What is that makes it so hard to talk to each other & how to break down the emotional wall....
In this new era of modernization, most people find it easier to communicate especially with their family, friends and all the people who live in the same area with them. Major advancement in technology, has led to a decline of communication barriers with the aid of Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, the internet, and various selections of cell phones. Despite these advancements, there are some people who still find it difficult and hard to communicate or talk with other people. Why is it so? There are several factors that cause such a problem. In general these factors can be divided into two major types that are cultural and language. There also several steps which can be taken to reduce the problem of communication barriers.
One of the major barriers of communication is language barrier. Most people find it difficult to communicate with other people especially people from other countries because of different languages they are using. Besides that, different accents of a language also contribute to the difficulties in communication. For example, some people find it hard to understand certain English vocabularies because of different accents, pronunciation and spelling. Although there are some people who suggest the use of Universal Language among all people in the world in order to prevent miscommunication, this will lead to a bigger problem like extinction of other languages as people are using the same language around the globe. One obvious example to explain language as one of the factors that contribute to communication barrier which can be found in the movie ‘A Thousand Years of Good Prayers’ is the conversation between Mr. Shi and an Iranian woman where at some moment both of them prefer to speak using their own mother tongue while at the same time they try to speak English so that they can understand each other.
Another factor that cause communication barrier is the cultural aspect. Most people prefer to constantly interact with people who have similar views and who reinforce their beliefs and also having the same culture rather than interacting with other people from different culture. From this situation, it is obvious that most people are having communication barrier in terms of interacting with other people of different races or cultures with to some extent leads to bigger problems like discrimination and racism. To prevent this problem, people are suppose to practise multiculturalism in their country and try to respect each other’s culture. From the movie ‘A Thousand Years of Good Prayers’ we can see an example from the scene at the pool between Mr. Shi and an American girl to explain this situation. Even though the girl is wearing inappropriately at the pool which contradicts with Mr. Shi’s culture, he still talks with the girl as he does not want to offend the girl.
There are several measures which can be taken to prevent difficulties in communication. The first step to prevent communication barrier is to understand and to respect everybody else’s culture and language. We can also try to learn other languages without forgetting our own mother tongue. Other than that, we must also mixed up with other people of different races to suit with the environment and to adapt with the environment.
In conclusion, the problem of communication barrier has become very common even with advancement in technology. This is because of factors like differences in language and culture. Methods of prevention should be taken to curb the incidents of misunderstanding like racism and discrimination among races.
