Intercultural Communications for Business and Stereotypes

The article on intercultural communications for business demonstrates the importance of understanding differences in cultures and symbols as they can change the very message you are sending.

Defining perception as a "cognitive process in which we attach meaning to objects, symbols  people, and behavior in order to make sense of them" the article went into detail about how people misconceive many Japanese customs as they are not "normal" to many of the American Business practices.

Going into detail about the process of receiving messages and stimuli through cognative processes in which we stimultaneously attach meaning, demonstrates both the process of understanding a message as well as how people can actually misinterpret a clear message.

Specifically this is important in developing my active lens because it demonstrates how to affectively asess the way a culture interprets certain signs such as bowing. In the past I have been informed of many Japanese cultures that look to the many examples used in the article, however when show the film of funerals and wedding ceremonies of African cultures I was completely perplexed. Yet I was able to step back with my lens and actively look at the intricacies of things that would seem outlandish to me.