What is Communication?
Introduction
Communication is the act of passing and receiving meaningful information between two or more parties. This involves the creation of the message, its relay, reception and interpretation. There are basically two modes of communication-verbal and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication involves the passing of messages by word of mouth, whereas; non-verbal communication involves the passing of messages via non-oral means (Esposito, 2007).
Basically all forms of communication are cultural in nature because communication develops in different cultural frameworks. As a result both verbal and non-verbal communications are different across cultures depending on how they develop within each culture. During communication we tend to make our verbal and non-verbal communication with reference to our already developed cultural frame of reference. For example most ethnic groups in most western nations make more use of verbal rather than non-verbal communication. On the other hand, it may seem unusual for most African ethnic groups to have verbal communication totally devoid of non-verbal communication such as handshakes, waving or hugging. Some ethnic groups for example make their greetings by making shakes, nose rubbing or just a simple depending on the kind of culture whereas, others prefer to have them both to make the communication complete (Mattock & Bannon, 2003). Additionally, greetings between different age-groups differ across culture differ depending on one’s age. For example in most African cultures young children bow their heads before their seniors at times to get a tap as a form of greeting or make a handshake with both hands as a sign of respect. On the other hand, in western nations greetings are pretty much the same across all age groups.
These differences affect communication in most multicultural working environments where one has to deal with culturally different clients. Understanding culturally different clients not only requires good communication skills but also an understanding of the differences in values and communication styles that exists across such cultures in order to reach all people. The first secret towards achieving effective communication entails understanding how to effectively apply both verbal and non-verbal communication so as to aid those that do not understand verbal communication to pick cues from the non-verbal part of the communication depending on their cultural preferences (Esposito, 2007). The styles of communication could be assertive, passive or aggressive and all these depend on cultural development of communication. Assertive communication involves pushing one’s ideas to the forefront but in an amicable manner, passive communication involves simply placing one’s ideas forward with no push whereas aggressive communication is nothing less than pushing persistently to be heard.
There is a general tendency among most people to stereotype the people’s abilities and mode of communication based on their ethnicities. This stereotyping may at times hinder one’s ability to understand what is being passed across in the communication and thus fail to create effective communication. In order to avoid such stereotypes therapist should learn the communication abilities of most ethnicities and thus approach the communication process accordingly in order to ensure that good communication is attained (LeBaron, 2003).
Conclusion
Whether verbal or non-verbal, communication varies greatly across most ethnicities with some offering greater value to either side or at least attaining a balance on both. These differences pose a challenge in multicultural communication and as a result, there is a need to learn how to approach intercultural communication processes so as to avoid the loses of meaning in making communication.
References
Esposito, A. (2007),. Fundamentals of verbal and nonverbal communication and the biometric issue, IOS Press
LeBaron, M. (2003),. Cross-Cultural Communication, retrieved on 1st June 2011 from http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/cross-cultural_communication/
Mattock, J. and Bannon, G. (2003),. Cross-cultural communication: the essential guide to international business, 3rd edition, Kogan Page Publisher
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