U1 P3

There are certain barriers that can affect how well you communicate with other people. These barriers aren't impossible to overcome but some skills are needed to help communicate fluently without issues.

Cultural differences

If you are from a different ethnic culture it is important to understand the values of the opposing individual or groups you are communicating with. Miss communication due to cultural differences can have a huge impact on cultural differences. For example, if an investor from Dubai was interested in investing in an organisation based in the UK and the organisation’s representatives could not speak Arabic there will be a lot of miss understanding between them.

Dialects

There are other barriers that are a problem also such as dialects. A dialect is how you speak, it can vary from your accent i.e. How you pronounce something and the phrases you use, for example; slang terms. A lot of countries have different regions which can cause confusion, if someone from Manchester spoke to someone from Liverpool, although the two cities are close there is a huge difference in how they communicate with one-another.

Meanings

There are many words that have many definitions or are spelt differently and sound the same when pronounced. For example, “Sea” and “see” they are two separate words and mean two different things but are pronounced the same. A great examples of this is the old TV show “The two Ronnie’s”

Two Ronnie’s example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDslCUk6aE8

This suggests being more specific when communicating. In this sketch the customer asks “Got any o’s?” but the shopkeeper interrupted it as if he said “Hose” This shows miss understanding although the pronunciation was correct.

Group speaking

If you are speaking to a group it is also important that you speak clear and pronounce words correctly and speak relevant to the audience. For example if you are speaking to a group of young children it is important to speak slowly, clear and use small words that they would understand. If you were to speak to a university student, using complex words would not be an issue.