Important Components of Cross-Cultural Communication

Cross cultural understanding simply refers to the basic ability of people within business to recognize, interpret and correctly react to people, incidences or situations that are open to misunderstanding due to cultural differences. Cross cultural awareness develops from cross cultural knowledge as the learner understands and appreciates a culture internally. This may also be accompanied by changes within the learner's behavior and attitudes such as a greater flexibility and openness. However, cross cultural understanding is based on the basis of comprehending the communication process of the specific culture. The important components of cross cultural communication are verbal, non-verbal and para-language.

1. Verbal Communications
2. Non-Verbal Communications
Eye contact
Facial Expressions
Gestures
Timing in spoken exchange
Touching
Language of space
Appearance
Silence 3. Paralanguage
Vocal qualifiers
Vocalization

Verbal Communication

Spoken language or words enable people to communicate with each other and this structures the way we perceive the world. It is one of the most important characteristics defining culture. Every country has a different language and, in order to develop clear and better understanding of a culture one needs to learn the language of that country. Learning the language of a country yields considerable advantages and not knowing the local language can make major blunders through improper translation. It is necessary to learn the language regardless of the fact that English is the official language and everybody would communicate in English. Whatever country's national language is, one should be familiar with the national language and body language in order to be a part of the group and not to feel left out when others are communicating in their local language.

Non-Verbal Communication

Cross-cultural communication can be difficult in some countries because what is acceptable in one culture may be