The phrase “building peace” is much like “building bridges,” which sounds similar to “constructing cultural bridges,” which then spirals into “cross-cultural communication.”
All of these interchangeable phrases were used throughout our trip, and solidified my belief in communication as the immeasurable solution enabler, an answer to preventing future conflicts.
Lotfi Lamrani said during our discussion with various NGO leaders in Morocco that generational divides of cultures is what leads to wars. The choice our generation makes between international division or understanding will depict how future cultures interact.
Peace through communication is the message continuously embedded in our lectures, and the NGO leaders provided a clear outline of how to use it.
First, a lesson I covered in a previous post is the understanding of languages. Good intentions can only go so far in international work; there must be an effective translation to make effort result in change. There is a cry for more language skills, which is something our country must face immediately.
Next is to sustain curiosity and learning of others. This is the only way to understand different societies thoroughly, and there is always more to learn. Also, a more refined understanding of others’ history and layering will enhance one’s ability to converse with knowledge of their background and cultural context.
There is also immediate respect when a foreign culture is rehearsed in the culture and history of the place they are visiting or conversing within.
Cross-cultural communication requires practice and a dissolving of the negative focus on differences. Peace communicators can only develop their skills through practice and transform through successful and failed attempts to build a communal bridge.
The NGO leaders painted people and cultures as different rivers. They explained these rivers all lead to the same ocean, so we are to keep floating and build strength in our differences through acknowledged respect and interest in each other.
Sri Lankan poet Jean Arasanayagam used the term sweeping her country in its post war era, reconciliation, to explain how various ethnicities or social groups can come together. There can be a metamorphosis of the human experience so we connect with each other instead of polarizing from our dissimilarities.
Bringing this all together, peace communication, which is the umbrella term under which peace journalism falls, is the key to mending or preventing future conflicts.
Effective communication is the key to any successful situation. As our century poses cross-national obstacles, there must be a shift to want to understand each other and doing so through hospitable engagement instead of distanced observing through our own unfiltered purviews.
The media, undoubtedly, could play a role as a facilitator of cross-cultural communication that celebrates differences instead of feuding them.
All of these interchangeable phrases were used throughout our trip, and solidified my belief in communication as the immeasurable solution enabler, an answer to preventing future conflicts.
Lotfi Lamrani said during our discussion with various NGO leaders in Morocco that generational divides of cultures is what leads to wars. The choice our generation makes between international division or understanding will depict how future cultures interact.
Peace through communication is the message continuously embedded in our lectures, and the NGO leaders provided a clear outline of how to use it.
First, a lesson I covered in a previous post is the understanding of languages. Good intentions can only go so far in international work; there must be an effective translation to make effort result in change. There is a cry for more language skills, which is something our country must face immediately.
Next is to sustain curiosity and learning of others. This is the only way to understand different societies thoroughly, and there is always more to learn. Also, a more refined understanding of others’ history and layering will enhance one’s ability to converse with knowledge of their background and cultural context.
There is also immediate respect when a foreign culture is rehearsed in the culture and history of the place they are visiting or conversing within.
Cross-cultural communication requires practice and a dissolving of the negative focus on differences. Peace communicators can only develop their skills through practice and transform through successful and failed attempts to build a communal bridge.
The NGO leaders painted people and cultures as different rivers. They explained these rivers all lead to the same ocean, so we are to keep floating and build strength in our differences through acknowledged respect and interest in each other.
Sri Lankan poet Jean Arasanayagam used the term sweeping her country in its post war era, reconciliation, to explain how various ethnicities or social groups can come together. There can be a metamorphosis of the human experience so we connect with each other instead of polarizing from our dissimilarities.
Bringing this all together, peace communication, which is the umbrella term under which peace journalism falls, is the key to mending or preventing future conflicts.
Effective communication is the key to any successful situation. As our century poses cross-national obstacles, there must be a shift to want to understand each other and doing so through hospitable engagement instead of distanced observing through our own unfiltered purviews.
The media, undoubtedly, could play a role as a facilitator of cross-cultural communication that celebrates differences instead of feuding them.
RSS Feed
