Question;
Can communication barriers result from cultural
differences, race, attitudes, gender, physical disability, age, religion or
ethnicity? Explain how and why with vivid examples.
To sum up ideas, Communication
is giving, receiving, or exchanging ideas, information, signals or messages
through appropriate media enabling individuals or groups to persuade, to seek
information, to give information or to express feelings and emotions.
Communication is any form of describing situations, lifestyles, a particular
environment, someone’s personality spiritual talks and so much more.
A barrier
on the other hand can be defined, as according to the Oxford Advanced Learners
English dictionary, as a fence or other obstacle that prevents movement or
access; also as a circumstance or obstacle that keeps people or things apart or
prevents communication progress.
A Communication
barrier is thus anything that prevents one from receiving and understanding
the messages others use to convey their information ideas and thoughts.
Communication barriers may relate to the message, internal factors related to
thoughts and feelings and external factors. Communication barrier is a
summation of all factors that lead to ineffective communication between the
message sender and the receiver
Below are some detailed factors which may affect
communication, how and why they may act as communication barriers;
Attitudinal barriers are the barriers that
result from the individual’s own attitude and assumptions that built over with
time based on one’s socio-economic and cultural background and often reflected
in day to day communication with others
These barriers arise due to each individual’s frame of
reference; which is the sum of their beliefs, past experiences, fears, hopes,
and expectations. The frame of reference thus filters, distorts or obscure
information and hence resulting in selective attention to information.
If the message transmitted coincides with
ones opinions and attitudes, the receiver would receive it openly and
favorably. However if the message does not coincide with with his views or
tends to run contrary with his accepted beliefs, he/she does not respond
favorably.
Attitudinal barriers fall under two (2) principle causes;
Egocentrism; an attitude wherein one tends to be ‘self-focused’ with the belief that one’s own ideas are more important and valuable than other’s
Judgmental attitude; communication is affected because the message tends to pass some sort of judgement against the receiver therefore it is received not as it was intended. Also the giving precedence of opinions over facts tends to cause miscommunication
RACE:
The modern meaning of the term race with reference to
humans began to emerge in 17th century. Since then it has a variety
of meanings in the languages of Western world. What most definition have in
common is an attempt to categorize people primarily by their physical
differences. (Article written by Yasuko I. Takweza http://www.britannica.com).
In the United States, for example the term race generally refers to a
group of people who have in common some visible physical traits, such as skin
color, hair texture, facial features, and eye formation. The mid-20th century
racial classification by American anthropologist Carleton S. Coon, divided
humanity into five races which are Caucasoid (White), Negroid (Black), Capoid
(Bushmen/Hottentots), Mongoloid (Oriental/Amerindian), Australoid (Australian
Aborigine and Papuan).
Race is a barrier to communication due to the following factors;
First is perception; This refers to the way a
particular individual think about a certain race. Perception is a result of the
past or usual experience with a certain race. Example is most African American
are perceived as ignorant and violent people so when an idea is brought by a
black person in a company with many white people or others, they may not
understand it because their minds are clouded with another perceptions about
black people this is a barrier to communication because the intended
information was not understood.
Second factor is accent; People of different races
mostly speak different languages, although different languages can be taught
among them still accent will not be the same. Example: Most Asians get hard
time mastering pronunciations of English words. This is a barrier to
communication because if I am watching an English video made by a Chinese
person about construction industry, I will not understand some things because
of their accent. Other factors which shows how race is a barrier to communication
are like cultural differences between people of different races, and racial segregation.
RELIGION:
Religion is a set of beliefs and practices connected
to a supernatural entity (God or gods). It consists of rituals, practices, and
morals that describe the origin, nature, and purpose of man and life, with
respect to the superhuman entity. This implies that different people tend to
choose/opt different religions and decide to believe in them. These beliefs are
mostly different and contradicting among different religions. Hence, people
with different religions may sometimes find it difficult to effectively
communicate, due to the following reasons;
Firstly, one’s
perception of another person’s religion may result into a communication
barrier. If someone has a strong belief and faith that another person’s
religion signifies evil and violates everything that his/her religion teaches,
one may guarantee that an attempt to effectively communicate will fail since
one will be focused on his hatred on the other due to his/her religion, thus
hindering effective communication.
Also, there may be practices and lifestyles that are deemed evil and sinful to one’s religion. A good example might be dressing codes and clothing. If one appears in a clothing that another person considers evil, chances are high that communication won’t take place since one just focuses on the dressing code and thinks of all kinds of evil stuffs that the speaker may be .Also, use of different language and symbols and phrases between people of different religions may cause communication barriers and misunderstandings, should those symbols have a significant meaning in the other’s religion and translate as a sign of insult or contempt.
ETHNICITY:
According to Oxford English Dictionary; ethnicity can
be defined as the state of fact of belonging to a certain social group that
shares a common culture and tradition. This means that someone belongs to a
certain community that has a distinct culture and tradition. This can result
into a communication barrier, due to the reasons below;
First, there may be certain symbols and signs that
mean different things in different cultures. For example, a ‘thumbs up’ sign in
many places is a sign of approval or peace, but in Bangladesh it is considered
an insult. Hence, the use of these sorts of signs in communication may cause
the receiver to get the wrong message, give wrong feedback, and the whole
process gets distorted.
Also, growing up in a certain culture affects
different aspects of communication e.g. tone and the way one speaks. For
example, Germans are people whose culture makes them straightforward and
direct, but in places like India, people grow up being indirect to look polite.
Therefore, an Indian may consider a German as rude because of the way they
communicate directly, and straightforward. This can make the Indian
uncomfortable throughout the whole communication process, and may give wrong feedback,
distorting the process. This is how ethnicity can be a communication barrier.
PHYSICAL
DISABILITY:
Wikipedia defines
physical disability as the limitations on a person’s physical functioning,
mobility or stamina, hence this involves problems such as vision impairments,
or blindness hearing problems, speech difficulties or and brain or spinal cord
injuries.
These disabilities, either from the sender or receiver, lead to misunderstanding or wrong interpretation of the message or information to be conveyed thus act as a barrier to communication. For example, for people with visual impairments or blindness are unable to see the non-verbal clues, gestures, and general body language and this makes communication less effective. Also dumb people, due to their speech difficulties, they fail to convey message or their ideas to people thus their disabilities act as barriers to effective communication.
AGE:
As defined by the Cambridge dictionary, age is the period of time someone has been alive or something has existed. Aging is responsive due for physiological changes in hearing, voice and speech. Due to these changes that come with aging effective communication is hindered or reduced thus acting as a communication barrier. These physiological changes such as are such as hearing less in older adults, visual problems and even loss of sight can all lead to misunderstandings in communication between the sender/speaker and the message receiver.
CULTURE:
A cultural barrier in communication occurs mainly when
communication happens between people with two different cultural backgrounds.
Here is how cultural barriers affect communication
Language; misunderstandings are common among people who do not speak the same language, so it is not suprising that people with different cultural backgrounds face communication barriers. Anything from mispronunciation of a word to a lack of specificity can lead to misunderstanding.
Behaviors; cultural differences in body language and
other behaviors can cause miscommunication. Example in the US it is important
to make eye contact with one that is speaking to you otherwise the speaker
perceives that you are distracted or uninterested in the topic, but in many
Asian countries serious eye contact is seen as a sign of disrespect or a
challenge to authority.
Signs
&symbols (semantic): on-verbal communication cannot be relied in
communication between people from different cultural backgrounds as there is
different language, signs, symbols, and gestures vary in different cultures. Example
“the thumbs” up sign is known as a sign of approval and wishing luck in many cultures
the same sign is taken as an insult in Bangladesh. Similarly the v hand gesture
with palm facing outside or inside is a sign of victory in the US but in other
cultures it is seen as an insult.
GENDER:
Gender barrier in communication can incite problems at
home and in work places. Societal stereotypes assume gender roles and interpersonal
differences can contribute to a communication gap between sexes. Examples
include;
Unequal engagement;- men provide information, they rarely seek information , women seek to understand and listen to others in mixed gender groups. Women are focused on giving everyone the opportunity to make contribution to a conversation. Controlling the conversation and interrupting women are behaviors most common with men. Men consider that leading a conversation is their responsibility and to demonstrate competence, when this occur women are mostly silenced or a chose to get out the conversation.
CONCLUSION
At last,
cultural differences, race, attitude, gender, physical disabilities, age,
religion and ethnicity may cause communication barriers as they all subject the
people involved in some sort of difference which causes misunderstanding of the
intended information or hinder the reception of information. Therefore, methods
or ways of communication used should take into consideration the above factors
for the assurance of effective communication among people with some
differences. Some gestures which may cause misapprehension of a certain
information should be averted while dealing with people with cultural
differences. Also negativity towards a certain group of people due to cultural
or racial differences should stop in attempt to set out effective
communication.
References;
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Gudykunst, W. B., & Kim, Y. Y. (2003). Communicating
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Tannen, D. (1990). You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men
in Conversation. William Morrow.
Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., & McDaniel, E. R. (2019).
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Lustig, M. W., & Koester, J. (2013). Intercultural
Competence: Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures. Pearson.
Holmes, P., & Stubbe, M. (2003). Power and Politeness in
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Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2013). Culture and
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