One of my
neighbors has a principle that I think is unusual. All the females in the house
have to wear long pants, long sleeved blouse or T-shirt and a veil on every
single day, including their nanny. When they replace the nanny with a new one
whose outfit is the same as most people in general, they require her to wear the
way they set the standard. My city is very humid and people have the air
conditioners in the bedrooms only, so I cannot imagine how uncomfortable it is
to do the household chores in such an outfit.
At the
school where I work, I have to deal with the teachers who are more than twenty
years younger than I am. They are called the millenials generation who fully
integrate computers into their everyday communication (O’Hair & Wiemann,
2012). It is indeed true, because I find the way they communicate is different
from what I usually do when I communicate with my old friends from colleagues
or relatives. They are the ‘gadget’ people who seem to be available 24 hours on
their cell phones through BBM or WhatsApp. They can even communicate through these
to a person that they can just walk and find to talk with when they are in the
same building and on the same floor.
I cannot
and should not just consider those people uncommon and ignore the difference.
Like or dislike, I have to face with people who are different from me when I
communicate. To make sure that my goal of communication is achieved, I have to
try to make my communication effective. In dealing with those people who are
different from me as a result of diverse religion and age, there are three
strategies that I think will be useful:
1. Accept my neighbor’s unusual
principle to show respect. It is their right to set their outfit standard. As
long as they do not tell me to do the same, I should not be bothered. I should
put myself in their shoes to understand the reason they do that is to respect
what their religion tells them to do which could be certainly different from my
religion or belief.
2. I should not stereotype my neighbor
by thinking all Moslem people dress up illogically or have a prejudice against
them by judging them to be weird or making a rigid description.
3. I do not have to be a millenials
generation or a person to be reachable anytime on my Wasap, but I have to be
capable of using BBM or WhatsApp to be ‘in’ their link. For some reasons, BBM or
WhatsApp is very useful. By doing so, I will minimize the gap and at the same time
show an effort to adapt.
Reference
O’Hair,
D. &Wiemann, M. (2012). Real
communication: An introduction. New York:
Belford/St.
Martin’s, Chapter 3, “Communication and Culture” (p. 80)
Brigitte,
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! Great examples of how you communicate with people from different cultures. I, too, work with the younger generation and at times find it hard to communicate with them as I grew up without cell phones, computers etc and communicated the "old fashioned" way using a telephone, writing letters or just plain talking with one another! Thank you for sharing your experiences!
Jodi
Brigitte,
ReplyDeleteI can understand this challenge of communicating with the younger generation. I have learned to text and often use the medium to connect with younger relatives and staff members. I have learned they don't answer calls, choosing to text rather than hear a human voice. I hope maturity will change this phenomenon.
I really find your post interesting, because I have a family at my center in the US that the mother dresses that way, and in the beginning it was hard to understand but after conversations with the family we are learning about their culture and customs. Because I am a member of the younger generation, the cell phone is a part of my everyday communication, but I do know how to effectively communicate without it not every situation can be handled with a text or other communication apps. As technology evolves the way we communicate with one another will have to evolve as well.
ReplyDelete