Best Business MOOCs For November

Intercultural Communication

School: Shanghai International Studies University

Platform: FutureLearn

Registration Link:  Intercultural Communication

Star 2 Hours Per Weekt Date: November 9 (5 Weeks Long)

Workload: 2 Hours Per Week

Instructors: Steve Kulich, Hongling Zhang, Ruobing Chi

Credentials: A prolific researcher and author, Kulich is a distinguished professor at the Shanghai International Studies University, where he heads the school’s International Intercultural Institute and serves as the academic coordinator for its MBA program. His work has been published by Intercultural Communication Studies, China Media Research and the International Management Review. Chi earned her doctorate in communication and information sciences from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and is an assistant research fellow at the Intercultural Institute. Zhang also teaches language at the school.

Graded: Students can purchase a Statement of Participation after completing the course.

Description: Ever hear that words only account for 7% of a message? According to one study, body language and tone take up the remaining 93%. And that’s just when you’re speaking to someone who has the same experiences and perceptions as you do. When it comes to communicating with people from other cultural backgrounds, your command of a language means even less. Here, context, history, power, and conditioning can siphon your intentions and create misunderstandings. As a result, you need to master more than the language if you hope to work or study abroad. You must also be fluent in the values and communication styles of people from a particular culture. In this course, students will develop an awareness of the inherent complexities and hidden obstacles to communicating between cultures. In particular, you will examine the concepts of cultural identity and communication – and how to apply your knowledge to identifying cultural influences that drive expectations and behavior as you build bridges and avoid embarrassing missteps.

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Additional Note: FutureLearn is also running a course called Developing Cultural Intelligence for Leadership, which starts on November 9th. To learn more about the course, click here.