Intercultural Competence: A Comparative Analysis of Bangladeshi and Romanian Cultures

Intercultural competence

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................3
Comparing and contrasting the two cultural autobiographies with the help of cultural
framework..............................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................10
Appendix..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Intercultural competence is a variety of affective, behavioural and cognitive skills that
lead to appropriate and efficient communication & interaction with individual of other
cultures. It is the capability of function efficiently across cultures, to act and think
appropriately and to interact and perform with people from varied cultural background at
abroad or home. There are some elements included in this act such as self & other
knowledge, motivation and tolerance for uncertainty. IC is valuable and useful assets in an
increasingly internalized world where individuals are more likely to interact with person from
different nations and cultures as well who have been shaped by varied beliefs, values and
experiences. The current assignment will base on 2 different cultural autobiographies; it will
explain similarities and differences between two different cultures that are Bangladeshi and
Romanian by using right cultural frameworks.
MAIN BODY
Comparing and contrasting the two cultural autobiographies with the help of cultural
framework
In the whole world each person belongs to different nations and act according to their
culture. They do work in which people have faith, which is according to its culture. The
world has 195 nations and thousands of cultures. All the cultures are different from each
other and people who live within it can act accordingly (Antonsich, Mavroudi and Mihelj,
2017).
There are variety of ways through which the concept of culture can be visualized.
Here, the onion model of culture is being used which depicts how there are different layers of
culture just like the onion. There are various forms of interpretation of this model but the
most simplest and the easiest form consists of the key four layers. This model was proposed
by Geert Hofstede who sated that or claimed that the cultural differences can eb manifested in
multiple ways and based on which he identified 4 manifestation in regard to the culture which
is used for easily describe and the analyse the culture. Thus, along with Geert Hofstede, other
interculturalists have also proposed and used ‘onion’ as the metaphor for the purpose of
describing the cultural phenomenon. A detailed analysis is given below.

Figure 1Onion Diagram of organizational culture
(Source: Onion Diagram of organizational culture by Geert Hofstede, 2020)
Rituals
Rituals refers to the collective activities. It is basically not required for the purpose of
achieving the desired goals but is actually considered as the essential element and take as
very necessary for the members of the culture (Kharkongor, Chatterjee and Chakrabarti,
2019).Because of this reason, it is being performed for their own sake and satisfy themselves.
It involves the ways of greeting one another, paying regards to each other, various ways of
organizing social and religious events and so forth. It is a complete set of things which is
being done in culture in contrast to another culture like presenting business card, inviting
people, interacting with the people who are invited. Based on the two autobiographies, it can
be stated that both the autobiographies are having some similarities and dissimilarities. On
account of similarities, both have great respect for their culture. Proper tradition is being
followedlike in Romania, Christmas and Easter is being celebrated along with other evets like
name days which involves cooking traditional food items, sweets, cakes and having parties.
In the other culture as well, which is a Muslim culture, it is essential for attending the mosque
each day in order to gain more knowledge about the religion. Even after, the end of the month
of Ramadan, Muslims fast all across the globe and celebrates their festivities.