CCC+Yui

=Types of Cultural Barriers in Communication =

Volume People from different cultures approach speaking volume in different ways. For example, in Israel, people are generally more accustomed to speaking loudly than in, for example, America. An American visitor can easily interpret this as a sign of rudeness, even after having moved to and resided in the country for a long period of time.

**Tone of Voice** Tone of voice is another one of those things that can easily be misinterpreted. People can assume all sorts of things based on a person's tone of voice. For example, in cultures where people tend to speak sternly, a person unaccustomed to such a tone might assume that people are uptight or overbearing.

**Gender Expectations** All cultures have their own ideas of appropriate gender behavior and roles. According to charlotteworks, "in many countries, women are subordinate to men. Working in an American business, women from these countries may feel they should defer to their male counterparts or should not speak to or even look directly in the eyes of their male supervisors, managers or co-workers.

**Cultural Tension** Assumptions about other people, either wholly unrealistic or with some merit, can often be the cause of cultural barriers between people. Both negative personal experience and communal attitudes toward a group of people, for example, due to political and/or social conflict, can lead to cultural tensions which amount to cultural barriers.

**Religious Views** Even though religion and culture are not synonyms, religions come with a varying degree of culture. This is because an aspect of religion is conformity to a set system of ideas and philosophical outlooks. For example, an Orthodox Jew might have an aversion to working in a restaurant that serves shrimp or pig products; those foods are part of a larger prohibited diet as enumerated in the Torah.

**Personal Space** Some cultures value little personal space and others value more. In a culture that values relatively less personal space, standing too far away while speaking might be perceived as shyness, snob behavior or rudeness. In a culture that values more personal space, standing too close while speaking might seem intrusive or awkward.

**Timing** Values, manners, and etiquette are factors highly responsible for creating cultural barriers. For example, lateness is common in one culture, earliness in another, and exact timing in yet another. A foreigner might link lateness with disinterest or rudeness, while for the commoner it indicates nothing.

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