Regarding the communication scale from low-context to high-context, have you noted any communication differences and preferences in your host country? Have you had any miscommunication situations that you have had to overcome? Have you encountered any challenges or differences in communication in your work environment?
I grew up communicating in a pretty low-context way, and honestly, I didn’t even know that was a “style” until I was outside of it. In the U.S., I’m used to people saying exactly what they mean. If something is wrong, someone tells me directly. If a deadline needs to move, someone says the deadline needs to move. The meaning is basically all right there in the words, and I don’t have to do a ton of reading between the lines.
Coming into my host country, I quickly realized that’s not really how communication works here, especially in a professional setting. A lot more of the meaning lives in tone, timing, and context rather than being spelled out directly. Feedback might come as a gentle question instead of a direct statement. A hesitation or a pause can actually be saying a lot, even if nothing specific was said out loud. At first, I completely missed this. I’d walk out of a conversation thinking everything was fine, when there was actually a signal in there that I just wasn’t picking up on yet.
The clearest example of this for me happened pretty early on with my project itself. I was working on partnership proposals connected to Lab2World, and for a while, I actually had the direction of the partnership a little backwards in my head. I misunderstood who was providing what to whom, and it took a bit of back and forth with my supervisor before I really understood the correct framing.
Looking back, I don’t think this happened because anyone explained it poorly. I think it happened because I was used to communication where if something was unclear, someone would usually just directly correct it right away, in plain terms, without me having to ask multiple times. Here, I had to be the one to slow down, re-ask, and clarify, instead of expecting the correction to just be handed to me clearly the first time. On top of that, while my boss spoke English, sometimes the wording would get mixed up and not come out exactly how I anticipated. Once I recognized that, I started approaching conversations differently. I began repeating things back in my own words just to confirm I actually understood. Instead of assuming I did, I made sure to speak more slowly with my boss so he could understand exactly what I was asking for.
Since then, I’ve had to make a few real adjustments to how I communicate day to day. My supervisor and I also have a language barrier on top of the high-context communication style, so I’ve learned to keep my messages short, plain, and broken into simple steps rather than long explanations. I ask more clarifying questions now, even ones that might feel a little repetitive, just to make sure nothing gets lost. I’ve also gotten better at paying attention to smaller cues, like how quickly someone responds or how a suggestion is phrased, instead of only listening for a direct statement telling me something is wrong.
This has honestly been one of the hardest parts of the internship, but also one of the most useful skills I’ve picked up. I used to think being a good communicator just meant being clear when I spoke. Now I think being a good communicator also means being a good listener for things that aren’t said outright, and being willing to double-check instead of assuming I got it right the first time.
Going forward, I don’t think I’ll communicate the same way I did before this internship, even back in a low-context environment. I’ve become someone who checks for understanding more, who reads a little more into tone and timing, and who doesn’t panic when a miscommunication happens, but instead sees it as something to work through calmly.
This experience really showed me that communication differences aren’t about one style being better than the other. It’s about learning to adjust, ask the right questions, and meet people where they are, especially when you’re working across a language barrier and a completely different communication style than the one you grew up with.
