International Audiences

Understanding international and intercultural audiences is the most important thing when doing public relations for different cultures or countries. You need to be able to communicate in an appropriate way in order to send an effective message without offending anyone.



The Kent book gives examples of basic skills needed to prepare for international settings Here are a couple of good ones:

1.) Learn the language of the culture you will be interacting with. If you are communicating with people of another country you need to learn the language. Be able to say simple words and how to be polite.

2.)Learn the essentials of formal interactions. Do you shake hands, kiss or bow when you first meet someone?

3.)Learn something about the media system in the country that you visit. You need to be able to know what medium to use to reach your target audience.



Communicating with people that speak a different language or have a different culture than yourself can be a very stick situation. This is why it is important to learn the rules of language and check multiple times that your message is being taken the right way.





http://getinternationalclients.com/how-to-prevent-most-cross-cultural-miscommunication-by-examining-your-own-english-communication/



There is a link you can visit that gives you tips on how to prevent miscommunication across cultures.

Here are a few examples the website gives of how miscommunication might happen across cultures:



*People like to use slang words that people from other countries or different languages wouldn't understand. If someone were to say, "that shirt is so tight." They could either mean it is form fitting or they could use tight as another word for awesome, cool, hip, etc.

*Japanese people don't refuse things because it is considered rude. This goes the same as people from Honduras. My Spanish teacher was from Honduras and to be nice one day she made us all homemade chimichangas. Being the picky eater that I am, I told her no thank you on eating them. She later went on to tell me how in Honduras it is very rude to deny anything offered to you, especially food. I felt very bad, but in America I've been raised to say no thank you if I don't want something and that is fine.

*French people are easily offended. A friend of mine studied abroad in France and so I was curious about this and I asked her if it were true. She said that she remembered any time she would talk to someone from France, even if they spoke English, they would be very offended if she didn't atleast try to speak to them in France before speaking English to them.

All of these are good examples of how miscommunication can be very hurtful and how important it is to understand a culture or language if you are trying to reach out to a public from a different one of these than yourself.