The reasons to be cultural competent are obvious. You can make new friends, learn about different life perspectives, try things you have never heard of, and change your own world view. Cultural competence is measured by four main components: awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills.
There are so many ways to become more culturally competent, just as long as you have an open mind and an open heart.
Staying aware when learning about a culture is important. Make sure you fully examine the beliefs and values of a culture and don't assign them a stereotype.
Try not to judge those beliefs with an unfair mindset. Stand back from your personal perspective, and step into theirs. Most cultural misunderstanding happens when someone chooses to view cultures with their own means. You have to be willing to look outside yourself.
Your attitude strongly affects your cultural competency. If you aren't open to accepting another culture's beliefs then you won't ever understand them. Remove your emotions from your education.
Allowing your personal feelings to determine your treatment of a specific culture can lead to discrimination. Cultural differences in values, beliefs, and perspectives will always exist. But those differences shouldn't determine how those who belong to that culture are treated.
Learning about different cultures is one of the most fun ways to obtain cultural competence. You can read magazines, read books, watch documentaries, study their history, or even learn a foreign language.
By learning a foreign language, you can get one of the deepest insights into another culture. Also by learning the language, you remove any superficial appreciation for the culture and replace it with a genuine connection.
Finally, having the skills necessary is a key part of obtaining cultural competence.
Without learning skills, you still lack the ability to navigate cultural differences. Actively practice your communication with other cultures, and stay involved.
Without that involvement, your knowledge, attitude, and awareness aren't going to grant you sufficiency in cultural competence. You can gain these skills simply by talking with people belonging to different cultures. You will gain incomparable insight, and you'll make a new friend.
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