Pellegrio Riccardi (Speaker) talks about cross cultural communication, its differences and issues.

1. Cross Cultural Psychology TEDx talks AssignmentNo.3
1 | P a g e
Cross Cultural Communication: TEDx talks
In this TEDx talk, the speaker is basically half-English and half-
Italian. Currently, he is living in Norway, has travelled throughout the
world and has experienced many different cultures. He thinks that
people often believe what others want them to believe. He talks about
how it is like belonging to one culture and trying to adjust with other
cultures, the difficulties we face, the odd looks we get, how we are judged and misperceived.
In the beginning, he talks about people belonging to different cultures and the difference in their
English accent. People belonging to a specific ethnicity are expected to have a specific accent and
if they talk in a proper British or American accent (the most acceptable ones), others find it quite
surprising and make fun of them if they talk in their ethnic accent. Speaker tried different accents
as social experiment to see people’s reaction and he observed that people actually treat us
differently based on our communication accent. If we talk in a good British or American accent,
no matter where we are, people actually take us seriously. But at the same time if people talk in
Italian, Australian, Indian or Latino accent people find it funny and laugh at us.
In cross cultural settings especially our institutes or workplace, we are given weightage according
to our English speaking skills. People judge us the way they want to and make assumptions based
on our communication skills and physical traits.
In every culture, there is a concept of “Accepted and
familiar”. People from different nationalities might
describe the same thing with completely different
words based on their concept of accepted and
familiar. For example, in one culture the “Accepted
and familiar” even when it comes to making queue,
such a minor behavior, would be completely
different from another. In Britain, people actually give space and are patient but at the same time
in Norway people have the belief of first come first serve that is equality. Now this Norwegian
behavior might be considered inconsiderate and rude in Britain but at the same time in Norwegian
culture, it’s their own “Accepted and Familiar” behavior. In Norway, people believe in equality
which leads to more casual and less bothersome society no matter the place. But the same type of
Pellegrio Riccardi (Speaker)

2. Cross Cultural Psychology TEDx talks AssignmentNo.3
2 | P a g e
behavior is considered irritating and uncomfortable in other cultures because people have a habit
of jumping to negative conclusions rather than positive ones.
When it comes to cross cultural communication, it becomes really difficult to navigate through all
these differences. If a minor action of queuing is so different is every cultures, how many other
major differences would there be? The only way to overcome these differences is through learning
and we can only learn if we are curious. Curiosity is the key to cross-
cultural interaction. Even when we are just sitting with someone from
different culture, we can have a small talk through curious simple
questioning and then pick some specific words from their answer, make
question from those words and so on. But that is only possible if the next
person is not so communication economic. Some cultures use less words to communicate while
others might use way too many words for conveying just a small information. In Nordic cultures,
people use a lot of words to say little. For example, British people would say “sorry, I didn’t catch
what you just said?” but a Norwegian would just need to say “hae?”. Now this Hae? Word might
be negatively perceived as rude and non-sophisticated by other cultures. Every culture has many
things which are misperceived by other nationalities. For example, Dutch people are misperceived
as Champions of complaining, but nobody tries to understand why people in specific cultures
behave in specific manner like Dutch people complain a lot because they are always looking for
something better.
Traffic rules are universal but every different culture has modified the rules their own way. In
some countries, people follow proper line spacing, in others we are not even sure where the road
even leads because of bad traffic. It is not about right or wrong anymore when it comes to cultures,
it is more about what is “Accepted ad Familiar” in their society. For example, in Norway, even a
few centimeter parking issue would lead to fine but at the same time in Italy, the parking guards
would themselves try to dissolve the issue through discussion and find the most profitable way out
for both parties.
The best we can do is take the best out of different cultures and combine those best parts to form
a new culture which would be “Accepted and familiar” throughout the world. Cross cultural
interaction is not about judging and making fun of others. It is more about expanding our

3. Cross Cultural Psychology TEDx talks AssignmentNo.3
3 | P a g e
boundaries and acceptance level and to be less judgmental. Create your own new boundaries
through cross cultural communication.