Developing cultural awareness

- Having cultural awareness is very important in order for you to succeed in a diverse environment. You don't want to walk into a situation where you say something and it may not be taken the way you intended. So in this video, I'm going to share some best practices, things that you might want to consider, so you can better prepare yourself regardless of the situation you walk into. The first thing that you might want to think about is things like how do people in this culture greet each other? Do they greet each other with a peck on the cheek? Or do they greet each other with a firm handshake? Research and determine how you want to carry yourself in those first few seconds. You may also want to consider things like how do people greet each other with their names? Do they tend to be more formal, Mr. and Mrs? Or do they go with first names, and is that okay? Another thing you might want to consider are simpler things like what is sort of taboo in this culture? For example, numbers, in Asian culture the number four is generally avoided because that's considered bad luck. But in cultures like Italy, the number 17 is generally avoided. Some other things that you might want to consider are things like, do you want to utilize humor? It's better to play it safe than sorry in situations like this because you never know how humor is going to be received. Humor in one country may not translate well to another country. Another thing that you might want to consider is things like just asking for feedback. You can walk in humbly and say, "Hey, I'm sorry, "I don't really understand A, B, or C." Asking for that feedback from somebody from a different culture is actually something that can show that you are open minded to understanding and to improving. Ultimately, when it comes to fostering cross-cultural awareness, it's really showing that you are taking the time to research and to understand. And doing these things can really go a long way to show that you are willing to be adaptable, and you're ready to work.