Adeola Abdulateef Elega

Assuming Similarity Instead of Difference: The second major barrier is the 
assumption that they are little or no differences across cultures (new and old). First of 
all, this assumption within you makes you submit that the culture of where you are 
coming from is same with the new one. Putting aside the fact that every culture is 
unique and how the people feels, acts, thinks and react are different. Laying claims to 
the new culture makes one believe that beliefs, norms and values are almost the same 
which will alter one’s communication. Because examples best create mental pictures, 
an example of a Nigerian student who just completed his Bachelor’s degree program 
in Coventry University in United Kingdom and he got admitted to Eastern 
Mediterranean University for Master’s program can assume that mode of course 
registration is same with that of his former school in the United Kingdom. However, 
it may not be same which will cost more time for correction and will definitely affect 
his communication. So it is better to have an open mind to differences in culture. 
Ethnocentrism: This is the preference of one’s own culture as a form of partiality to 
other cultures. As an individual, when you lay claims and give reasons why a 
particular culture suffers something which is not like that in your own culture, you 
are ethnocentric. An instance of Nigerians in North Cyprus will be cited here. 
Making a partial comparison of weather and saying in Nigeria it’s never too cold 
when it’s cold and never too hot when it is hot but in North Cyprus, it is to the 
extreme when hot it is extremely hot and when cold it is extremely cold. This is a 
major barrier to communication. 

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Stereotypes: American Journalist Walter Lippman first used the word stereotypes to 
explain submissions made on people about ethnic groups in 1992. Stereotypical 
representations can be either negative or positive directed to individuals and groups. 
Women, gay, people of color (black), fat women, ethnic group (cast system) suffer 
from stereotyping and it is a major drawback to communication across cultures. 
Stereotyping causes marginalization and it affects our communication because we 
tend to see things in a different view when we relate with the stereotyped. If 
Nigerians are labeled and stereotyped as corrupt people and you see a Nigerian 
taking something from a shop, you immediately submit that he is stealing from the 
shop. Also if you hear that Iranians are bribable, at the mention of an Iranian as the 
president of a group, you submit that he must have been helping himself with public 
funds. 
Prejudice: This is quite different from stereotyping. Prejudice is indiscriminate 
disapproval of a particular group of people. Individuals are addressed as group and 
because of a stigmatic representation of this group the individual is affected. An 
example is when you introduce yourself in a class and someone says “he is an Iraqi, 
the lovers of insurgency”. You are already pictured in a bigger frame of your country 
rather than your person. This is also a major barrier to communication across cultures