One afternoon while visiting a shopping mall in the neighborhood, I came across this beautiful dark skinned lady. The young adult caught my attention because of her style of dressing and how she carried out her self. This was amazing to me and I forthwith decided to make a move just to hear her part of the story. I thought she was an American though the cultural orientation she bore was something new to me, as I had never experienced it in the United States. She told me her name was Winnie Ntulele and was from South Africa. Our conversation lasted about 30 minutes and the lessons learnt were valuable. I learnt from her that during communication, their culture demanded that they talk while looking straight to the audience to show confidence and commitment (Fong, 2004). I also learnt that traditional dressing was more valued than the modern generation mode of dressing. The traditional dressing signified respect to the older ones. I also learnt that from where she came from, a girl child education was not valued as compared to boys since they were given higher priority than the girls.
Winnie also made me understand that listening was a key value while engaging in a conversation. This experience changed my thoughts on my perception of people. While looking at the lady, one would easily think of her as one who has been left behind in terms of dress code and orientation. Winnie was basically still attached to her traditions and her way of life from her background. She was nevertheless just going through a transition (Ting-Toomey, 1999). This observation would affect my intercultural orientation in a big way.
I learnt that talking while looking directly into someone’s eye signified confidence as well as commitment according to their culture. This would change my communication, as I would seek to try her communication style to see the impact. Though she was not fluent, the way she communicated her case made it easy to understand her point of view. From this, I learnt that it was not about fluency, but how one communicated the case (Ting-Toomey, 1999).
References:
Fong, M. (2004). Communicating ethnic and cultural identity. Lanham [u.a.: Rowman &
Littlefield.
Ting-Toomey, S. (1999). Communicating across cultures. New York: Guilford Press.
