Reflective Essay on Communicating Internationally
I was exposed to the idea that the dissimilarity that each person possesses may be a factor that leads them to communicate and interpret messages in their own way. The rationale for that suggestion lies within the different types of culture and society that they were raised in, as it may contribute to the noises that exist during a communication process. Also, every person has their own piece of mind on different issues; thus, conflicts and criticism are most likely to occur.
The world is separated into many countries and that is enough to create a cultural or even a communication gap between people of different locations. My first encounter with such situation was when I started to exchange e-mails and phone calls with my cousin Jenny. Jenny had not the slightest clue of how Malaysia is as she was born and nurtured in Canada for the past 24 years. It was just recently that we started to keep in touch and became very close with one another. I communicated with her in English and shared some information about Malaysia as well as a little about Asia and its ethnics as she too shared about where she resides in.
However, our conversation shortly became rigid and tense as our cultural differences arose. Jenny had a frank and straightforward way of communicating which at some point was hurtful and discriminating. What anger me most was when Jenny assumed that I, as someone raised in an Asian country have poor command of English thus kept conversing with me like a child and believed that Asian countries were bucolic and is inferior compared to where she was from. I felt dejected by her comments and behaviour; eventually, I started replying her messages slower and rejected most of her calls. Before long, we stop conversing entirely and grew apart.
After attending a few sessions of the class, I came to realize that there were just too many noises that exist in our communication process. The most obvious noise which exists was that of context. Jenny being raised
The world is separated into many countries and that is enough to create a cultural or even a communication gap between people of different locations. My first encounter with such situation was when I started to exchange e-mails and phone calls with my cousin Jenny. Jenny had not the slightest clue of how Malaysia is as she was born and nurtured in Canada for the past 24 years. It was just recently that we started to keep in touch and became very close with one another. I communicated with her in English and shared some information about Malaysia as well as a little about Asia and its ethnics as she too shared about where she resides in.
However, our conversation shortly became rigid and tense as our cultural differences arose. Jenny had a frank and straightforward way of communicating which at some point was hurtful and discriminating. What anger me most was when Jenny assumed that I, as someone raised in an Asian country have poor command of English thus kept conversing with me like a child and believed that Asian countries were bucolic and is inferior compared to where she was from. I felt dejected by her comments and behaviour; eventually, I started replying her messages slower and rejected most of her calls. Before long, we stop conversing entirely and grew apart.
After attending a few sessions of the class, I came to realize that there were just too many noises that exist in our communication process. The most obvious noise which exists was that of context. Jenny being raised