Intercultural competence

What is cultural competence and how can it be gained? Intercultural competence is the ability to be sensitive, reflective, tolerant, and efficient during interactions with individuals of different cultures (Behrnd & Porzelt, 2012). Arasaratnam and Doerfel (2005) identify having prior cross-cultural experiences, a global understanding of culture without ethnocentrism, and listening skills that allow one to be proficient in cross-cultural communication as important components of intercultural competence. Intercultural competency is becoming an increasingly valuable commodity for individuals entering and existing in the workforce (Hunt, 2001). Other valuable skills and understandings can emerge as indications of the acquisition of cultural…

The topic of intercultural competence have become very important in the past years of the globalization era where people of diverse cultures meet, study and work together. Conversation between culturally different speakers are more likely go wrong than between the speakers of the same culture. People need to obtain the intercultural competence in order to communicate smoothly with people from different cultural background and go beyond the conceptual meaning of the utterance. Misunderstandings…

Following, three different com-ponents will be distinguished and their relevance for intercultural competences evaluated. The first is the cognitive part of intercultural competence. It implies relevant knowledge for intercultural encounters, such as culture or country specific knowledge. However, to have theoretical knowledge about the concept of culture is equally important. This means awareness about the functioning of cultures and the existence of cultural differences and their possible…

participants and apply conceptual framework linked to intercultural awareness such as the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS). Finally, a conclusion summarising the case will be given. 2.0 Analysis of Case Study 2.1 Analysis…

world changes in different aspects of life. The ability to communicate effectively with other individuals from other cultures is called intercultural competence. To be interculturally competent, an individual must have the correct knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with an individual in an intercultural context. Intercultural competence is made up of a few essential parts. These include demographics, technological, economic, peace, and interpersonal imperatives (2018). Demographic…

identifies communicative competence as “That aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts” (p.36). It includes four sub-competences which are interconnected and they cannot develop separately. These four competences are: _ Linguistic Competence: is related to language knowledge such as spelling, structure and pronunciation. – Sociolinguistic (pragmatic competence): implies an understanding of the…

An important competence for intercultural success is to understand and accept cultural differences. Bennett’s (1986) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) demonstrates the stages of interpretations of cultural difference. Figure 1. DMIS (Bennett, 1986) Hammer et al. (2003) explains that the ethnocentric stages are ‘avoiding cultural difference’ and ethnorelative stages are ‘seeking cultural difference’ and accepting it. When group members are at different stages of the DMIS…

Even though there are bunches of research touching upon international students’ intercultural adaptation, little research has touched on Chinese international students’ intercultural adaptation in Northern Florida. In Katherine & Dustin’s Accuracy of the United States regional personality stereotypes, the authors explored whether Americans can accurately describe how personality traits vary across regions of the United States. They presented the analyses documenting the strengths of regional…

out of my comfort zone and figuring out what I can overcome. Change scares me, which is part of the reason I decided to stay in New England for my college career. I hope to overcome the anxiety I currently associate with change. Next, I plan on examining the way social inequality takes hold in various counties around Europe (Baistow, 2000). I expect to see poverty (Film - America’s Working Poor, 2004) in an entirely new light, as America’s definition of poverty may be completely different from…

Introduction With a large number of companies operating internationally, coupled with their constant growth, the world is opening up for new foreign firms. Because of high competition, the companies operating abroad are faced with a much larger tasks than ever before. When going international, some of the challenges they face, not only include products or services, but communications between cultural differences. A company must handle new and unfamiliar cultural differences, quickly learning…