Theories of Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication

Introduction

Intercultural communication is a form of global communication. It translates the global range of communication which comprises of individuals from different cultures, regions, social, ethnic and educational backgrounds. Intercultural communication is also termed as cross-cultural communication. As it is cleared from the term cross-cultural communication, it deals to seek the sense to understand the nature, attitude and perception of different people when they interact with the natives of different cultures. People who are in this business of intercultural business communication say that culture tell you about how the process of encoding a message within a society carries. It studies the instances where the nations interact with each other. It is referred to the interaction of people of different nationalities. This usually happens when the person is influenced by some other person of totally different demographic traits, so they come in interaction and intercultural communication process starts. Apart from the interaction and language, intercultural also focuses on the thought pattern, social norms and the culture itself. As well as, the understanding of different religions, language and customs of different countries. It plays a vital part in the international business relations. A person can develop this skill through an efficient research about different countries, its norms and cultures in detail. It is a process of creating meanings across cultures. It is a system, through which groups are created, maintained and further organized (Benjamin, 1996).

The need of intercultural arises more when the tourism increased the exports and the imports accelerate worldwide, students started going abroad international businesses and foreign direct investments established and awareness of the minorities rights and culture create a better cultural understanding and communication within different groups of the world strengthen.

However, when we talk about intercultural communication, it is not only about the communication between cultures prospering in different countries, but also the people who live in aforementioned countries, but do not share common social groups.

Keeping the culture and communication as a base, intercultural communication is the sharing and transfer of communication at different levels of consciousness and need of the people of different demographic features and cultural backgrounds (Wiseman, 1995)..

Theories

It was prior that the culture is a set of universal truth which is not altered and the intercultural communication remains the same. However, researchers have shown that the cross culture communication is not a set of singular theory. The values and perceptions of people changes continuously. There are many theories, which explain intercultural communication. However, I am going to discuss three. Those theories will be:

Dimension Accrual and Dissociation Theory

This theory was proposed by Karmer, which states that before a person tends to understand the intercultural communication he should understands the cultural dynamics of each interlocutor. The theory further explains the variety of the changing culture and communicative behaviors which are identified at many different situations. Dissociation describes a shift from an increasing abstraction of the self distinct identity to symbolic identity (Kramer 1996).

It is essential to understand the complete frame of culture, ...