Free Essays on Cross Cultural Communication

Communicating Across Cultural Barriers All international business activity involves communication. Within the international and global business environment, activities such as exchanging information and ideas, decision making, negotiating, motivating , and leading are all based on the ability of managers from other cultures. Achieving effective communication is a challenge to managers worldwide even when the workforce is culturally homogeneous, but when one company includes a variety of languages and cultural backgrounds, effective two-way communication becomes even more difficult. We think that the major obstacle in international business is in understanding the foreigner, the difficulty involves becoming aware of our own cultural conditioning . We are generally least aware of our own cultural characteristics and are quite surprised when we hear foreigner’s descriptions of us. For example, many Americans are surprised to discover that they are seen by foreigner as hurried, overly law-abiding, very hard working, extremely explicit, and overly inquisitive. Projective similarity refers to the assumption that people are more similar to you than they actually are, or that a situation is similar to yours when in fact it is not. Projected similarity involves assuming, imagining, and actually perceiving similarity when differences exist. Projected similarity particularly handicaps people in cross-cultural situations. At the base of projected similarity is a subconscious parochialism. I assume that there is only one way to be: my way. I assume that there is only one way to see the world: my way. I therefore view other people in reference to me and to my way of viewing the world. While it is important to understand and respect the foreigner’s point of view, it is not necessary to accept or adopt it. One of the best exercises for developing empathy and reducing parochialism and projected similarity is role reversa... Free Essays on Cross Cultural Communication Free Essays on Cross Cultural Communication Communicating Across Cultural Barriers All international business activity involves communication. Within the international and global business environment, activities such as exchanging information and ideas, decision making, negotiating, motivating , and leading are all based on the ability of managers from other cultures. Achieving effective communication is a challenge to managers worldwide even when the workforce is culturally homogeneous, but when one company includes a variety of languages and cultural backgrounds, effective two-way communication becomes even more difficult. We think that the major obstacle in international business is in understanding the foreigner, the difficulty involves becoming aware of our own cultural conditioning . We are generally least aware of our own cultural characteristics and are quite surprised when we hear foreigner’s descriptions of us. For example, many Americans are surprised to discover that they are seen by foreigner as hurried, overly law-abiding, very hard working, extremely explicit, and overly inquisitive. Projective similarity refers to the assumption that people are more similar to you than they actually are, or that a situation is similar to yours when in fact it is not. Projected similarity involves assuming, imagining, and actually perceiving similarity when differences exist. Projected similarity particularly handicaps people in cross-cultural situations. At the base of projected similarity is a subconscious parochialism. I assume that there is only one way to be: my way. I assume that there is only one way to see the world: my way. I therefore view other people in reference to me and to my way of viewing the world. While it is important to understand and respect the foreigner’s point of view, it is not necessary to accept or adopt it. One of the best exercises for developing empathy and reducing parochialism and projected similarity is role reversa... Free Essays on Cross Cultural Communication Cross Cultural Communication Assignment assessing the differences in two cultures on the basis of Universalistic Vs Particularistic Cultures With topic of global project in Finland Acknowledgements In the process of doing this assignment, I have taken the help of a number of persons, amongst whom the most important is my professor. Thanks are to him for the continuous support that he has given me. The large number of books available in the library of Skyline College has been a great help. Also, the vast information made available online by a number of online libraries has been a source of great knowledge. I have also taken help from the Internet services that have been provided by the college’s online faculty of libraries, from where I got the main idea of the case of this assignment – Global project especially in Finland Mukesh Kumar Jangid Contents Acknowledgements 2 Contents 3 Introduction 4 What is Culture? 4 The seven dilemmas 4 The aim of this assignment 5 Main Body 6 Topic taken for discussion – International Business Constructions 6 Universalism Vs Particularism in detail 6 Universalism 6 Particularism 6 Details of the example –global project 7 How does culture affect global project? 7 Cultural analysis 7 Example of Punctuality 8 Conclusions 10 My solution to cultural problems 10 Bibliography 11 Introduction In today’s world, everyone is expanding from local markets to international markets. Initially the companies, who used to be the leaders in the local market, are now entering international markets and thus they are becoming multinational companies. Although there are a number of factors that firms take into account while going international, there is an increasing demands to find out that the most important resource of any organization, people. Since many different kinds of people come to contact with each other, while going international, there is a need to know...

Turning an Idea Into a Novel

Turning an Idea Into a Novel The Lightbulb Moment: Turning an Idea Into a Novel M.T. Ellis is a Brisbane-based crime thriller author. She has just published her debut novel, Azrael,  which was inspired by a nightmare she had in 2014. In this article, M.T. talks about the so-called â€Å"lightbulb† moment - the moment an author strikes plot-gold. Writers, she explains, can have many lightbulb moments. They don’t each turn into full-fledged novels, but that doesn’t mean they belong in the recycle bin. M.T. is currently writing the second novel in her Detective Allira Rose series. Turning a nightmare into a novelPutting my ducks in a row Being an aspiring author is hard when you’re still searching for the right idea. That being said, when they all start coming to you, things can get challenging again. To keep myself organized and to make sure that I can fill in plot holes and gaps, I add a comment bubble at the start of each scene I write, with a sentence or two describing the scene and the character’s point-of-view. That way I can scroll through all the comments I’ve left for myself and get an overview of what scenes need to go where. Writing is hard when you’re looking for the right idea. When you find it, it's still challenging. Getting out of my own way After writing about 20,000 words, I was forced to abandon my manuscript for about eighteen months because I became busy with my day job. During this time, I occasionally wrote notes but it wasn't until that project finished that I was able to write the rest of the manuscript, which took about six months.During those six months, there were times when I couldn’t even look at the manuscript because I had developed such a fear of failure and a loss of confidence in the story. Conflictingly, I had also developed a fear of the book actually doing well and the potential of the ensuing attention. It was a strange struggle, which I eventually got over with the encouragement (and nagging!) of my family and friends.Turning to professionals After I wrote the first draft of Azrael, I took the first 20 pages and the synopsis to the 20 Pages in 20 Minutes session at the Brisbane Writers Festival where I was able to sit down with award-winning author Midge Raymond, and discuss the manuscript. Midge pointed out that my novel’s antagonist was too overbearing and unlikable. So for my first big rewrite, I incorporated parts of the antagonist's past into the story so that readers would be able to understand why he came to be a â€Å"villain.†Once my next draft of Azrael was ready for an edit, I turned to Reedsy and hired Allister Thompson for a structural edit and a copy edit. Allister was great; he pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript and went through the text with a fine-toothed comb, offering suggestions on how to make the story more psychologically sound and more enticing to the reader.Tom Vowler was the final editor I used to complete my manuscript. I found him via Reedsy as well and he d id a thorough proofread of the manuscript. Tom taught me a lot: I was able to address the spelling and grammar mistakes I was constantly making while learning how to keep my writing consistent throughout the novel.My advice to fellow authorsWhat to do with all of those â€Å"dead-end† ideas? In short, keep them. Write them down and save them - all of them. While writing Azrael, when I thought of ideas that didn't quite fit, I’d put them in a folder called â€Å"Book 2.† Now that I have started writing the second book of my thriller series, some of the work will already be done because I’ve acquired a wealth of inspiration from unused scenes in the first novel. Don't see unused ideas as a waste of time - they may serve a purpose down the road. So don't see unused ideas as a waste of time because even if you feel like they don’t go anywhere in the moment, they may serve a purpose further down the road.Azrael is available in paperback and on Amazon Kindle!  For more information, visit M.T's website!Please  share your thoughts, experiences, or any questions for M.T, in the comments below!