Cross-Cultural Communication and Connections

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Table of Contents

Cross-cultural communication
How to improve such encounters in future
How pilgrimage and exploration will be important to my future career
Works Cited

Cultural values are ideals or principles that a specific group of people or community believes in, protects, and depends on for their existence. It may include rules, morals, values, social roles, customs, traditions, arts, or languages (Waehning et al. 34). Cultural values help bring people together and understand each other, enabling them to live in peace, harmony, and economic improvement. Regional disparities are the variations between people from diverse locations not restricted to national boundaries (Waehning et al. 24). Sometimes people in varying regions may have geographical variations based on food, lifestyle, and economic activities. This study will evaluate cross-cultural communication, how to improve intercultural connections, and how intercultural information learned will be important in the future using examples from the UK.

Cross-cultural communication

Cross-cultural communication is an essential aspect of the current world due to the globalization, whereby people can easily interact with other people from different cultures and regions. This study referred to different traditional cultural and regional studies to understand how important intercultural or geographical variations are. One of the important ways of learning about the intergenerational connection is through pilgrimage. A person takes a journey to learn deep details about nature, self, and others by being away from home or their personal identity (Timeline – World History Documentaries 0:40-0:48). Pilgrimage is mainly made to understand religious practices and their meanings. A believer may take pilgrimage as a way of thanksgiving, atonement of sins, or fulfilling a vow.

In understanding the catholic denomination, I used pilgrimage, which included traveling on foot and road across the UK, visiting most of the shrines and symbolic parts of the Christian faith. This method provided me with physical health, allowed me to have a spiritual experience, connectedness to nature, and gave an opportunity for socialization with people from diverse cultures (Collins-Kreiner 147). I noted that the levels of pilgrimage in the UK have decreased and been absorbed into tourism, whereby instead of people visiting the shrines and other Christian symbolic places as pilgrims, they visit the places as tourists to view traditional concepts and lives. My pilgrimage journey involved moving from one shrine to another and interacting with the people in those regions as they explained the significance of the locations to me. This provided vast knowledge of the catholic religion and helped me understand the significance of different symbols used. For instance, the cross is used to show appreciation to Jesus Christ for dying on the cross for the world’s sins. Pilgrimage is used to retrace the ancestors’ steps and provides an opportunity to explore the hidden and discover secret events.

The other successful method of understanding geographical diversity and cultural values is through exploration. It is the act of traveling around the world in search of information or knowledge (Babalola and Nwanzu 5). Sometimes it may be done to seek specific information or, in other instances, is done based on discovering new things. Traveling for exploration can be done by air, road, or water, unlike pilgrimage accomplished using traditional methods such as by foot and on horses. This shows that exploration allows people to study a wider phenomenon over a short period compared to pilgrimage (Babalola and Nwanzu 7). Additionally, no guidelines limit the explorer’s paths to follow, giving the travellers freedom to choose their route

One of the main modern explorers is Penelope Keith, who travels looking for hidden villages and interacting with them to understand their culture and geographical differences. She goes to places of personal interest in her exploration, demonstrating that adventure has much freedom in the areas one can explore. However, she is more attracted to coastal communities living in isolation and upholds their cultural and locational differences against the major UK population (Amous). I have also used investigations to understand different cultures in the UK and how the geographical differences between my community and their community are different. I have found that it provides an opportunity to interact and join in the traditional activities of other communities. Some communities have cultural values, such as the Kou Martin tradition, a ceremony celebrated by the Kou Martin village (Amous 9:27-13:20). Exploration taught me the meaning of the ceremony and why the people of Ku Martin Village uphold it so much.

The two methods of pilgrimage and exploration have helped significantly in comprehending the other intercultural and locational differences in the UK. However, the two methods had different scopes of studying whereby the pilgrimage is bounded to religious and faith understanding while exploration is based on the broad aspect of the world. Besides, in pilgrimage, I had to follow specific paths and directions, such as the Pilgrimage road, to reach certain destinations, while in exploration, I just had to use the most convenient and reliable method to get to the destination.

How to improve such encounters in future

Pilgrimage

To get a complete comprehension of the religion, I will involve myself in the activities of the faith next time. For instance, in Catholic pilgrimage, I will attend their masses and the walk of saints together with them to experience the direct feeling and experiencing pilgrimage. Besides, I will ensure that I take meals designated for pilgrimage and avoid some foods such as meat. Additionally, I will only pack a few things compared to the current pilgrimage to foster my creativity on how to survive like the pilgrims to have a sense of their journeys. Packing light will give the sense of simplicity of the old lives and make travelling easier (Collins-Kreiner 147). Finally, I will stretch beyond Britain to other countries to risk being uncomfortable and embracing mystery. This will provide an opportunity to learn more about other religions, such as Buddhism and Islam. In general, I will avoid making the pilgrimage a leisure activity and instead pursue it as an endurance activity, which will help me understand intercultural communication and regional differences.

Exploration

To better understand intercultural communication and locational differences, I must improve a few aspects, such as ensuring that I read about the different places I explore before going there. This method provides detailed information about the things one is likely to expect and creates a mental picture. It will help to appreciate the cross-culture and regional differences better (Babalola and Nwanzu 7). Having prior knowledge about a place or culture allows verifying the prior information regarding the place or culture. Besides, I will ensure that I carry recording equipment such as cameras to record various events I will visit for later analysis. Video and audio recording is a way of collecting and storing data for future reference.

How pilgrimage and exploration will be important to my future career

Social work entails understanding how society works by looking at diverse factors such as economic growth, religious beliefs, and how they impact society. The results of these studies are used to form policies and improve people’s lives (Coleman and Eade 4). The pilgrimage will be an essential method of discovering how different religions in the UK function and their cultural values. It will help me to get an opportunity to interact with people from different religions and understand the significance of various events in their religion. This information will help facilitate communication between me and people in other religions as I conduct social work, which involves interaction with people from other cultures and religions. I will learn how to handle people from different religions in dispensing my duties as a social worker. Finally, the pilgrimage will enable me to respect all religions despite their religious activities and solve problems caused by the religious activities. For instance, Islam triggers terrorism through Jihad; however, by understanding Jihad, I will be able to look for effective ways to advise people against it.

On the other hand, exploration will help me understand the cultural activities of different cultures. I will learn the significance of various rituals and ceremonies carried out by different cultures in various geographical places (Coleman and Eade 5). For instance, people who live close to the sea may have cultural activities linked to the sea, such as the Kou Martin ceremony which is carried out in the Kou Martin village. This knowledge will help me appreciate diversity and find communication strategies for sharing knowledge with cultures.

Works Cited

“Penelope Keith’s Hidden Villages S02 Ep01 Devon and Cornwall.”Youtube, uploaded by Anon Amous, 2019, Web.

“Pilgrimage with Simon Reeve: Canterbury (Religious History Documentary) | Timeline.”YouTube, uploaded by Timeline – World History Documentaries, 2018, Web.

Babalola, Sunday Samson, and Chiyem Lucky Nwanzu. “The Current Phase of Social Sciences Research: A Thematic Overview of the Literature.”Cogent Social Sciences, edited by Sandro Serpa, vol. 7, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1–20, Web.

Coleman, Simon, and John Eade. “Introduction.” Pilgrimage and Political Economy, 2018, pp. 1–20, Web.

Collins-Kreiner, Noga. “Pilgrimage Tourism-Past, Present and Future Rejuvenation: A Perspective Article.”Tourism Review, vol. 75, no. 1, 2019, pp. 145–48, Web.

Waehning, Nadine, et al. “CASE STUDY: Regional Cultural Differences within and across Four Western European Countries.” TRANSNATIONAL MARKETING JOURNAL, vol. 6, no. 1, 2018, pp. 23–47, Web.

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