I realised how much more important it was when I started working for a company, where we had seminars and courses about it, since we had to deal with people around the world.
Sometimes it is not always the language that makes us understood. |We have to know things about a person's culture, in order to understand their behavior and avoid misunderstandings.
English is indeed a Lingua Franca, a language that is used for international communications, in business, in studies, even if you leave in your native country, in some point you have to deal with people from somewhere else.
This time I took up a course concerning "Communicating with Diverse Audiences" by the University of Surrey and its subject is exactly what I mentioned before.
It analyses how different culture is, the different way of interaction in particular environments, trying to explain what is normal, why certain behaviors are formed and what is a cultural iceberg with lots of examples.
According to the course, language is not the only barrier in miscommunication, a lot of other factors play a role in understanding, for example our previous experience, our expectation and our knowledge and it isn't always the culture the reason for someone's behavior, but also their personality.
I can't wait to see what's next!
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