Cultural Intelligence: How Do We Relate To Other Cultures?

We often talk about emotional intelligence, but very little about cultural intelligence. The first is considered a useful skill for perceiving, assimilating, understanding and regulating one’s own emotions and those of others, which favors emotional and intellectual growth. It is from this information that we interpret the world around us, which determines our way of thinking and behaving.

Usually, it is considered very important when it comes to interpersonal relationships, but when relationships are established with people from a different culture, then another type of intelligence must also be considered: cultural intelligence.

Cultural intelligence

But what is cultural intelligence? It is nothing more than the ability to adapt when interacting with people from different cultures. For example, when we travel to a country that speaks a language other than ours and we expect others to adapt their way of speaking so that we can understand them. Do you do the same?

The components of cultural intelligence

Cultural intelligence has four components. One motivational component, one cognitive, another metacognitive and, finally, the behavioral one.

• The motivational component emphasizes the intrinsic interest in learning about other cultures and interacting with different people. That desire to know and understand different things.

• The cognitive component deals with the knowledge of the rules of the other culture. Do you know the monetary and legal system of the other culture? Do you know how to deal with people from the other culture based on their social norms?

• The metacognitive component refers to transcultural consciousness. We talk about understanding cultural aspects when a person makes judgments about his own thinking and that of others. Finally, understand the ideas of others starting from their culture.

• The behavioral component refers to the ability to speak and gesticulate correctly according to the rules of the other culture. Who hasn’t had a problem when asking for two beers in England? We have to ask ourselves how much we know about the other culture. Do you know their language? Do you know what are the rites that other religions practice? Do you know what gesture they use to say “ok”? Also, are you able to adapt your language when talking to someone from a different culture? Do you respect their actions? Are you able to find similarities with your culture?

Perhaps, in this era characterized by globalization, to the insistence on the need to develop our emotional intelligence we should add the learning of cultural intelligence, so we can better understand other cultures and, in the end, get to know each other better, because we know the it is nothing other than knowing oneself.

Cultural intelligence in Afghanistan

What would you think if someone kicked your front door? Of course, this would seem annoying to you, but perhaps not as much as it is for the inhabitants of Afghanistan, who see this gesture as a real insult.

One case that highlighted cultural differences, and which prompted armies to start considering cultural intelligence, was the war in Afghanistan.

One of the gestures that the soldiers made all the time, and which was not at all appreciated by the Afghans, was to let the dogs into their homes. In Italy, this can be very annoying or not at all important, it depends on the people. However, if instead of a dog, it was a pig, then perhaps we would show a little more reticence.

At first, US soldiers were unaware that dogs were not well regarded and that, in Afghanistan, they are not pets, so they let them into people’s homes without any problems.

These two behaviors, among the many other differences that arose, are examples of how the same behavior is not always perceived in the same way by different cultures. Fortunately, General David Petraeus, head of the troops of the time, realized the lack his men suffered in terms of emotional intelligence and was able to remedy it.