Intercultural Communication and Acculturation :: globalization, misunderstanding

Communication within one culture can often be difficult, convoluted and result in many misunderstanding, this process can be significantly exacerbated however when communicators are from different cultures. With the world becoming smaller day by day due to globalization and cultures converging from all corners of the globe, communication and culture as we know it has drastically evolved and become very complex. Examples of this can be seen right here as people from all over the world immigrate to America. Throughout history as people from around the globe made America their new home they have had to address and overcome the looming issues of intercultural communication and acculturation. According to Webster.com acculturation means; cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture; also: a merging of cultures as a result of prolonged contact (Webster†¦..). Beyond having to learn a new language which is difficul t enough but through the process of acculturation they have to learn social values, norms, rules that very often is entirely different that that of their native culture. In order to successfully thrive and survive people have had to master a language while navigating through a society that often looks, behaves, sounds and fundamentally believes differently than they themselves do. Making this process even more difficult is always the prevailing desire to hold true to native customs values and traditions which may not be accepted practice in the new society. For example in America we believe in and exercise freedom of religion however in a predominantly Christian society practicing other faiths such as Muslim of Buddhism may prove more confined and contained than in ones home land where the majority practices their religion. Further examples of this point may stem to the work place where women are treated equally and their ideas and opinions are accepted and sought after but in other nations women are treated as second class citizens and therefore have no voice in public environments. These instances can require great adjustment on the part of ind ividuals who may not be familiar with American customs and treatment of women in the workplace or otherwise. Also the inability to find adequate words from a native tongue may pose a problem and great frustration if there is no literal translation in the new language. Although acculturation does not require complete assimilation and abandonment of one’s beliefs or culture it does require embracing and adopting practices of the new culture.