Ethical Communication Across Cultures, Chapter 2

Explanation:

According to Chapter 2, the Ethical Communication Across Cultures is interaction among people from different backgrounds and cultures with different ethical or moral views.  Having different moral views at life, all people from different countries just want to live at peace and be respected by others (according to page 46).  D.W. Kale developed four ethical principles to the guide of intercultural communication:

1.    Intercultural communicators should not be put down or belittle the cultural identity of others with verbal or non-verbal communications.  People of other cultures would like to be respected the same way one from another culture would.

2.    Ethical communicators seek the world to have truth; which may vary from culture to culture.  Kale stated that “truth” is socially constructed and that ethical communicators do not try to give the wrong impression about something or deceive others.

3.    Kale also stated that the ethical communicator encourages people from different backgrounds and cultures to express themselves regardless if their ideas are accepted of declined by society.

4.    Lastly Kale states that ethical communicators should strive for identification with other people from other cultures.  They should emphasize the similarities that one another have as belief and values rather than their differences.

Reflection:

After reading this section from Chapter 2, I agree with four ethical principles that Kale came up with.  I think that peace is a universal thing that everyone seeks, no matter when two difference cultures come together.  They may not understand one another, but they understand respect.  I also agree with Kale that other cultures should be able to express themselves regardless how popular or unpopular the idea may be.  I think people should be able to feel however they want to feel, think however they want to think and be who they want to be.  I really agree with Kale when he stated that people of other cultures should look into the similarities that other cultures share.  At the end of the day, everyone in has a common goal in life.

Application:

I apply Ethical Communication Across Cultures to my way of life by not belittling the cultural identity of others.  I accept the cultural beliefs that others live by.  I just allow others to be individuals and express themselves however they like to.  Knowing what may be perceived to be the truth may vary from one culture to another. 

As a child I learned to see more of the similarities that different cultures share, as suppose to the difference that they have.  As I grew up, I knew how different my Puerto Rican Culture and my Black American Culture are from one another.  From the foods to the different dialects.  Although I know they similar they are, for example; both encourage me to be family oriented and also to be proud of where I came from and thankful for where I am going to go in life.