Intercultural Communication Report
Problems in communicating across cultures
Yasmin Islam was born in Bangladesh in 1938 and has spend 40 years as an Australian resident. She grew up as the eldest child with four brothers and two sisters. In 1975 she came to Australia by boat with her husband and two young children. The immense difference between the two societies and cultures that Australia and Bangladesh lead to Yasmin to undertake a significant process of enculturation. Although Yasmin admits that it was difficult to submerse herself in the Australian society, she says that she is glad to have made the move to Australia. Yasmin and her family first moved to Canberra, where she lived until her children finished there schooling. She then …show more content…
Her parents, uncles and aunts taught her and her siblings the small amount of English they knew.
“It was difficult to make small talk with others because I would forget the word in English and people wouldn’t understand what I was trying to say; which was very difficult” When she first moved, she would most interact within her micro world but as she became better at speaking English, she found it easier to interact in the meso world. She was excited to be in a safe, new country and eager to be able to communicate with different people.
When I asked Yasmin about her culture in Bangladesh, she explained the significance of family within the Bengali society. There is a big emphasis on gatherings with extended family where they would chat, play and eat. Food is also an important aspect on the society, with everyone helping out and eating together as a sort of tradition. There is also the prevalent of oral storytelling. Older relatives would share their experiences with others and give advice and help to relatives who needed …show more content…
It gave me the ability to achieve in depth answers and to have Yasmin’s responses to be more personal and more of a discussion. It allowed me to learn about Yasmin’s opinions and thoughts and to really be able to discuss the problems in communication between the two cultures. Another benefit of using interview as a methodology was that it gave me the ability to see the emotions Yasmin was displaying, like when she was talking about the difference in values between the two cultures, which showed me how important it was to her.
The use of interview as a methodology also helped for to maintain our full attention to what we were discussing, as well as her body language helping me to deceiver which subjects she was interested in talking about and which ones not to discuss.
I had some problems with noise because Yasmin’s accent is quite strong and I found it difficult to understand some things. However, this was resolved easily by asking her to repeat what she was saying, which she was fine
Problems in communicating across cultures
Yasmin Islam was born in Bangladesh in 1938 and has spend 40 years as an Australian resident. She grew up as the eldest child with four brothers and two sisters. In 1975 she came to Australia by boat with her husband and two young children. The immense difference between the two societies and cultures that Australia and Bangladesh lead to Yasmin to undertake a significant process of enculturation. Although Yasmin admits that it was difficult to submerse herself in the Australian society, she says that she is glad to have made the move to Australia. Yasmin and her family first moved to Canberra, where she lived until her children finished there schooling. She then …show more content…
Her parents, uncles and aunts taught her and her siblings the small amount of English they knew.
“It was difficult to make small talk with others because I would forget the word in English and people wouldn’t understand what I was trying to say; which was very difficult” When she first moved, she would most interact within her micro world but as she became better at speaking English, she found it easier to interact in the meso world. She was excited to be in a safe, new country and eager to be able to communicate with different people.
When I asked Yasmin about her culture in Bangladesh, she explained the significance of family within the Bengali society. There is a big emphasis on gatherings with extended family where they would chat, play and eat. Food is also an important aspect on the society, with everyone helping out and eating together as a sort of tradition. There is also the prevalent of oral storytelling. Older relatives would share their experiences with others and give advice and help to relatives who needed …show more content…
It gave me the ability to achieve in depth answers and to have Yasmin’s responses to be more personal and more of a discussion. It allowed me to learn about Yasmin’s opinions and thoughts and to really be able to discuss the problems in communication between the two cultures. Another benefit of using interview as a methodology was that it gave me the ability to see the emotions Yasmin was displaying, like when she was talking about the difference in values between the two cultures, which showed me how important it was to her.
The use of interview as a methodology also helped for to maintain our full attention to what we were discussing, as well as her body language helping me to deceiver which subjects she was interested in talking about and which ones not to discuss.
I had some problems with noise because Yasmin’s accent is quite strong and I found it difficult to understand some things. However, this was resolved easily by asking her to repeat what she was saying, which she was fine