Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

The topic of our second presentation is about the proverb ‘Every Cloud has a silver lining’. This proverb means in every bad situation there a positive aspect on it. It is also an encouragement to a person who faced some difficulties in life and is unable to see any positive way out. In other words, there is always a positive aspect of something no matte how bad, difficult or painful the situation may seem. How can these proverb be related with the cross cultural differences is when people especially students how come from different background, culture or religion may face difficulties in interacting with others who may come from different background culture or religion. Students as such may face more difficulties if they fail to adapt or fit in to the new environment. There are several ways in overcoming the cross cultural differences especially in terms of communication. First, students need to have knowledge, he or she must understand the potential problems that he or she may face and thus must make effort in overcoming the problems. For example students need to find out the differences and similarities between the two cultures. Students need to explore the differences between the two cultures and must take notes about the do’s and don’ts and by finding something common between the two cultures won’t make the students feel odd or weird in the new environment. Secondly, students need to be patient and do not act aggressively. Students need to expect that cultural differences may cause communication problem, thus students must be willing to forgive and be patient when there is a problem. Student must not jump into conclusion a she may lead to even bigger problem. Thirdly, is by overcoming the emotional constraint. Students should not be over expressed or react aggressively towards the expression of others. This is due to the fact that different cultures regulate the display of emotion differently. Some cultures get very emotional when they are arguing in certain issue. For example, they yell, they cry that show their fearness and frustration openly, while other cultures may keep their emotion hidden. Therefore it is important for students not to get easily offended and to be sensitive. Lastly, students must be able to speak out and must have confidence. If students are not able to speak out, this will affect their academic performance and learning response. For example, students from different cultures may have been taught that it is a sign of disrespect to look at the lectures when they are speaking or to have differ in opinion with the lecture. Therefore students from such cultures may become hesitate, and and shy to speak out and this will affect our academic performance. In conclusion, we know that effect of communication in different culture is challenging. We, as a Muslim students need to be patient in overcoming this challenge. We must have faith that there is always a positive way out no matter how bad the situation is