Discussion Prompt: Nelson Mandela once wrote, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” Chances are that, at one time or another, you will be faced with communicating effectively with someone who has a completely different worldview. In those situations, how can we break down barriers and create a successful exchange of ideas?
Having grown up in a multicultural society and lived for many years in very cosmopolitan cities (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, New York, Toronto, to name a handful), I have faced numerous situations in which I’ve had to communicate with those whose worldviews were different from my own. I went to schools with children who spoke as many different languages as there were children; as the city was one in which expatriates rather outnumbered the local population, very often each language reflected a different nationality, a different culture, and often a different worldview from my own.
As a result of being born in a country and into a culture not my own, I believe I did learn to communicate effectively with others in a rather organic way: while my parents were—and still are—very proud of our heritage, realizing that we were to remain expatriates for many years, they encouraged me to learn about the cultures of my classmates, my friends and our neighbors. My father, in fact, insisted that I read the Qur’an and the King James Bible as well as our own scripture, so that I understood more about the cultures that surrounded me.
Even with these advantages, I anticipate being in situations wherein I’ll have more barriers of this sort of break down, especially if I attain my goal of using my Communications degree in the field of diversity and inclusion in (hopefully) healthcare. I have, on numerous occasions, been in doctor’s offices as well as urgent care centers and hospital settings where clientele faced language difficulties, and I once volunteered at a palliative care facility in which we had a directory of “cultural ambassadors” to act as liaisons for the variety of ethnicities and cultures we encountered. There are a number of policies and principles we followed to overcome barriers and communicate effectively, and I find ample support for them in this week’s reading. , I believe that they will be just as helpful to me in the future:
- Recognize if my audience’s culture leans toward Individualism or Collectivism. This was and still is a very potent yet fine line to balance on in my own life (as one half of a biracial couple), and I’ve found that many times identifying this element sets the tone for the rest of the conversation. In healthcare situations, I’ve seen this approach being used to persuade family members to take a certain step, or the client to take a different step. Even changing the pronoun from “I think you should” to “I think we should” seems to render members of Collectivism cultures more open to options, for example.
- Clothing and etiquette: growing up Hindu in a Muslim country, these two elements were crucial to get right. Dressing conservatively and keeping my hands to myself when among members of the opposite gender (unless they were close friends), for example, became habit. By extension, having a basic understanding of the etiquette and customs of the audience and erring on the side of caution (by dressing a smidge more conservatively, perhaps, or by waiting for the other party to first extend a hand in greeting) would likely help set a neutral stage on which to build upon.