Molly Guevara

September 10, 2014

CMNS101
Instructor: Dorothy Harris
When it comes to the world and the whole human population, there are always groups of
different cultures combined together or just one culture that sticks together. The definition of
culture is The quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as
excellence in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc." The fact that in the case of all these
different cultures combined in the world, it is what makes each one of us different. Not only do
cultures make us different but also it affects our communication style. Throughout our everyday
lives we have all these different cultures combined in which it influences on how we
communicate with people every day.
To begin with as matter of fact cultural values and norms is basically what shapes
peoples communication. Values and norms are expectations and rules by which a culture
influences the behavior of its members in any given situation in a way that it influences people
on how they make eye contact when communicating with others and so on. In other words
Individualism and Collectivism is something that takes a huge part of people's culture values and
norms. Individualism is mainly how cultures highly value independence, such as people are
raised to grow up very independent. On the other hand there is Collectivism, in which the idea is
that the individuals life belongs not to him or her but to the group or society. With all these
things in mind this brings the first example, which is Context Cultures. In high Context Cultures
they value being able to express yourself directly, but in high Context Cultures they are
maintained by self-expression. The next example is Uncertainty Avoidance, which is how
members of society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity. In a low culture they
welcome change, but in high culture it is the complete opposite. The last example would be
Power Distance, which refers to the way in which it is distributed. Cultures with low power
distance it is okay to reach up to those in authority although cultures with high power distance
they don't speak up to higher authority.
However cultures have many key points in which it which it makes a person, such as
Ethnicity, Regional Differences, Age, and ETC. To begin with race is a Social contract, Ethnicity
is your culture. My race is American but my ethnicity is Hispanic. I was born in the United
States, which means my race is American. My parents though were born out of the United States.
To begin with my mother she was born in Nicaragua and my father was born in El Salvador,
which makes me Hispanic. Another example is Regional Differences in which I grew up and still
live in Columbia, Maryland. I would say the town that I currently live in is very diverse;
everybody gets along pretty well for the most part. The Age/Generation is another example of
what makes a culture. I'm 20 years old and in my generation there are many different cultures
and backgrounds that get along so well. It definitely isn't how it used to be back in the day when
there was racism around. There are a lot of biracial people in my generation, in which people
everybody with different cultures and backgrounds come together.
All of those things that are included above affect the way on how we communicate with
people. In the first place one example would be Increased Contact. I surround myself with others
that are different than me. I'm willing to hang around people of different cultures. Not to mention
another example would be Tolerance of Ambiguity, which is understanding that people are going
to perceive things differently than you but you have to learn to expect. Keeping that in mind that
is one of the most important key points on how I communicate with people throughout my
everyday life. I know that not everybody is going to perceive things how I'm going to, but I'm
always willing and able to handle what people have to say. Furthermore having a open mind is
another characteristic of communication style. I'm always willing to open up to people who are
different than me and have different beliefs. I always try to have an open mind on the
experiences that I have. All of these characteristics of communication style affect the way on
how I communicate with people who have different beliefs and cultures throughout my everyday
life.
Ive come to the conclusion that we have all these different cultures in the world that
brings all of us together, in which it makes our world special. When we bring all these different
cultures together, we come together and we are always learning something different every day
about each other. With that being said there are different cultural values and norms that affect the
way on how we communicate with each other. Everybody was raised differently and have
different cultural values. That is something that everybody has to realize that not all of us have
the same culture and believe the same things, but we all should just learn to stick together.