Cultural Awareness 文化意识

I was asked to facilitate a seminar on interpersonal skills. In preparation for the seminar, it is natural to think of communication skills and even conflict resolution. However, I feel the need of looking into the cultural aspect of living in a diverse society today.

Unlike before, the people living in an urban society today are bound to interact with people of different backgrounds. If they desire to prevail in relating to others, they must get better in the knowledge of cultures. In other words, everyone tends to represent and perceive things according to their respective cultures. And I will list below an example.

People of different cultures have different sense of humour. A joke which can help to connect a speaker with his or her audience may sound silly to the audience from another culture. Hence, the joke in a western context may get an adverse reaction from the oriental people.

As we come from different cultural backgrounds, it is vital to increase our cultural awareness to relate to others more appropriately.

我受邀在一个人际关系技巧研讨会担任导师；在进行準备时，很自然地会想到有关沟通及解决冲突的课题。然而，我觉得今天生活在多元化社会，我们还需要拥有文化方面的意识。

与过去不同，今天生活在城市社会中的人必须与不同背景的人交流。如果他们希望有好的互动，就必须在文化知识方面掌握得更好。换句话说，每个人都会倾向于根据自己的文化来待人处事；让我在下面举出一方面为例。

不同文化的人具有不同的幽默感。一个有趣的笑话可以帮助演讲者与他的聽众联系起来，然而同样的笑话对另一种文化的听众来说可能是愚蠢的。因此，适用于西方文化的笑话可能在东方人的耳中却导致负面作用。

由于人拥有不同的文化背景，因此增加我们的文化意识将能帮助自己提升人际关系。