Communicating with diversity

Culture plays a strong role  in determining who we are and our interaction with others. Just as we learn through culture through communication, we also use communication to express our culture. Our world view affects which topic we will discuss in personal and professional settings, as well as the way we communicate non verbally, it also affect the way we perceive the communication of others( O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012). Communication with my family, colleagues and my community varies; I believe this is greatly influence by my cultural upbringing. My culture has greatly influenced how I communicate with people. Differences in people such as age, religion, marital status, values, personality too mention a few has greatly influenced how I communicate with people

 In terms of age ,I have being taught to be more respectful when talking with an adult ,being conscious of the words I use so as not to sound rude or insensitive of the persons  age. I am expected to refer to the person with certain words that represent the title that would be sued to show respect, for example.”SIR”,”MA”. The way I talk with my father is different from my mother; my culture accords more respect to the father than the mother since he is the decision maker, so you are groom to talk using certain worlds as an indication of respect when having a conversation with him. For mothers it could be subtle, talking to my in-laws as well is quite different from the way I talk with my parents. The way I talk with my friends not married with kids is quite different form those married with kids. The status must be recognized and acknowledge during the course of communication. I could remember a friend complaining that a friend of hers from university still talks to her the same way as their schools days and she didn't feel comfortable with it that she felt, he should acknowledge her status change in any conversation with her. It is required that a married woman with child demands to be spoken to differently compared to when she was not.

Religion also influence my communication and makes it different. Different in terms of certain communication rituals that are part of my religion; so when I am communicating with someone of the same faith with me, those rituals would be part of our conversation; such as greetings, eye contact, gestures and verbal phrases  for condolences, when a person sneezes or to congratulate which is mostly communicated in Arabic irrespective of our mother tongue .Whereas if it I need to communicate with someone of a different faith I do not need to utter those verbal and non-verbal cues  in our conversation

When I communicate we someone that is my close friend, its more casual; probably using codes, symbols and contradictory behavior in my non-verbal communication when joking around and when It is with members of my community that speak different languages, then take my time to speak the few word I know, I would have to use signs, non-verbal codes in order to get buy. If I have to communicate with an authority figure such as lecturer, professor or my employer; I may be more formal than casual; maintaining a consistent eye contact to show that I am seriously involved in the conversation and avoid using informal words like” slang  or “codes” that would probably use with my friends

Since it is apparent that our society is fast becoming more diverse and if we want to avoid conflicts we must be able to put those factors that make us different into consideration when communicating. So in order to communicate competently as  member of such diverse society, you need to be able to communicate appropriately and effectively with a wide variety of individuals (O'Hair & Wiemann (2012). 

Reference

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's