Reading Between the Lines

Many different factors go into communication - not just language. Everything from facial expressions to the preconceived understandings and stereotypes of others are relevant and effect your communication. 

One of the miscommunications I've had in Australia when it comes to cultural assumptions has to do with sports. Early when I got here, I assumed that people from Australia didn't follow American sports such as football, basketball, and baseball. This is because I personally have never had the interest to follow any Australian sports such as rugby and cricket. However, after being in Australia for more than 2 months, I have found that lots of people know a lot about American sports and basketball icons such as Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, and James Harden don't just have national fame, but they are also famous in Australia. I was talking to a man on one of the busses about the NBA and in the beginning I was giving him information about different teams and players because I assumed his knowledge would be lacking because he was from Australia. He stopped me at one point and politely told me that he knew what I was saying and he was very capable of following the lingo of the gam. Needless to say, I was embarrassed by my naïvety. 

http://www.msfbasketball.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/nba-australia.jpg

Another cultural assumption I've made that caused a misunderstanding has to do with the outlook some Australians in the northern territories of Australia have toward the aboriginal population. For example, I was eating dinner with a group of people and someone said something about aboriginal people that could have been taken offensively, but based on his facial expression I could not tell if he was being serious or if he was making a lighthearted joke. I was put into an awkward situation because I didn't know how to react to it. In the case of this example, Laura Barna would say that I was experiencing the "Tendency to Evaluate" stumbling block expressed in her paper "Stumbling blocks in Intercultural Communication." I was evaluating what he was saying and judging without knowing it. 

On a more basic level, there are times where just cannot understand what people are saying even though we are both speaking english. Between the unfamiliar slang and lingo as well as the different dialect, it is sometimes hard for me to understand. Most of the time I will politely ask them to repeat what they said if I missed it, but sometimes I am embarrassed to ask and that leads to the tendancy to pretend to follow the conversation (Barna, 1994).

Overall, reading the paper ""Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication," I have been able to reflect on different encounters I've had since being in Australia and attribute them to the fact that not only is the way of life, styles, music, etc. have cultural differences, but the mindset and way of thinking can cause cultural misunderstandings. 

Barna, L.M. (1994). "Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication." In L.A. Samovar and R.E. Porter, Intercultural Communication: A Reader. 7th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. (pp. 337-346).