Victoria Moore
University of Phoenix
Introduction to Communication
COM/100
Bruce Turner
January 03, 2010
Diversity Affects Communication
1. What is cultural diversity? Why is an appreciation of diversity important in communication?
Cultural diversity is having a group made up of people from various ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, etc. Having an appreciation of diversity is extremely important and essential for effective communication. For example, if you are a person that makes a lot of gestures to express yourself but you are attempting to communicate with someone who comes from a culture that does not utilize gestures; you would want to take this into consideration so that you do not come across as rude or offensive to the person that you are communicating with.
2. How would you describe your cultural background? How do your values affect the way you communicate with others and the way they communicate with you?
Culture can be defined as “system of shared ideas and meanings, explicit and implicit, which a people use to interpret the world and which serve to pattern their behavior’. That being said my cultural background is very diverse. I am a young, African-American woman. An immediate assumption would be that I am liberal in both actions and ideas; however, that is false. I actually tend to have very conservative view points since I am also moderately religious. My values and my upbringing affect almost every aspect of my everyday life including the way that I communicate with other. The values that have been instilled in me is what tells me to be respectful to others and in return demand respect for myself. For example, I was in my very early twenties when I was a manager at the hotel that I work at. Most of the people that I managed were older than I was; however, they understood that I could be very personable and relate to them on a social level but I also could handle business.
3. How do