Summary
Intercultural communication is one of the most important aspects of communication. And there are a few stumbling blocks in the genre of communication. The students who are generally on an exchange or go to different countries to study are sometimes the most suffered ones regarding the problem. There are different cultures in different countries. And it might happen that some cultures might not approve some gestures of persons. It takes a lot of time for a foreigner to become accustomed to a country.
Here in the book, the writer has mentioned a very common prediction, the smile. In America, a smile is considered a very sweet gesture, while in Japan and some other Eastern countries, smiling at strangers is considered rude behavior. There are a number of stumbling blocks that are prevailed in intellectual communications, as mentioned by the author. Barriers like language, nonverbal signs, and symbols can be interpreted differently in different parts of the Globe, and most importantly, several pre-conceptions about different things and stereotypical assumptions are the difficult questions in the aspect.
Response
The subject that the author is discussing in the context is both delicate and difficult. There are many professional associations that are constantly working on the subject while trying to ease the level of interpersonal communication among the different cultures. There are some very important factors that, like evaluating the causes that form the stumbling blocks and also a proportion of high anxiety on the part of the person who is trying to communicate in an alien atmosphere some times causes different nondescript problems. The author tries to suggest some common types of nonverbal communication trends throughout the World, which will help to solve the problem in a correct way.
Works Cited
Barna, LaRay M. “Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks.” Guidelines. A Cross-Cultural Reading/Writing Text, edited by Ruth Speck, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 66–73.