10/19/19 Week 5 Response to Cultural Miscommunication

What is miscommunication? 

Miscommunication is defined as a failure to communicate adequately. It is actually very common in the United States to have a miscommunication with someone. This might lead to someone getting their feelings hurt, having resentiment towards another person because of a miscommunication, and also someone might confuse confrontation with passion. It is interesting how different cultures communicate and miscommunicate in different ways. In today's blog post, think about how many times you have encountered a miscommunication and how you can improve on communicating adequately so it is less likely to happen again.

Communication is key. 🔑

Communication should be an enjoyable experience. It should be a moment of learning and happiness with another person as we have the gift to communicate. One disadvantage that we have to remember is how often people can mishear or misunderstand one another. In my opinion, communication is the only way to make things better. It allows each person to express themselves freely and understand one another better. It is healthy and good for the soul.

When I lived in Uruguay and served as a missionary, I had to practice learning how to communicate with a different culture and different personalities. As you are assigned a companion, you are with them for a period of at least 6 weeks. Within that time period, many things can happen on a day to day basis. I am eternally grateful for all of the wonderful companions I had while serving. Yes, there were miscommunications, however, we figured out how to communicate with each other and realized the importance of communication. Here is a picture of one of my greatest companions who I got along with really well! We didn't necessarily fight a lot

we just had miscommunications. However, we sorted them out by talking about it verbally, and now we are good friends to this day!

I feel that the reason why there are so many miscommunications within different cultures is because of the values they each have. For example, take Japan and the United States. The United States is very direct and sometimes that can offend the Japanese. Since the Japanese are very indirect it can cause a definite lack of communication creating one to become offended. That is just what happens. That's life sometimes. Not everyone is perfect at communicating and we all have to figure out the best way to not step on each other's toes when it comes down to it.

How can I apply this to my future teaching career? 

Well, I can take others into consideration and apply what I have learned about the importance of communication. Miscommunication can also cause a bad environment in the classroom. Students can become confused, angry, or even sad. This is not how I want a classroom of learning to be like. In that case, I believe that creating a comfortable environment for students is vital in their success in learning. It also allows the teacher to have a successful lesson each time is the communication is effective.