The Importance of Developing and Using Cultural Stereotypes to Improve Essay - 1

The Importance of Developing and Using Cultural Stereotypes to Improve Cross-Cultural Communication - Essay Example Throughout history, humans have experienced both fascinations with and trepidation towards the other - understood as different nationalities, but also [as] any group of people perceived as different - perhaps in terms of so-called ethnicity, religion, political alignment, class or caste, or gender (Eunson, 2005). Thus, communication techniques should be based on certain cultural stereotypes, which should be taken into account in intercultural communication. The given paper will prove that learning and developing cultural stereotypes will help improve intercultural communication. It is determined that individual from a certain state may apply his own communication techniques during business negotiations or simply communicating with people from the foreign country he visited on vacation (Carbaugh, 1990). His behavior may not be typical for the country he arrived in. This atypicalness may cause difficulties or even frustration. In negotiations, for example, there can be dramatic differences in the way people define their opening positions, use tactics, persuade and listen. Even the practice of haggling over a price is an integral part of some cultures - which many revel in and Thus, the study of cultural stereotypes is necessary for effective cross-cultural communication. If one makes attempts to generalize about the behavior of people from the certain culture, he may need to identify, which age or society group of that particular culture he analyses. The region of the country a person came from should be also taken into account (York, 1994). Though it is necessary to learn and develop cultural stereotypes, this process contains a lot of difficulties that should be overcome. Scientists create special models to help overcome these difficulties (Mearns, 2009). When the primary variant of Hofstede's model of culture was introduced in the 1980s, it drew the attention of many scientists at once. The approach of the model is unique, and it is significant not only because of considering definite cultures but for making comparisons (Fishburn, 1995).