Although the people on earth are all made up of flesh and blood, cross-cultural communication is challenging. When people face foreigners, knowing nothing about their culture, language and so on, people experience like as talking with aliens from other stellar. Despite the fact "People are people (Barna, 2007)"; it is true that all people are different, and these differences let intercultural communication harder. Barna (2007) indicates these hardships through his article, "Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks" He suggests five-stumbling blocks hampering intercultural communication: language, nonverbal expression, preconception, evaluation tendency, and anxiety. His conclusion that understanding opposed cultures is a solution of intercultural communication is valid; however, the main stems of Babel tower which block communication are not only those five stumbling-blocks but cultural ignorance, over-generalization from idleness, and blind faith.
Understanding cultural background suggested as a solution to overcome the obstacles of intercultural communication through Barna's article is a valid and reasonable solution as language cannot be a problem anymore. Developments of the translation technologies which reduces the language barrier make communicating with foreigners more comfortable. However, language is not the only factor required to start a conversation. For instance, there was a Singapore student who studied in Korea for a semester as an exchange student. She confessed her trouble and displeasure about Koreans who do not set time and place to eat with her. Korean students asked to eat some meals together someday first, so she waited for them to clarify the schedule. However, no one mentioned about this appointment again. This trouble caused by the lack of cultural understanding beyond the memetic conversation like; "Let us eat a meal together someday" or "Have you had your meal?" Those common word phrases do not imply that the person genuinely wants to eat together. Rather than that, the phrases are more like the expression of wanting to continue their friendship in future (Bradley, 2018) which is a similar context of asking in America: "How are you?" If this international student understood the cultural background beyond the conventional phrases, she would not have to feel displeasure caused by a discrepancy between the Singaporean and Korean cultures. Thus, this intercultural communication problem arose from cultural ignorance.
Moreover, generalization arose from ignorance and idleness at understanding others constructs Babel tower between culture. It is apparent that it is hard to minimize the discrepancies between cultures and people opt to generalize foreign cultures with their preconceived notion due to the idleness. However, these generalization and idleness can damage the relationships with people as it regarded as disrespect to others. For example, there were international students facing with troubles as they did not rectify their behaviors which were impolite under Confucian society. They performed social media live broadcasts in class without permission and inquired the salary of the professor during the class, which is a taboo in Korea. Due to all insincerities like chattering and absences on courses, education board summoned them. Those international students excused that they did not know those behaviors were inappropriate since the student’s culture accepted the behaviors. It is true that most exteriors are not familiar with foreign cultures. However, the intercultural communication problem, which implanted antagonism between the two cultures was the disrespectful attitude arose from idleness not to try to understand the different culture and norms.
As ignorance hampers the intercultural communication, the blind faith in knowledge over other culture also impedes intercultural communication. This blind faith can cause bias that distorts the relationships. In Korea, people have a blind faith that German people must be punctual and diligent. However, not all Germans are punctual and diligent as not all Asian are good at math. For example, two exchange students who came to Korea from Germany never appeared to appointments on time and even if the essay requirement was over ten pages, their essays never exceeded a page. Thus, it took time to realize I had unreasonable biases on them and understood that they valued entertainment over academy priorities. Moreover, those German students also felt confused due to the numerous differences between Korea and Germany. German students could not understand Korean people let their pets wear pet clothes. Also, Korean students could not understand the reason the German students thought it as cruel. After a lengthy conversation to try to understand others, both Korean and German students could face each other without misconceptions. To break away the blind faith, the prior thing needed to both Korean and German students was communications out of preconceptions.
Intercultural communication is difficult since there is no precise answer, but continuous effort to understand others. The assumption on "People are people (Barna, 2007)" can be a solution but, sometimes it is not, and even generating ignorance, idleness, and blind faith. Understanding the exterior can be frustrating as it is hard to overcome stumbling-blocks composing Babel tower; however, it is worthy to build up an amicable relationship with foreigners as it expands one’s world. Likewise, breaking down the tower of Babel could take tremendous efforts, patience, and time, however, after its collapse, people can genuinely face each other and bigger world.
References
Barna, L. (2007). Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication. Guidelines: A cross-cultural reading/writing text. Spack. R (Ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1976) p.p. 66-74
Bradley, H. (2018, February 18). Conversations with Koreans: Have You Eaten? Retrieved February 15, 2019, from https://thesoulofseoul.net/2015/11/23/conversations-with-koreans-have-you-eaten/. Para 4.
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