An overall goal of this course is to help students better understand the process of communicating across cultural boundaries – which is one of the keys to developing cross-cultural competence. Why is it important to study culture from a communication perspective? First, because culture is both a product and producer of communication. Secondly, because communication everywhere contains traces of culture. Specific study devoted to cross-cultural communication can help us identify cultural difference and predict misunderstanding.
This course serves as an introduction to cross-cultural communication by identifying key challenges presented by cross-cultural interaction and examining how those challenges affect people, their jobs, and their relationships. This course will equip students with tools needed to manage these challenges so they may develop skills to call upon during interaction. As such, students are exposed to case studies, research applications and strategies in order to develop an appreciation of the communication processes necessary to avoid misunderstandings.
This is a distance learning course. It is worth three semester hours of credit through the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF). It is currently only available to enlisted members of the US Armed Forces (Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserve).