Think about the various intercultural encounters you experience on an everyday basis. How might you improve those interactions using the three guidelines for ethical communication?

Question

Please provide the best answer for the best statement.

Answer 1

Answer: First, remember that everyone, including you, is enmeshed in a culture and, thus, communicating through a cultural lens. Recognizing your own cultural attitudes, values, and beliefs will make you more sensitive to others’ cultures and less likely to impose your own cultural attitudes on their communication patterns. Although you may feel most comfortable living in your own culture and following its communication patterns, you should not conclude that your culture and communication style are best or should be the standard for all other cultures. Second, as you learn about other cultural groups, be aware of their humanity and avoid the temptation to view them as an exotic “other.” Through this lens, one may discover amazing, interesting, and valuable information by using such a perspective and even develop a real fondness of these exotic people, but miss the point that we are as culturally “caged” as others and that they are culturally as “free” as we are. Third, you will be more ethical in your intercultural interactions if you are open to other ways of viewing the world. The ways that you were taught about the world and history may not be the same as what others were taught. People cannot engage in meaningful communication if they are unwilling to suspend or re-examine their assumptions about the world.