Barriers to Communication

• Physical   (time, environment, comfort, needs, physical medium)
• Cultural   (ethnic, religious, and social differences)
• Perceptional  (viewing what is said from your own mindset)
• Motivational  (mental inertia)
• Experiential  (lack of similar experience)
• Emotional   (personal feelings at the moment)
• Linguistic   (different languages or vocabulary)
• Non-verbal  (non-word messages)
• Competition  (noise, doing other things besides listening)
• Words (we assign a meaning to a word often because of culture -- note the difference in the meaning of "police" (contrast Berrien Springs versus Benton Harbor or any inner city perspective) or  "boy" (contrast white male with black male perspectives)
• Context (high / low)
• Purpose (example:  note the difference in communication between men versus women;  for men it's report-talk versus rapport-talk or information versus bonding
• Mode (differences in way a message is sent).  Note the black versus white modes:

Black	White
High keyed Argument Spontaneous Boasting Person Oriented	Low keyed Discussion Controlled / Self-Restrained Understanding Task Oriented
Blacks perceive whites as detached, devious, impersonal, condescending, hypocritical, avoiding eye contact, and too silent	Whites perceive blacks as aggressive, over-emotional, angry, confrontational, interruptive, too personal, showboating

• Gestures  (misunderstood gestures are a major barrier see discussion on non-verbal language)
• Variations in language – accent, dialect
• Slang - jargon - colloquialism
• Different forms or reasons for verbal interaction
Dueling – seeing who can get the upper hand (playing the dozens)
Repartee conversation – taking short turns rather than monologue
Ritual conversation – standard replies with little meaning to words themselves (i.e. most US greetings)
Self-disclosure.  The level of self-disclosure is culturally determined.  Not all cultures wish to give personal information; some want to do business without knowing the other person while others insist on full knowledge first.