Friday, September 23, 2011

Communication and Culture

I have been around a diverse group of people my entire life. I have deployed and traveled around the world with the military where I have had the opportunity to communicate with people of all cultures and languages. In my squadron we have folks that range from Hispanic, Caucasian, Jamaican, African American, African, Indian, Russian and so many more. It is impossible to not be diverse in the military. The military also offers courses in diversity constantly to make sure new members integrate well and seasoned members have refresher courses. I am scheduled to attend a diversity course next month to learn the difference in Army and Air Force culture because we are integrating the two services here in Tx. Even in my own personal life, my daughter is half Filipino and my husband is Hispanic. I have gay and lesbian friends as well as friends of all different religions to include Catholic, Mormon, Muslim and Wiccan. I have found that other than an obvious language barrier, communication is no different no matter who I am speaking to. If you always have a conversation and respect the other person, communication can occur naturally and amicably. If I do not understand the intent of what the other person is saying, I merely ask "what does that mean?" and give them a chance to explain it to me instead of assuming something that might not be true. I find that the most difficult time to accomplish succinct communication is when corresponding to colleagues via email. Email tone and intent can quickly turn into miscommunication and cause problems in the workplace. I find that often times I have to overly clear and polite in an email to the receiver does not mistake rudeness. The only time I have found where communication has to altered has been in places like Saudi Arabia. This culture has such a different view of women that it made communication difficult. I had to have a male with me at all times to speak to the local nationals there because they do not speak to women. The few Saudi Army guards that would speak to me were fascinated by Western culture and intrigued by women in positions of power.The three strategies that I consistently use are Respect, Active listening and having an Open mind. Without these three our reception will be blocked before we even begin to communicate.
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Established Contact with My German Childhood Professional

My contact actually changed from Tonya Schmidt to Thomas Volz. He studied in New York and Turkey. He taught school in Turkey and in Boveria at the Abuture, which they call the place of higher learning durin ghte first years. He also taught Turkish students to speak English for 4 years. He has 3 boys of his own that are 11, 12 and 15 years old. Whe I asked him to tell me about povery in Germany that he might have experienced and how it affects children, this is what he wrote to me:
"In Germany the federal social security system is (still) so comprehensive that you hardly notice any differences between rich and poor students in class. As (still) most of our schools end at 1pm, lunch, nutrition and healthcare is predominantly considered a private matter. People are very touchy about the government interfering in these questions. So it is left to health care providers to inform and teach the public on a voluntary basis. Of Course schools support this, but not as an integral part of the basic curriculum. The stress is on academic subjects".
"However, times are changing. More and more schools exand their lessons into the afternoon and the schools provide lunch. This is generally a cheap alternative to private lunch served at home. Here the schools monitor ingediences and nutrition very closely because many parents are very aware of this topic"
"The gap between rich and poor is, however, quite obvious on a higher academic level. Children that are academically supported at home are more likely to proceed to higher education and achieve better results on the long run. This more a question of how educated the parents/families are. But as education and income are unextricably entwined the link between academic achievement and income is a sad (German) fact"