Stumbling Blocks to Intercultural Communication

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Stumbling Blocks to Intercultural Communication Intercultural communication can be affected by many obstacles because each country has its own culture. Therefore, people who are from another country show different values from their culture. For instance, when a person has a chance to go to another country to study, to work or to travel, he or she will face many cultural differences that may cause him or her to lose confidence when communicating with people. In order to minimize those obstacles or stumbling blocks, we must understand what the obstacles and how they affect our communication. There are five major stumbling blocks that affect intercultural communication, including the language of space, eye contact, the concept of time and cultural differences. Each culture has its own rules of personal space which can be a major stumbling block to effective intercultural communication. The fact is that our body position can make a non-verbal communication. According to Lisa Davis, “Everyone who’s ever felt cramped in a crowd knows that the skin is not the body’s only boundary” (p.20). That means those people feel uncomfortable because they think others are entering their personal space without their permission. So, personal space may be the most important boundary of someone. “Saudi Arabians like to conduct business discussion from within spitting distance,” says international business consultant Sondra Snowdon (p.20). Snowdon later writes that “Americans back up, but they are harming their chances of winning the contracts” (p.20). She means Arabians are more friendly in communicating than Americans. Through people’s positions in communicating, we can see the differences between spatial needs among different cultures. Eye contact has also become an important obstacle to communication. It is a kind of non-verbal communication. In some countries, especially in
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