Why you should learn intercultural communication
Written by Maren Dinges | 12th July 2024
Since globalization, nations have become more interconnected, making it easier than ever to experience and appreciate different cultures. Long trips across the world are no longer necessary to explore new cultures. Often, we only need to look around: our coworkers, healthcare providers, and even our friends often come from diverse cultural backgrounds. We live in a world where intercultural skills are essential for everyday communication.
Read this article to learn why these skills are important and how they can enhance your professional relationships.
How do cultural differences arise?
Cultures shape people, influencing their lifestyles and traditions. For instance, while many around the world celebrate New Year’s Eve on December 31, the Chinese New Year follows the Chinese lunisolar calendar. These cultural differences might not be as evident in the workplace, but other cultural traditions, like the siesta in Spain, certainly stand out.
If your company has a site in Spain, you might notice employees taking a break at lunchtime. This tradition stems from the local climate: in warmer regions, people used to rest during the hottest part of the day. While modern offices now have air conditioning, the midday break remains a deeply ingrained tradition.
How people grow up and live also shapes their values. In some countries, like Germany, it often seems that employees live to work. In many southern countries, however, work is seen more as a means to enjoy life. People there prioritize their private lives and aim for a healthy work-life balance. With global cultural mixing, even performance-driven Germany is increasingly valuing work-life balance. Intercultural interactions can shift attitudes and values, highlighting the importance of understanding different cultural values from the start. This is where intercultural communication begins.
What are intercultural skills?
You have intercultural skills if you are open to the views and perspectives of other cultures, treat them with respect, and are familiar with cultural characteristics. To a certain extent, intercultural communication is everything you exchange with a person from another culture.
It starts with body language. While a handshake is considered good manners in business relationships in Germany, business partners from South Korea avoid it. Instead, they bow.
Of course, intercultural skills also include how you speak. A “Duz” culture is inappropriate with South Korean business partners. There, it is customary to address each other by full name and title.
The difficult thing about intercultural communication is that every culture has its own particular characteristics that need to be taken into account with business contacts. With self-created videos in the simpleshow video maker, you can ensure that your company communicates openly and thoughtfully to all nationalities. Here you can quickly create explainer videos for all cultures that explain the most important communication rules. In the video, for example, you can see that shaking your head to the side is seen as approval in Bulgaria, whereas here it is seen as rejection.
How do intercultural skills help you?
In a business context, intercultural skills are essential for professionalism. They enable you to build friendly and respectful relationships with team members and conduct business with potential customers. Without these skills, people from other cultures may view you as disrespectful and unprofessional, undermining the foundation for any relationship.
Intercultural competence is not just about the obvious aspects like language and facial expressions. It also involves accepting other cultures, respecting their points of view, and showing empathy.
Intercultural competence goes beyond just choosing the right words:
- Social skills: You are empathetic, considerate, and emotionally sensitive towards other cultures.
- Professional competence: You are knowledgeable about culture-specific information and ideally speak the language.
- Self-competence: You reflect on your own attitudes and values and are open to adapting to other cultures.
In short, learning intercultural skills helps you be open, tolerant, respectful, and empathetic in all your relationships.
Why intercultural communication is essential in the work context
Working environments are becoming more and more networked. Companies do not necessarily have to operate internationally. Germany is also home to numerous cultures that would welcome your understanding. Internationally active companies in particular are looking for new talent with intercultural skills. The reasons for this are clear:
- You are familiar with the needs of international customers.
- You communicate easily on an international level.
- Your skills promote satisfaction in business relationships.
- Your skills promote satisfaction in business relationships.
These skills are of enormous value for your own career. If you can communicate smoothly with everyone, you will climb the career ladder faster. Studies also show that intercultural or diverse teams work together more creatively.
How to learn intercultural skills with videos
You don’t necessarily need to have spent a semester abroad or worked in a foreign country to understand and recognize cultural characteristics. Curiosity is the key to successful intercultural professional exchange. It’s what drives you to take an interest in other cultures and familiarize yourself with them, for instance, through videos.
With the simpleshow video maker, you can create the right video for every situation:
- point out the special features of a culture
- show typical greetings from different cultures
- give advice on gifts
- provide information on important behavior at business meals
- look at possible conflict situations and suggest solutions
Videos are particularly helpful here as they increase your imagination. In addition to possible small talk topics, you will also see what you should wear to a business lunch and exactly how to bow when greeting someone. This will help you stay confident in any situation. And so that your international colleagues can also make small talk skillfully, you can easily translate finished videos in the simpleshow video maker into another language with the 1-click translation function. This really demonstrates your intercultural competence, as you are ready to make your communication content available in different languages – that’s how accessibility works!
Conclusion: Communicating interculturally and understanding the whole world
Those who remain open to other cultures gain many advantages in a business context. Career progression becomes smoother, and collaboration becomes more creative. More importantly, intercultural skills make you an open-minded and empathetic person. The more you engage with different cultures, the better you understand the world. To communicate globally, you first need to know some cultural basics, best learned through real-life experiences.
However, videos can prepare you perfectly and help you avoid cultural missteps. With the simpleshow video maker, you can create videos outlining proper business etiquette for different cultures, ensuring everyone in the company gains a better understanding of the world. Already have a document? Great! Upload it to the simpleshow video maker, use the Simplifier to turn it into a meaningful video with just a few clicks, and translate the finished video into numerous languages.
