1. Cultural Competency 101
Leng Leng Chancey

2. Mission: Culture Connect fosters cultural fluency between immigrants and the community at large through language services, mentoring, and education.
Introduction of self and Culture Connect
Intro video

3. Programs
Language Services: provides professional interpretation and translation in over 60 languages in the medical, educational, social, and legal fields.
Education and Advocacy Program: provides medical interpreter trainings and cultural competency trainings.
Go-Betweener® Mentoring Program: community-based mentoring program that matches immigrant and refugee youth with an adult mentor that shares the same culture and language.

4. Workshop Objectives Workshop participants will be able to:
-Define culture
-Identify six cultural dimensions
-How to have effective cross-cultural communication

5. What is Culture and Who Has It?
-The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization, or group the unconscious sum of our learned behaviors, patterns, and attitudes - Alfred Kroeber

6. Language, Behaviors, Customs
Dress, Food,
Habitat, Music
Levels of Culture
Language, Behaviors, Customs
Cultural Values/Dimensions, World View, Spirituality, Political Affiliation
Cultural Iceberg

7. Cultural Cruise Control
The
Cultural Cruise Control
Performing a series of complex actions without paying conscious attention
The Cultural Cruise Control
Cultural Scripts
Mind
lessness
Cultural pattern of behavior

8. Cultural Dimensions Identity Are you responsible for just yourself as
an individual or to
a larger society?
Communication
Do you address the point directly or do
you allow indirect actions to convey
your feelings?
Time
Do you view time as structured and set or
as a fluid and loosely defined concept?
Cultural Dimensions
Gender
Is society
oriented towards characteristics primarily attributed
to masculinity
or femininity?
Power Distance
Are inequalities
among people in society okay or unacceptable?
Action
Is it more
important to accomplish tasks or
to build relationships?
*Cultural Dimensions based off the research of the Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede

9. Cultural Dimension: Communication
Tendency to “get to the point”
Focuses on what is said rather than how it is said (low-context vs. high-context)
Prioritizes action
Focuses on “saving face” and “respect”
Silence may be just as important as words
May have other ways to communicate “yes” and “no”
Direct
Indirect

10. Cultural Dimension: Time
Culture Connect
GDPH
Cultural Dimension: Time
Structured Time
Fluid/Unstructured Time
wheel of life and realms of saṃsāra
© 2011 Culture Connect, Inc.

11. Cultural Dimension: Power Distance
Culture Connect
RRISA Cultural Competency Training
Cultural Dimension: Power Distance
The extent to which members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally
Hierarchical: society members believe inequalities amongst people are the norm
Egalitarian: society members view themselves almost as equals
© 2012 Culture Connect, Inc.

12. What is “Cultural Competency”?
Culture Connect
GDPH
What is “Cultural Competency”?
Interacting effectively with people of different cultures.
Learning new ways of behaving Getting rid of “cultural cruise control”
Achieving collaborative success.
© 2011 Culture Connect, Inc.

13. Cross-Cultural Communication Considerations…
It is natural for us to use outward appearance in conjunction with our knowledge and experiences to determine how to communicate with someone.
It is natural to make assumptions.
It is natural to see differences before similarities: differences are not inherently bad.
We need to be aware of our natural tendencies so that we can stop, think, and THEN act.
Cross-Cultural Communication Considerations…

14. Developing Cross Cultural Competence
Figure out your own cultural cruise control settings.
Estimate where you fall on the spectrum of the cultural dimensions.
Identify/anticipate where possible misunderstandings might occur.
Adjust and accommodate.
Remember:
Be patient, respectful, and tolerant.
Be willing to learn, step out side of comfort zone
and to be the leader in doing things an alternate way.

15. For more information: Please visit us at www. cultureconnetcinc
For more information: Please visit us at Or ext 109
THANK YOU