Cross-cultural (mis)communication?

When I learned French in the American classroom setting and then set out to spend my junior year of college there (attending university in my second language), I was struck by my inability to communicate as I would have liked.  It took months before I felt like I could be myself, could understand others, and have others understand me.  It took even longer to understand the cultural nuances in the educational system and to learn to navigate those effectively.  Even still, there are cultural differences beyond the language barriers that can lead to misunderstandings.

As we learned from our INEMA counterparts, and them from us, I was stuck by communication style differences that could easily be frustrating and unsettling because they are different.  It might also be difficult to tease out cultural differences from personality.  I was also struck by the way that different cultures see and structure time.  In Germany for instance, there is a cultural stereotype that Germans are always punctual and apparently in Egypt, there is a cultural stereotype that that Egyptians are easily 30 minutes late for most engagements – whether personal or professional.

As educators and human resource managers, we encounter MANY different personality types and people from other countries.  In schools AND in HR, there are people that we feel at ease with and there are others that we might have friction with. There are other people still towards whom we might feel genuine hostility.  The question is:  How do we remain diplomatic in our classrooms and in our businesses?  How do we move beyond our differences to work together for a brighter tomorrow for us all?