Hi, my name is Sylvan, I am currently completing my degree in PR as an undergraduate student at UTS and as part of my assessment I am also completing my internship at Cultural Perspective Group. One of my tasks at Cultural Perspectives is to review the daily online article. Today, I came across an article that I would really like to share with you, titled ‘Scared to talk about diversity? by Dominic Price.
The article resonated with me on so many levels as I remember arriving in Australia from China seven years ago and there were both times and instances that I was afraid to speak English to the others because I was afraid about saying the wrong thing then unintentionally causing unnecessary conflict. However, the turning point was when I stopped trying to talk and sat back and spent more time listening and then asking questions. I knew it wasn’t that hard to open mouth and use English if I felt there was less judgement. My mantra is to always listen and stay both friendly and open-mind.
After seven years I have learned through self-education that all people think differently and we all come from many walks of life and to embrace the diversity in conversations.
Dominic’s commentary about “It’s true that diversity conversations can be very nuanced, which creates fear about saying the wrong thing. But there is a pretty simple fix, which is to ask questions. Listen to and believe the stories from people from backgrounds different from yours.”
A good starting point to embrace people from different cultural backgrounds is to be a great listener.
To read the original article, please go https://collectivehub.com/2017/06/scared-to-talk-about-diversity-ill-go-first/
This article is contributed by Sylvan He, an international student at UTS.