Name: Aisha Abdul Majid

Roll no. : 22SP-003-CS

Communication Skills Assignment

Importance of culture in communication

Demographic changes
 Whereas at one time the United States was largely a country populated by northern Europeans,
it’s now a country greatly influenced by the enormous number of new citizens from Central and
South America, Africa, and Asia. And the same is true to an even greater extent on college and
university campuses throughout the United States.

Similarity in our culture: If you talk about Karachi, many years before only Sindhi and Urdu
speaking people used to live here, but now you can see many Punjabis and people from other
cities residing here. It’s the same for colleges and universities.

Economic Interdependency
 As a result of this interrelatedness among nations and peoples, often referred to as a “spaghetti
bowl,” business opportunities have an increasingly intercultural dimension. All this makes
cultural awareness and intercultural communication competence essential skills for professional
survival and success.

Similarity in our culture: Many Pakistanis settle abroad for professional survival and success as
they get better opportunities there and can get to know about other cultures too.

Communication Technology
 The rapid spread of communication technology has brought foreign and sometimes very
different cultures right into our living rooms, for examples news and, of course, the Internet.

Similarity in our culture: In Pakistan, usually our dads watch the news around the world, and
discuss with us on dining table and we also get to know about the situations around the world. Recently
a law has passed in Pakistan about LGBTQ, and many of us got to know about it through media. For
Muslims, Makkah and Madinah are our holy places and not everyone gets the chance to look at it so
there are people who watch the Holy places live through television or internet. As we all know, this era
is of media. We can make friends on instagram or Facebook with people of other countries or religion
we never knew existed. We can watch vlogs on YouTube of people from different cultures.
 Politeness
 Cultures also differ in their rules for expressing politeness or impoliteness. Some cultures, for
example, may require you to give extended praise when meeting, say, an important scientist or
educator; other cultures expect you to assume a more equal position regardless of the stature
of the other person.

Similarity in our culture: In Pakistan, man does not shake hands or hugs a woman, instead he greets
verbally. Woman can shake hands, hug, or kiss the other woman while greeting, similarly, man can greet
the same way with a man.

The Aim of a Cultural Perspective

In our culture, we do not have such activities or games where we do no treat animals kindly, unlike in
many other countries. We all have right to disagree with our cultural beliefs, no one is forced to follow
it.

CULTURE VERSUS CULTURE

You’ve been invited to dinner, along with several other students, at a faculty member’s house. You
follow strict religious dietary laws, and so you would likely not eat anything and perhaps embarrass your
host.

If you do attend, what are some of the things you might say about your eating rules?

 Of course according to our religion, there are few things we cannot have like alcohol and pork.
So, I’ll kindly ask if the food contains alcohol or pork.
 I prefer normal spiced food, so I’ll ask if the food is spicy or bland.
 I don’t drink any fizzy drinks so I’ll request for water or fresh juice if available.
 I like to sit while eating so I’ll ask for a chair or anything where I can easily have my food.

If you decide to refuse, how might you do so politely?

 I’ll thank the person for inviting me.

 I’ll apologize for refusing and give a reason for not attending.
 I would suggest any other suitable time or date for the meeting.