Cultural Diversity Awareness

October is Diversity Awareness Month. To make students more aware of some of the differences between cultures, have them use the CultureGrams World Edition to compare the communication styles of people in Sub-Saharan African countries (or another region) with communication styles in the United States.

Explain to the class that the ability to communicate effectively across cultures can be vital
--it can prevent war, make or break a business deal, and keep a traveler safe.

What might be a harmless gesture or word in one region of the world can be offensive in another. Other aspects of communication, including personal space, level of formality, and directness, also vary from country to country, and culturally savvy students know how to modify their communication styles according to their audiences.

Divide students into groups of three to four and assign each group to read a CultureGrams report for a different Sub-Saharan African country. While reading the CultureGrams reports, students should focus on the categories of Greetings, Gestures, and Visiting to identify the countries' communication styles, both verbal and nonverbal. (Consider level of formality, gender, situational context, personal space, gestures, etc.)

Have students consider the following essential questions for critical thinking:

• What communication practices are common in the country?
• What practices are taboo?
• How do people in the country regard body language, personal space, and eye contact?
• How might these communication styles be a product of other aspects of the culture (e.g., religion, family)?
• How are communication styles different from those in the United States?

Have each group give a short presentation comparing communication styles in the United States with those in their assigned African country. The presentations might include skits that represent encounters between someone from the United States and someone from the assigned African countries.

These skits could depict both verbal and nonverbal communication, showing what misunderstandings might arise. Talk with the students about how communication styles differ between cultures. Help them to address essential questions for critical thinking in an essay or in an oral report.

• In what ways are they similar?
• Why is it important to be aware of these similarities and differences?

In a further discussion, point out that acceptable communication styles not only differ from culture to culture but also from family to family. Ask students what types of communication rules are stressed in their families.

• What might account for the differences they notice?
• Which similarities do most of them share?
• What types of things do the students' grandparents consider rude that is acceptable among today's young people?

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