Cross-cultural Communication Analysis. Social Sciences Essay

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Cross-Cultural Communication
The process of communication is always a complex one and differs from one group to another. The male and female genders in particular, have different ways of communicating both verbally and non-verbally and this determines how the two groups interact. Failing to understand how communication differs for each of the group can often lead to misunderstandings, stress or intolerance. This therefore means that it is necessary to understand these differences in communication styles in order to know how to communicate effectively and build good relationships. Generally, the differences in communication between the genders results from the fact that the females are more interested in intimacy and creating connections while males have an interest in their status and independence.
Observations
In observing communication between a young male and female at a local grocery store, I was able to observe a number of facts. The two were standing a little bit close to each other and the young man was seemingly trying to flirt with the young woman. From their conversation, the man showed more cockiness and confidence than the woman did. The woman on her part exhibited shy smiles, often looked down while speaking and occasionally used gesturing noises including “oh” and “mmh” in communicating. The young man in this case also appeared to be in a more relaxed and calm mood while the woman seemed nervous and held protectively to the small handbag she was holding. When the young woman spoke, it was easy to notice that the man also used more of the gesturing noises in response as compared to the woman.
In the second situation, I made some observations during a dinner party organized by a friend. Most men showed a great preference for report talk while women bend towards rapport talking. Two girls Celine and Jane for instance, were engaged in a conversation and it was easier to hear them speaking in turns while allowing each other to contribute to the conversation. On the other hand, I observed that in the conversation between Bill and Frank, the former man sought to dominate the conversation while giving detailed explanations. Bill, like most of the other men there, also showed a tendency to use more gestures and hand motions when giving details. In one instance, the man demonstrated with his hands just how big his house was while giving its description to the few girls listening to him. The young women frequently nodded to most of the details while also expressing their emotions through smiling.
In the third observation involving males and females in a working environment, I noted that women readily gave friendly assistance to customers unlike men. The men appeared to be less confident in this case with their eyes roaming randomly. The women attendants on their part maintained eye contact with the customers and often gave more smiles than the men give. When meeting with their colleagues, the female workers greeted each other by hugging. The men were different in this case, as they preferred to pat each other on the back or greet each other through handshakes. The women showed more empathy than men. In one instance, a customer attendant named June was moved by the fact that a customer’s phone had broken and therefore he had no way of withdrawing cash as he hoped. June’s male colleague Peter showed less empathy but showed the customer an alternative way of withdrawing his cash.
Comparison between Male and Female Communication
In the communication process, women tend to use a language that implies politeness unlike men. Accordingly, men prefer language that indicates that they are in charge or in power and they show this through distancing themselves from taking particular concern for a given thing or person. Concerning this, Netshitangani in her article "Gender differences in communication styles: The impact on the managerial work of a woman school principle" says that women use this politeness “to show that they are taking other people’s feelings into account (4).” A good example here is the mentioned observation about the woman named June who showed concern for the customer because of his broken phone. She was concerned that he could not get the service he wished to get because of the inconveniences caused by the broken phone. In showing politeness, the women also tend to use questions because these are considered to be less threatening (Netshitangani, 6). The ability of the women to show emotion stems from the fact that since childhood, society allows and expects girls to show their feelings (Mohindra & Azhar, 18). Men on the other hand, are less polite in their language and prefer showing their power in similar circumstances. For instance in the above observation, Peter did not spend any time empathizing with the customer but instead thought of an alternative way of solving the problem. Evidently, men tend to “use very strong directives forms to demonstrate control,” (Netshingani, 7). In this case, this was evident when Peter did not ask any questions that would show concern but instead told the customer about the solution as a way of showing that he was in charge. From this difference in communication, it can be inferred that both men and women are necessary in creating a good working environment especially when it comes to providing customer care services.
Closely related to the mentioned factor is the fact that males and females also differ in the way they speak whereby men use report talking whereas women use rapport talk. According to Mohindra and Azhar, (19) men use report talking while communicating because “they view conversation as a means to exchange information and problem solve.” In this communication style, the men tend to focus on giving out information and sharing their experiences as a means of showing their status and power. This explains why in the given observation about the conversation between Bill and Frank, Bill seemed to dominate the conversation while giving details about his experiences to Frank. The females as noted, use rapport talk whereby their main aim is to build conversations through sharing their experiences and asking each other questions. Arguably, the ability of women to focus on building conversation is due to their sensitivity towards other people’s feelings, which usually drive them to give each other the opportunity to speak during conversations. This fact is evident in the mentioned case of Celine and Jane whereby both of them gave each other equal chances of sharing their different experiences without anyone seeking to dominate. This leads to the deduction that women prefer being expressive and confiding in others as a way of building, maintaining and strengthening relationships while men would always want report talk, which emphasizes their status and supremacy.
Apart from the mentioned, the other point of comparison is on the level of confidence between the two genders whereby males are perceived to be more confident than the females in the communication process. This difference results from the fact that women speak in a more tentative manner whereas men speak assertively thus leading to the idea that the latter are more confident and able (Merchant, 19). As seen in the observation of the interaction between the young man and woman who were flirting at the local grocery store, the man is determined to be confident because of his calmness when talking to the woman. The woman’s lack of confidence is shown through her nervousness as she kept looking on the ground, smiling shyly while also holding tight to her handbag. Accordingly, boys usually exhibit more confidence when communicating with new people like in the case above while in the same circumstances the girls tend to be less confident (Clark, 10). However, the confidence level for the genders is dependent on several other factors. For instance, girls tend to be more confident when communicating with different people such as in the work scenario when interacting with different...