10/20/21; Week 5: Response to Culture Miscommunication

The biggest problem

From my point of view, miscommunication must be one of the biggest problems in todays’ world. It is not a matter of culture but of effective communication skills, or the lack of them. Even among people of the same family, country, or culture there are misunderstandings and conflicts arise from them. Friends turn into strangers, and families fall apart because we do not put enough efforts in understanding others’ points of view. What could we do to improve this situation?

Learning to listen

One of the key points, in my opinion, is that we need more listening and less speaking. We speak a lot without caring much for others’ feelings or concerns. We do not pay enough attention to body language, face expressions, or the look in the eyes of people surrounding us. If we would do it, we would realize how much they have to say. It is of paramount importance to increase our ability to listen with our ears and hearts wide open to learn from others, and to avoid being misunderstood in our intentions and thoughts. In normal conversations, it is common to interrupt to speak our ideas out and we lost the opportunity to listen carefully to our interlocutor. We are often more preoccupied for what to answer than for learning from the person before us. As a Latin American person, I grew up in a greatly talkative culture and this is the most common situation: talking to each other is an act of camaraderie, but it can become a problem if we do not pay attention to what we say or how we say it.

 

Avoiding miscommunication

Tesol teachers must pay special attention to this important matter. I imagine myself in a culturally diverse classroom and my first thought is “I need to be careful”. And my second thought is “Do not take things for granted”. Since students come from a great variety of backgrounds and cultures, we as teachers should avoid practices, words, or any other thing that could be misinterpreted by our students. Moreover, it would be recommendable if we learn a bit about our students’ origins and beliefs because it could avoid us several problems in the future. We surely will avoid jokes and idioms that can create confusion or offend anyone not used to them. It is a good practice to ask our students to talk about their traditions and what they consider to be acceptable and respectful, and what could be taken as an insult or offense. It takes time to get to know our students’ cultures, but it is crucial if we want to avoid misunderstandings and that everyone may feel welcome to our class.

Conclusion

Nowadays, miscommunication is a great challenge for every person in the world. We can be misunderstood even among our own people and our own family. However, if we learn to listen and pay attention to others’ body language and expressions, we can notice when the trouble is arising and make the necessary adjustments to stop the wave. As Tesol teachers, it is not only a good practice, but a key element in an L2 welcoming learning environment.

If you have other ideas and suggestions, please leave them in the comments section below.

Thanks for reading!