Page 28 - CROSS CULTURE

language acquisition, participation and identity necessary for effective

cross-cultural engagement'.

Competency includes competence in empathy, tolerance, and
communication. Understanding includes understanding how a culture

operates from an insider's point of view. Attitudes include respect for

the integrity of a culture. Language acquisition includes bilingual or

multilingual skills. While participation includes relationships in

friendships and in good work. Cross-cultural understanding can also
be interpreted as “the basic ability of people within business to

recognise, interpret and correctly react to people, incidences or

situations that are open to misunderstanding due to cultural

differences”.

Litvin (Litvin & Hefner, 2004) suggests that the purpose of
cross-cultural understanding or studying cross-cultural

communication is cognitive and affective, namely to:

1. be aware of one's own cultural.

2. more culturally sensitive.

3. acquire the capacity to truly engage with members of other
cultures to create lasting and satisfying relationships with the

person.

4. stimulate a greater understanding of one's own culture.

5. broaden and deepen one's experience.

6. learn communication skills that make a person able to accept his
own style and content of communication.

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