Question

Share an example of how the cultural context influenced a situation. Describe how the setting impacted the communication process. It can be an example from your own culture or one observed from another.

Answer 1

Following is the answer to your question. Based on your personal experience, you may use the example provided below or you may choose to tweak it.

Any culture develops over a long period of time and so does communication, which is an important part of it. The norms of the society, as well as its beliefs, rituals, customs and colloquial language developed over a time period may change the way people in that culture communicate with each other. While a particular way of communication may be acceptable in one culture, it may not be acceptable in another. Following is an example that shows how cultural context may influence a situation and impact the process of communication.

Example: One of my friends is an Indian who was going to visit America for the first time. He was carrying his luggage bag while going to board his flight to America. He was checked at the Indian airport and was cleared within a few seconds. However, he was caught at the U.S. airport. During luggage scan, his bag was held by the checking personnel, who asked him what he was carrying in a plastic pack inside his luggage bag. In Indian culture, it is common for mothers to pack eatables for children when they go to another country. It’s out of concern that my friend’s mother had also put a large pack of cookies inside his bag. So, my friend told the personnel that he has a pack of biscuits with him.

This led the personnel give him a more doubtful look. They took my friend aside, asking him to open that sealed pack. My friend was surprised on why he was being held for some eatables. He still complied with the instructions and opened the pack. The personnel checked his stuff, smelled it, and asked him to taste, which he did. They concluded to tell my friend that he had chocolate cookies in his pack. He agreed. Then, they asked why he told that he was carrying biscuits in that pack. This is what the matter was.

The word ‘biscuits’ created suspicion in the minds of those personnel who understood it as something fishy. However, my friend had always learned to call them ‘biscuits’ while most Americans call them ‘cookies.’ He had no idea that many words he learned from his culture indicate different meanings to people from other cultures. He finally sorted the matter by communicating to those checking personnel that his biscuits were their cookies. The example shows how cultural context can drastically change the situation and affect communication between individuals from different cultures.