9.5 The Individual Component—Attitudes数字时代的商务英语写作.pdf

Intercultural Communication Competence 9.5 the Individual Component—Attitudes Hi, there. Welcome back to our course. In this section, we will talk about the fourth individual component—attitudes. Many attitudes are helpful for cultivating intercultural communication competence, which include tolerance for ambiguity, empathy, and nonjudgmentalness. Tolerance for ambiguity refers to the ease in dealing with situations in which much is unknown. Whether we are abroad or at home, interacting with people who look different from us and who behave in ways that are strange to us requires a tolerance for ambiguity. Tolerance for ambiguity is one of the most difficult things to attain. People have a natural preference for predictability; uncertainty can be disturbing. In other words, if you can handle situations you do not immediately understand, then you probably have a high tolerance for ambiguity. Some factors may influence tolerance for ambiguity, which are nature and upbringing, education, self-confidence, early experiences and optimism. You can develop tolerance for ambiguity by remembering that even in the toughest situation, there are always two principals you can rely on. Principal 1: you can always control your response to a situation. Your reaction is your choice. Principal 2: recognizing what you can and can’t control will increase the likelihood of a successful outcome and lower your anxiety. Empathy is the ability to share another person’s feelings and emotions as if they were your own. Empathetic attitude is culture-bound. We cannot really view the world through another person ’s eyes without knowing something about his or her experiences and life. American expert on human communication Ben Broome claims that, in order t