POD DISCUSSION 5:Intercultural communication is type of communication which people from different cultures and groups share information. The occasion where significant basically cultural differences made effective intercultural communication a challenge between me and my friend here in America was about bride price. In my culture bride price is paid by groom to the family of the girl who is going to marry. The bride price symbolizes as a promise to always love and protect. It serves as reassurance to the bride’s parents that the daughter they love with all their heart will be in good hands.
The bride price does not represent the value of a women and it was never intended to. Its present a promise to love and respect a women. But my friend who is the citizen here and was born here told me that in America there is no like this culture anymore, they do not pay any bride price to groom or to the bride. Not only that occasion but also significant cultural difference made effective intercultural communication a challenge between me and my my classmate from Sri lanka said that in their culture a bride is the one who paying for bride price and before that the family of the groom they should look for wealth of family of the bride in terms of land and business they have. These differences lead to miscommunication in intercultural communication. The invisible differences here are Cultural values, norms and beliefs.
I can explain the cultural value in my country that to pay a bride price to the bride the most consideration value of both families of bride and groom by showing love and respect. Norms and beliefs of paying bride price to a bride is made so that the women should feel proud and more respectful and more protected by being . .study and learn culture from different places, Minnesota state has different people from different culture. People they should do not be rigid to change because not all cultures are bad but you can learn a lot of thing from different culture.Secondly, “Communication differences: Self-promotion versus Group Support” (Rothwell pg70) state that differences in emphasis on individualism and collectivism create differences in communication.
Useful communication skill in an individualist culture include getting to know people quickly, engaging easily in conversation on a wide variety of subjects, being interesting enough to make an impression on others, and employing public speaking skills in meeting. Individualist cultures expect a person to initiate a job search and engage in personal promotion. This will help and manage to increase diversity in Minnesota in general.
