Intercultural Sensitization Seminar
Written Assignment Intercultural Sensitization Seminar
During this seminar, I had learned the culture of different countries, which have some similarities and also differences. When we discuss about it deeper, it surprised me more because I didn’t know about it before, especially about the German culture. For instance, the
German always shake hand firmly, compared to others, especially Asian people. The reason is that it shows their personality, how strong and serious they are and also how much interest they have towards you. A weak handshake means you are not confident and have a weak personality, and it will ruin their first impression towards you. So be careful.
2.
When we talk about communication, it has a lot to do with culture. For example, if you want to communicate with somebody, it is important to first know about their background and culture. Fail to do so will lead to miscommunication. In normal cases, nodding up and down our head signals agreement in most cultures, while turning the head from side to side usually indicates disagreement or disapproval, but not in Indian culture case. For Indian, they have this kind of ‘turning their head from side-to-side’ habit while talking, even when they agree with you. In Arabic culture cases, when they speak their language among them especially for the males, they like to talk louder even to someone next to them. At first people would think that they are arguing with each other, but it just turns out that this is just how loud they are. And for most African people, they like to talk with a dialect and sounds informally, but it didn’t mean that they are rude, it just their culture and who they are. For most of Asian people especially in the east side, they always talk with low voice, because they are shy and very humble. But this didn’t mean they are scared or not confident, they are just way too polite. In conclusion, the differences in culture shouldn’t be a barrier to have a good
During this seminar, I had learned the culture of different countries, which have some similarities and also differences. When we discuss about it deeper, it surprised me more because I didn’t know about it before, especially about the German culture. For instance, the
German always shake hand firmly, compared to others, especially Asian people. The reason is that it shows their personality, how strong and serious they are and also how much interest they have towards you. A weak handshake means you are not confident and have a weak personality, and it will ruin their first impression towards you. So be careful.
2.
When we talk about communication, it has a lot to do with culture. For example, if you want to communicate with somebody, it is important to first know about their background and culture. Fail to do so will lead to miscommunication. In normal cases, nodding up and down our head signals agreement in most cultures, while turning the head from side to side usually indicates disagreement or disapproval, but not in Indian culture case. For Indian, they have this kind of ‘turning their head from side-to-side’ habit while talking, even when they agree with you. In Arabic culture cases, when they speak their language among them especially for the males, they like to talk louder even to someone next to them. At first people would think that they are arguing with each other, but it just turns out that this is just how loud they are. And for most African people, they like to talk with a dialect and sounds informally, but it didn’t mean that they are rude, it just their culture and who they are. For most of Asian people especially in the east side, they always talk with low voice, because they are shy and very humble. But this didn’t mean they are scared or not confident, they are just way too polite. In conclusion, the differences in culture shouldn’t be a barrier to have a good