The topic of intercultural communication is more important than ever before when navigating in today's society. More so then ever being respectful and conscious of another culture is expected. I specifically experienced this when visiting Thailand this summer, a place where the culture is extremely different then Western culture. When in Thailand I realized I had to be attentive to what the cultural rules were there. For example, I did not dare wear my shoes into someone's home or store if they left their shoes outside at the door.
"Intercultural engagement is a place of learning." (171). I learned so much from my short time in Thailand about negotiating and adopting and accepting a culture very different than my own. In relation to the ground for the other, when communicating in Thailand I also had to learn that a smile did not always mean happy, it was just polite to smile throughout conversation. Even when complaining about bad service or if something was wrong the Thai culture smiles, and I had to get used to that instead of thinking it was rude. I had to use dialogic attentiveness to realize that they were just practicing what was culturally normal. The Thai people also made an effort to adopt Western culture as well making Dialogic negotiation. They had menus in all English and another in all Thai, and they knew some American slang.
I am so jealous that you went to Thailand, it's literally my dream! But you are so right in saying that intercultural communication is more important today more than ever. Intercultural communication is something that has been put on people's radars more recently due to so many opportunities to go abroad and different business ventures, as a western society we definitely see this more often I feel. At the U there is such a diverse population of students and it baffles me to see how some student treat students of different ethnicities and how closed minded people are to these students of different cultures. My intercultural communication and reentry class that I am currently taking is made up of a majority of international students from Mexico to Korea. The stories and experiences that they share with the class about how other students treat them is baffling. It makes me ashamed to hear the lack of respect for these people of different cultures. The American stereotype really gets me heated because unless I am able to show someone that we aren't all small minded and naive I am automatically perceived that way. The American stereotype really puts a strain on intercultural communication.
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