BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

Without studying the barriers to communication the study of communication is incomplete .Barriers to communication happen when you convey your message to someone or a group of people and the message is not received clearly and unambiguously. Thus, the message received is not as the message sent. This can happen at various stages of the communication process.

Barriers at different stage of communication can be studied under three main headings:

1. Language (Semantic Barriers)
2. Cultural Barriers
3. Psychological Barriers (Difference in Perception)

1.Language / Semantic Barrier: Language is the main medium of communication .It can become a barrier when we either use a language which others do not know or when we use language in a wrong way .It can happen in three ways :

i.) Using Jargons: Jargons are which are related to a particular profession like doctors, lawyers. In tourism we also have jargons like PAX (means passengers)et. Many professions rely heavily on jargon and have their own ‘language’ that is not known to outsiders. It acts as a barrier.

ii.) Acronyms and abbreviations: These are short forms .They eliminate receivers who are not familiar with their meaning.

iii.) English Language: English has been the dominant business language. For non-native speakers even if they know English some time it act as barrier. Speaking too fast and speaking slangs can make communication even in English difficult.

2.) Cultural Barrier: Culture means an accumulation of values, forms of expression, beliefs, and language .It shapes one's interpretations of different events of life. But communication problems can be caused by conflicting cultural assumptions. These can be:

i. Ethnocentrism - Ethnocentrism is judging another’s culture solely by the values and standards of one's own culture and not to like others’ culture. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and religion.

ii. Non-Verbal Differences due to Culture: Cultures have different standards for many aspects of life like how fast you should talk, how much you should talk, how far you should stand etc. If you do not pay attention to it, it can act as barrier to your verbal communication .For example: Physical distance during social interactions varies by culture. In areas of the Middle East and South America, people stand very close when talking but European Americans like to have more distance between them.You can create great discomfort by standing too close to another person which can further lead to barrier in to communication.

3. Psychological Barriers: These are barriers on part on each individual .No two personalities are same. They vary in their knowledge, experience, attitude, emotion, belief, values etc, and thus it happens that they do not tune at the same wavelength while communicating which cause barriers to communication. Different reasons which causes psychological barrier are discussed below:

i. Emotions: These are powerful communication filter. When you send message receivers may think with their emotions which are called seeing the world with colored glasses. Strong emotions can prevent reception, or distort the strength of a message. For example if you have a fight with your brother or sister at breakfast table the whole day you will have poor communication due to disturbed emotions.

ii. Attitude: These are also barriers to effective communication like emotions. Negative and positive attitudes can create resistance or bias to a message.

iii. Inattention: At times we do not listen, but only hear, especially when there are more important things to be taken care of. For instance, if a visitor comes to you at the same instance when you are answering the phone, then it is important to excuse yourself from the person on the phone so that exclusive attention can be given to the visitor or you may request the visitor to wait for some time.