Diversity Affects Communication Paper
Diversity Affects Communication Paper
Jermaine Smith
Introduction to Communication / COM/100 Ms. Kristine O'Hare University of Phoenix
Cultural diversity is having a group made up of people from various ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, etc. Having an appreciation of diversity is extremely important and essential for effective communication. For example, if you are a person that makes a lot of gestures to express yourself but you are attempting to communicate with someone who comes from a culture that does not utilize gestures; you would want to take this into consideration so that you do not come across as rude or offensive to the person that you are communicating with. Culture can be defined as “system of shared ideas and meanings, explicit and implicit, which a people use to interpret the world and which serve to pattern their behavior”. That being said my cultural background is very diverse. I am a young, African-American male. An immediate assumption would be that I am liberal in both actions and ideas; however, that is false. I actually tend to have very conservative view points since I am also moderately religious. My values and my upbringing affect almost every aspect of my everyday life including the way that I communicate with other. The values that have been instilled in me are what tell me to be respectful to others and in return demand respect for myself. For example, I was in my very early twenties when I was a manager at the restaurant that I worked at. Most of the people that I managed were older than I was; however, they understood that I could be very personable and relate to them on a social level but I also could handle business. I was also the only African-American manager on the staff but, I made should that I was always measure by my work ethic and management ability and not the color of my skin.
A
Jermaine Smith
Introduction to Communication / COM/100 Ms. Kristine O'Hare University of Phoenix
Cultural diversity is having a group made up of people from various ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, etc. Having an appreciation of diversity is extremely important and essential for effective communication. For example, if you are a person that makes a lot of gestures to express yourself but you are attempting to communicate with someone who comes from a culture that does not utilize gestures; you would want to take this into consideration so that you do not come across as rude or offensive to the person that you are communicating with. Culture can be defined as “system of shared ideas and meanings, explicit and implicit, which a people use to interpret the world and which serve to pattern their behavior”. That being said my cultural background is very diverse. I am a young, African-American male. An immediate assumption would be that I am liberal in both actions and ideas; however, that is false. I actually tend to have very conservative view points since I am also moderately religious. My values and my upbringing affect almost every aspect of my everyday life including the way that I communicate with other. The values that have been instilled in me are what tell me to be respectful to others and in return demand respect for myself. For example, I was in my very early twenties when I was a manager at the restaurant that I worked at. Most of the people that I managed were older than I was; however, they understood that I could be very personable and relate to them on a social level but I also could handle business. I was also the only African-American manager on the staff but, I made should that I was always measure by my work ethic and management ability and not the color of my skin.
A