelings and behaviour of individual. These skills work as a tool to gather feedback regarding any services offered.

Good listening is essential to the managers because of the potential to misunderstand the meaning and enunciation of words. In some cultures, for example, in Saudi Arabia, people will say “yes” when they mean “maybe” or “no." They agree simply to be polite. People are expected to know these courtesies are always extended, so feelings are not hurt. In some cultures, such as Syria's, not being embarrassed is extremely important (Caputo, Palosaari, & Pickering, 2003). Thus, during business negotiations, care must be given to choosing words so that the person who forgoes the most has a comfortable way out, permitting prestige and reputation to be retained. If the manager does not understand the culture, he can easily unintentionally insult a foreigner by what he says. Word emphasis and voice inflection can also influence the meaning of what was said. Thus, how you state your communication is crucial, as well as what the actual communication is, so that the understanding is clear (Ottesen, 2001). Communication can be complicated when workers speak different languages or when they speak different dialects of a language. A dialect is a variation of a language that is unique to a region or a group of people, such as American and British English, or the English spoken in Boston and dialect spoken in the southern United ...