Chapter 14: Cross-Cultural Communication

One of the things I look forward to PR is working with clients or with other parts of my company in other cities. I am excited to be studying abroad in London in Fall 2007 as I feel in love with the history, theater, and museums when I visited with a group from my high school a couple of years ago. I feel that as typical Americans, we expect everyone to learn English in order for us to do business with foreign countries and we tend to focus on only news stories relevant to us. That of course, could be a stereotype, but I liked the joke in the book about how a person who knows three languages is trilingual, someone who speaks two languages is bilingual, and someone who speaks one language is a U.S. citizen. Why is it that in this country, which is supposedly a "melting pot," is English the only accepted language and most foreigners feel that they must conform to fit in?

In this shrinking world, it is important for me to understand all cultures that I might come in contact in PR. I have the advantage of being from a Mexican background to understand some of the Hispanic culture and understand Spanish. By going to London in the fall, I look forward to meeting people of different cultures that I haven't interacted with before. I don't want to be the naive American who only knows what she grew up with. I want to know and understand the world's point of view and the great and vibrant cultures. In the business world, it is necessary to understand the different cultures because as my minor is marketing, I need to know how my target audience might change and how to sell, promote, and represent my product will change from country to country. With PR, I don't want to seem rude or naive by doing a etiquette faux pas which could ruin the relationship between the client and my company or with the public and media.