Intercultural Communication Essay

Two different conceptions of time: in one, time stretches, loops forward and back, past and future are both present in this time.In the other, time begins with the present moment and extends into the horizon in which the matters at hand will be decided.

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They spoke of the spirit of the land, the kinds of things their people have traditionally done on the land, and their sacred connection to it.

They spoke in circular ways, weaving themes, feelings, ideas, and experiences together as they remembered seven generations into the past and projected seven generations forward.

A good place to look to understand the Eastern idea of time is India.

There, time is seen as moving endlessly through various cycles, becoming and vanishing.

It is also true that cultural approaches to time or communication are not always applied in good faith, but may serve a variety of motives.

Asserting power, superiority, advantage, or control over the course of the negotiations may be a motive wrapped up in certain cultural behaviors (for example, the government representatives' detailed emphasis on ratification procedures may have conveyed an implicit message of control, or the First Nations' attention to the past may have emphasized the advantages of being aware of history).In the East, time feels like it has unlimited continuity, an unraveling rather than a strict boundary.Birth and death are not such absolute ends since the universe continues and humans, though changing form, continue as part of it.Miscommunication may lead to conflict, or aggravate conflict that already exists.We make -- whether it is clear to us or not -- quite different meaning of the world, our places in it, and our relationships with others.By Michelle Le Baron July 2003 All communication is cultural -- it draws on ways we have learned to speak and give nonverbal messages.We do not always communicate the same way from day to day, since factors like context, individual personality, and mood interact with the variety of cultural influences we have internalized that influence our choices. Are there differences that relate to ineffective communication, divergent goals or interests, or fundamentally different ways of seeing the world?First Nations people met with representatives from local, regional, and national governments to introduce themselves and begin their work.During this first meeting, First Nations people took time to tell the stories of their people and their relationships to the land over the past seven generations.In the West, time tends to be seen as quantitative, measured in units that reflect the march of progress.It is logical, sequential, and present-focused, moving with incremental certainty toward a future the ego cannot touch and a past that is not a part of now.