02-04-2009, 05:00 AM
Well I just have to respond to this one quickly. I just finished teaching a segment on cultural diversity and communication in my communication courses again for the current semester.. Don't interpret this in a harsh way.......that's not my intention. But when you refer to a person as a "chinese guy" and you explicitly defined what you meant was that "the man was from China," you should be cautious about not overgeneralizing or stereotyping. There is a distinction between the notion of international cultures and co-cultures. A person who is of a particular ethnic background (a co-cultural differentiation), is distinct from a person who is international. So one must be careful to NOT assume that just because a person is Asian looking in physical appearance, they are necessarily from Asia or any particular country in Asia. They might have been born in the US and are therefore as American as anyone else. Thus, someone of an minority ethnic co-culture might be offended if one merely assumes them to be international. I'm not sure the content of your orginal post so I'm unable to comment on the actual context of your statement either in support or critique. But yes, unless a person has an explicitly obvious accent or they overtly state that they are international, being cautious to not assume racial or ethnic constructs will help to prevent conflict in your communication. I hope this is helpful in facilitating your communication in the future. Your posts have seemed to be informative and have been insightful and useful contributions overall.
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