Eduardo’s and his family have been living in the United States for about two years. He is well learned with a master’s degree in education. He migrated with the hope of a better life and job that would help him and his family of three. Life in this new world was difficult at first, and he struggled to cope. He, however, got employed and had had a stable income for the past six months. Eduardo has had a recurring headache, and he decides to visit the medical unit at the school he lectures. At the reception, he is asked to wait, after thirty minutes he finally gets his turn with the doctor, Mrs. Jackson.
[Eduardo’s thoughts; just before seeing the doctor, I am feeling terrible; why did they make me wait this long to see her]
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
D: Hello, Mr.…….Eduardo.
[Doctors thoughts: New lecturer who migrated from Colombia… Caribbean countries have diverse medical practices.]
E: Hi Dr. Jackson
[Doctors thoughts; the report he gave the receptionist says he has had a recurring head ache and running stomach]
D: How are you feeling today?
[Eduardo’s thoughts; why ask such a question in a medical unit, I have work to do, and I am running late did she read my file from the reception]
E: I have a terrible headache that won’t go away for about a week now.
[Doctors thought; let’s see if he has tried to get some treatment.]
D: Have you taken any medication before.
E: I hoped it would pass but It proved otherwise, and it is getting worse. That is why I decided to visit the health unit.
[Eduardo’s thoughts; Medication, how? I think I must have a prescription before buying nay medications]
[Doctors thought; why did he believe the pain would go away, he is putting his life at risk; he needed medical care yet chose to stay away, why?]
D: Okay, I will administer some lab checks to get the right diagnosis. Then you can get the right treatment and medication.
[Eduardo’s thoughts; if I were back in Colombia, I would be walking home at this point. Why does she have to take a lab test? Is she sure about that? What qualifications does she hold? It is only a minor headache]
E: Okay Dr. Jackson that would be helpful.
In any event, where people of two or more cultural backgrounds meet, a clash of cultures is bound to take place (Nevins, 2010) . Occasionally, misunderstandings in communication become critical areas of concern. Individuals in conflict will tend to show their parallel believes in what they say, their actions, and what they think but cannot say. An error in a face to face kind of communication makes these misunderstandings worse (Fellman, 2011) . It is hard to asses’ misunderstandings regarding speech when individuals are in mind conflicts. A good number of people only say what they want you to hear, and not what is in their mind (Thomas and Kerr, 2009). This kind of conflict is in play between Dr. Jackson and Mr. Eduardo.
Communication is a two part idea: it has a sender who is the individual speaking at a given time, and the receiver is the one listening at a specified period (Olson, 2010) . The sender usually carries a message that he or she is trying to pass across in the most convenient way that will reflect what he or she is thinking (Thomas and Kerr, 2009). This varies slightly when the sender intends to please the receiver and avoid conflict. Here, the sender tries to reconstruct his or her thoughts to portray good intentions on the receivers end. The doctor in the above conversation does her best to keep the conversation strictly official though her thoughts say otherwise. Mr. Eduardo is clearly disappointed, but his choice of words in the conversation indicates; he is not ready to confront the doctor directly rather he chooses to play it safe by hiding expressing himself as a calm and relaxed individual.
The doctor and Eduardo both have a virtual conversation that is taking place in their parallel to the actual dialogue they are having. The virtual conversations are different between the two. From Dr. Jackson’s point of view, his patient is a Colombian immigrant who has secured employment in the United States; she seems to be aware of the drivers’ medical practices and beliefs of the people of Colombia. This is evident from her first thought before she even starts the conversation.
Research suggests there being beliefs in faith and not medicine when one falls sick; this is among the Caribbean countries (Nemoianu, 2010) . It is evident that she has this misconception that by the fact that her patient is of the Caribbean origin, he may conform to the beliefs. Moving forward, she realizes that despite his ill health, he did not seek medical attention (Street & Wiemann, 1988) .
Eduardo, on the other hand, is angered by the fact that he had to wait thirty minutes at the reception just to see the doctor. This frustration is carried forward when he is asked the first question by Dr. Jackson. According to him, the doctor is looking down upon him, and he believes he would be treated better back home in Colombia. In this case, Eduardo is on a defensive stand, and to him the doctor is trying to victimize him. In reality, though, the two participants seem to misunderstand one another; their different cultures present them with two different perspectives of view.
The first rule to avoid this kind of misunderstanding is first to pose and consider every word before starting up a conversation ( 이상혁 , 2012) . Instead of addressing individuals based on one's knowledge of their culture, people need to be addressed as individuals. Generalization and stereotypic conversations should be avoided (Nevins, 2010) . In addition to that, active listening is crucial.
By looking at Eduardo as any other native Colombian, the doctor made assumptions based on the Colombian culture that is different from that in the States. Eduardo, on the other hand, has experienced a torrid time in the United States and is bitter for that reason, to him the culture is set to frustrate him. As a result of the two contradicting cultures, the two individuals are in a state of internal conflict
References
Fellman, A. (2011). Fostering Communication Between Physicians and Patients. Health Physics , 100 (34), S41-S42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/hp.0b013e3181f1024a
Nemoianu, V. (2010). Postmodernism & cultural identities. Washington, D.C: Catholic University of America Press.
Olson, D. (2010). Communication Discrepancies Between Physicians and Hospitalized Patients. Archives Of Internal Medicine , 170 (15), 1302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2010.239
Nevins, M. E. (2010). Intertextuality and misunderstanding. Language & Communication , 1-6.
Street, R. & Wiemann, J. (1988). Differences in how physicians and patients perceive physicians’ relational communication. Southern Speech Communication Journal , 53 (4), 420-440. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10417948809372740
Thomas, D. C., & Kerr, I. (2009). Cultural intelligence. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
이상혁 ,. (2012). A Study on Communication Difficulties Caused by Verbal and Nonverbal Cultural Differences(with a focus on cultural differences between Korea and America). Studies In English Language & Literature , 38 (2), 271-288. http://dx.doi.org/10.21559/aellk.2012.38.2.013
