How to become culturally aware and why you need too
In this day and age, there is no reason not to know if you are being culturally insensitive or need to diversify.
Being culturally aware means understanding the differences between oneself and people from other countries or other backgrounds, especially differences in attitudes and values.
There are several levels of cultural awareness that reflect how people grow to perceive cultural differences. Perhaps you are culturally aware and have not noticed.
Here are the levels of cultural awareness:
- My way is the only way/ Parochial stage: At the first level, people are aware of their way of doing things, and their way is the only way. At this stage, they ignore the impact of cultural differences.
- I know their way, but my way is better/ Ethnocentric stage: At the second level, people are aware of other ways of doing things, but still consider their way as the best one. In this stage, cultural differences are perceived as source of problems and people tend to ignore them or reduce their significance.
- My Way and Their Way/ Synergistic stage: At this level people are aware of their own way of doing things and others’ ways of doing things, and they chose the best way according to the situation. At this stage people realize that cultural differences can lead both to problems and benefits and are willing to use cultural diversity to create new solutions and alternatives.
- Our Way/ Participatory Third culture stage: This fourth and final stage brings people from different cultural background together for the creation of a culture of shared meanings. People dialogue repeatedly with others, create new meanings, new rules to meet the needs of a particular situation.
It is important to always learn about other cultures and become aware of difference between you and the people around you.
Increasing cultural awareness means to see both the positive and negative aspects of cultural differences.
Cultural diversity could be a source of problems, in particular when the organization needs people to think or act in a similar way that might go against their personal beliefs. Diversity increases the level of complexity and confusion and makes agreement difficult to reach.
Do you consider yourself culturally aware? #culturalawareness
— Lowvelder (@Lowvelder) July 19, 2018
However, cultural diversity becomes an advantage when the organization expands its solutions and its sense of identity, and begins to take different approaches to problem solving, including all types of beliefs.
Diversity in this case creates valuable new skills and behaviors.
How you can diversify and become more socially aware:
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Learn from the people around you
One way in which you can increase awareness is to have a better understanding of each other’s experiences.
As South Africans live and work in a multicultural world that is rich in customs, culture, and diversity.
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Understand history
Another aspect of awareness is having accurate historical context. Understanding how things came to be can be done by reading the history of other racial groups or your community.
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Visit cultural institutions or new places
Lastly, visiting cultural institutions in your community is a great resource to have a greater awareness of the rich culture of others. Often visiting areas in your community can help you understand the people around you.
We can empathize with others and hopefully begin to develop solutions on ways to build a community of inclusivity, by respecting and embracing our diversity and allowing us to work more effectively with one another.
Original content: Culturosity
