Adapting Communication to Different Groups and Cultures

Communication is not like one stop shopping. It should be adapted to fit the situation and target audience.  Often times personality, age, gender, profession and culture of the person plays a role in how I communicate. For example, when volunteering with children, age appropriate verbal and non-verbal language must be used.  The language I use with children is different than the language I use with adults. When communicating with children, language should be easy to understand and age specific.

Understanding a person’s personality and goals are essential in communicating. I tend to be information oriented when communicating with colleagues. Information is exchanged in an effective, to the point way, with little off task conversations.  However, when communicating with people who are familiar, my behavior is more unrestricted and flexible.

Communication is not just common sense.  It takes knowledge, thought, and practice to be successful. 

Assumptions of Communication

Television here in South Africa is not like television in the United States.  Although the shows here are westernized, they are at least a year behind the United States. So for this assignment, I decided to view a show that originated in South Africa.

While viewing the show without sound, I assumed the characters did not know each other by them standing so far away from each other. I also assumed the older adult on the show was abusive to the younger girl sitting on the sofa. His arms were waving about aggressively and toward her.  It appeared he was about to hit her. The girl did not have any eye contact with the older man. She sat quietly without looking up.  A boy who appeared to be her age, sat on the opposite end of the sofa looking downward.  During the entire show there were no smiles or signs of happiness. It appeared to be a tense situation.

When I watched with the sound and subtitles, the show was actually about the 2 younger people meeting for the first time for an arranged marriage.  The older adult was the girl’s father. He was telling both young people how to have a good marriage and what was expected of each of them.

I assumed because there was no laughter or smiles that the situation was not a happy one.  I have always associated weddings and marriage to happy times. The older man was expressing himself by waving his arms toward the girl.  The girl and boy looked downward with no eye contact out of respect for her father. 

I believe the cultural differences displayed on the show and watching a show I had no familiarity with had an impact on my perspective.

I believe it is extremely important to be aware of our biases and how they affect how we see things. 

Effective Communication

As I think about those who I believe demonstrate competent communication, my all time favorite is Oprah Winfrey.  It is a long standing joke with my relatives that I wanted to go see the Oprah show in Chicago. It never happened. Oprah was in South Africa several months ago so I told everyone now I will finally have the chance.  Guess what? It didn't happen.  The tickets were sold out in a matter of minutes. I could not believe it.  

Anyway, Oprah exudes confidence when she speaks.  Her inquisitive tone of voice gives me the feeling she really wants to hear what others are saying. Oprah also uses eye contact when speaking. Some other behaviors that make her effective are her ability to show empathy, nodding in acceptance as others speak, her enunciation and her ability to put people at ease.

One behavior I would especially like to model is being able to put people at ease when I am communicating. Because of my background in case management, a lot of my communication seems to be about getting answers.  Often times the rhythm of the communication is uncomfortable.

Believe it or not, I am able to see previous shows of Oprah here. Even though they are years out of date, I still enjoy them.