The Future of Intercultural Communications

Intercultural communications is to me a tool to be used on how to analyze your individual actions and the power they have when it comes to other people. I can look at some of the things I enjoy in and love in a society that I so harshly criticize. Intercultural communications has taught me to greatly appreciate my own privileges and understand the privileges of others. I enjoy how textual recordings and directions are new and innovative because it gives me hope to know that people are thinking. My pessimism as cooled under the thought that this information is spreading due to continuously growing technology. This information keeps me humble and constantly searching for ways in becoming a better person, then realizing that a “better” person is subjective and that this goal really means becoming a person I want to be. I’ve learned that being understood is important for everyone who communicates.
A sense of my own culture has been thought about and recorded in public document. The experience that has come from communicating with those without the use of facial expression, gesture, and vocal tones has been learned and almost adapted to a type of communication. Technology has never really been a strong suit of mine but is an adaptation I know will greatly benefit. This class ignited my passion to continue in the direction of gaining all of the knowledge I could possibly gain.
I can find contradictions and possible scenarios while taking these thoughts as mere assumptions built out of my own cultural lens. In the beginning I found it highly difficult to keep myself in check in placement judgment upon other individuals. I can apply new identities of individualist, Western American, and the avowed identity as a dialectical approacher. After this class I have found it hard to not see individuals as cultures. I feel the way my group culture that has been filtered through my person in order to be translated and passed down as crucial information for the survival of our species. My belief that if people never move on, if they never progress in thought or in technique, and that our global society will surely parish, have been influenced by a mix of teachings and life experiences.
I can find how the way cultural influences of my history, my ethnicity and race enact upon the way I solve conflicts and hold expectations of others for an appropriate conversation. I have to keep in mind my perceptions and experiences in order to keep judgments that meet the needs of my community. My Mother’s golden rule to “Treat people the way you want to be treated”, has transformed to more of a “Understand how a person sees based on the contexts, and possible experiences before coming to the next communication phase”. Or the American belief that “Everyone deserves equality” turns into “Everyone needs equity in order to survive in today’s global context.” I can ask questions as to how conflict is both good and bad then apply that crazy concept of subjectivity.
Intercultural has influenced me to see this world as more a magical place. Where there are always reasons for everything. Lauryn Hill’s motto: “Everything is Everything” speaks to this notion very well. The thoughts, like this, that exist in intercultural communications however aren’t new. I can look at artwork from minority cultures and decipher their possible life experience expressed in their art with an understanding that these perceptions are coming from my own experiences in the shared global context. The faster the information of intercultural communications in contexts spreads the better. Where do you think we are as a human race in understanding the importance of understanding each other? Does this question even have any perceptions or preconceived notions of the cultural backgrounds involved?