Living in a world where so many cultures and nationalities go about their lives together can easily become easier said than done. With differing points of view on a vast majority of topics all sharing the main stages in everyday life, finding a way to coexist and make the best of each day can become quite a task. Now, of course, there should be someone, be it a person or entity that helps lead the efforts towards a better lifestyle. Well in this scenario the most important player in this game of patience and understanding is each countries´ local government.
In order to be able to ensure that the paths of communications and understanding are fully put into place and work, governments are it within their local reach or in the international scope of things usually use the ways of cultural competence in order to achieve their goals. So what makes cultural competence such an important part of the world of international diplomacy?
Understanding What Cultural Competence Is
While cultural competence is a practice that basically everyone around the world lives within their day-to-day routines, understanding the actual meaning of the term is a whole other ordeal. Cultural competence is the ability to understand and interact effectively with people from other cultures. To put it in the simplest terms, cultural competence is the practice of understanding not just your way of life and traditions but everyone else’s too around you without regard to race, culture, place of origin, religion, or whatsoever.
While relationships amongst regular people can be easily managed, when it comes to government related relationships, especially those between two different governing bodies from different countries dealings can be a bit more complex. When dealing with in the world of global diplomacy, good cultural competence practices are key to ensure long-lasting and prosperous relationships between countries around the world.
Why is Cultural Competence Important in Diplomacy?
International diplomacy is all about understanding and compromising to find the best results for all countries involved. While in a perfect world, the idea of global acceptance and peace is probably the first trade towards impeccable relationships, sadly we don’t live in a perfect world. Reaching agreements, striking deals, and ensuring peace are just some of the main responsibilities that diplomatic missions, aka each countries’ official representation in most other countries around the world, have to work on every day.
The practice of cultural competence allows for officials from different countries to be able to find middle grounds to work together towards building better relationships and ushering in better results to pressing issues they might be involved in. Just because there are cultural, religious, and political differences, that doesn’t mean that understandings cannot be obtained. Cultural competence is the most important tool to ensure that respect for diversity is always put first. With respect and understanding, the best results will always ensure and that is something that diplomatic missions around the world take as a basic rule of thumb when having to go about their dealings.
Communication Is Key To Practicing Proper Cultural Competence
For diplomatic missions around the world, practicing cultural competence is one of the best tools to succeed in their jobs of securing prosperous relationships amongst the countries they represent and their hosts. But there is one main issue that could easily stand as an enemy towards the proper establishing and maintaining of said relationships, the communication channels. While there are countries where a shared main language is usual, like Spanish in Latin America, Arabic in most parts of the Middle East, and English in most parts of the world, sometimes a little extra help is always necessary.
With the assistance of a leading interpreting and translating company at the helm of any and all communication issues, diplomatic missions can be ensured that their messages will always be delivered in the most proper fashion. Given the fact that words, spoken and written can hold a vast amount of power and responsibility, being able to find a common ground in which understanding is the middle ground towards prosperous results, then having the best communication tools is a must. It’s a no-brainer to think that something as simple as a well-delivered message can do so much for everyone, but if there is one thing we can learn from cultural competence is that, sometimes that’s all it takes. A message delivered with the utmost respect and understanding for all parts involved and their traditions, customs, and beliefs.