Global Outlook

3.1 Would YOU like to be my friend?

 If your answer was a “YES” to that question, you have come to the correct place. In our globalized world, where everything from technology to economy is changing, what would we look back to for our roots? It is the environment in which we were nurtured. We all have our unique traditions and cultures and that provide an identity for us. Whether we like it or not, all of us are faced with the influence of various cultures and races.

Have you come across a phrase called “cultural harmony”? Through interactions between cultures, there are bound to be conflicts occurring sometimes due to the innate difference between cultures. However, p eople of different cultures do have to work together harmoniously, respecting and tolerating one another in a society. That is the basis of cultural harmony. This can be seen in colleges in the United States and United Kingdom where many international students flock there to pursue undergraduate studies every year. The diverse environment provides a holistic and unique learning experience that encourages interaction between nationalities to forge a closer relationship with each other and understand each other’s cultural differences.

3.2 When in Rome, do as Romans do.

Cultural quotient will allow us, when interacting with people of different ethnicities and cultures, to understand the differences, and to avoid behavior which causes shortfalls in communication and relations. However, sometimes it is important to recognize that many people who commit cultural insults or taboos have done so unintentionally due to their limited knowledge of the culture. Let us see an example of a certain Chinese businessman who is hosting dinners. To that Chinese businessman and most of the Chinese, if their guests consume everything given to them without leaving a morsel of food, it implies that they were not fed enough. It would be impolite for the guests then, to keep finishing their plates and asking for more. Does this make sense to you? You could be the one that is frantically trying to show your appreciation of the food by finishing all your food and asking for more.

Thus, we can see that it is understandably difficult to be familiar with what others have been immersed in all their lives. Hence, everyone should be willing to accept and forgive the mistakes of a person from another culture. Many people come with sincere intentions and goodwill, so there is no point feeling offended by their genuine ignorance.

While we may feel uneasy or uncomfortable, tolerance is the way to go. If we continue our efforts to gain knowledge, be mindful, and adjust our behaviors, we can overcome any awkwardness to achieve true partnership.

3.3 So how can I become a Roman?

If you are patriotic and do not wish to migrate to Rome, do not be scared of not being able to make friends with Romans or even integrating into Roman society. Here’s the good news: You do not have to exactly become a Roman in order to blend into Roman culture. You can learn to be more culturally intelligent through developing the following characteristics [6]:

Integrity

Integrity here means having a well-developed sense of self and understanding of how your own belief system motivates your behavior. Each of us has a different behavior unknown to others when we describe our emotions. How we perceive ourselves influences the way we behave and the way we interact with others. Those with high integrity would not feel threatened by views or behaviors that are very different from our own and are more accepting of them. Thus, understanding yourself is important in gaining cultural intelligence.

Openness (Humility and Inquisitiveness)

Remember one of your “Preparatory Lessons for social interactions”? If being humble 24-7 has been hard, here is how you should do it. Humility is the respect and open-mindedness to learn from others. So, tip number one-be aware of your own and other’s limitation in views. Another element of openness is curiosity. And thus, tip number two- be inquisitive and learn from other people’s cultural practices and habits when you have the chance. These will help you to enhance your cultural intelligence.

Hardiness

Do not misread this as being obstinate against cultural differences. Hardiness refers to the ability to survive and adapt in hostile environments through coping with stress, recovering from setbacks and even makes use of each passing experience as a tool for growth and learning. Developing hardiness is essential as we go through repeated interactions in such environment to become culturally intelligent.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness refers to paying attention to your context. It means that you have to focus all your attention during interactions by being aware of your assumptions, emotion and categorization of others. At the same time you should be able to view a particular situation with different perspectives and form new mental maps of other people’s personalities and cultural backgrounds. Simply put, mindfulness helps us to link our knowledge to skillful practice while interacting with people of different cultural backgrounds. Here you may want to have some personal evaluation and empathy about other cultures so you do not start stereotyping. Being mindful requires effort initially, but rather the barrier is overcome, it tends to become natural and normal. However if we can practice mindfulness, we can have better control over our thought and actions while interacting with other cultures.

Raising CQ is not an overnight process but rather one that takes a considerable amount of time. It requires a basic level of knowledge, gaining of new knowledge, and gather alternative perspectives through mindfulness before finally applying this new set of knowledge and understanding into behavioral skills.

Although there is no golden rule to improving your CQ, the best way is still through learning from social interactions. The method is simple: LISTEN. Listen to the people from different cultures, listen to the traces of their culture in the conversation and be open to any critical cultural differences. You should be understanding and tolerant towards a different set of behavior which is after all, closely linked to one’s culture. After you have gotten enough of listening, you can start integrating it now to you actions. By using the knowledge gained from specific experiences in future interactions with people of different cultures, you can be more mindful of your behaviors and improve your cultural intelligence. Thus, we feel that the acquiring of cultural intelligence is a life-long learning process.

3.4 Interesting cultural traditions [25-26]: