Glossary of Terms Related to Cultural Awareness

Cross-Cultural: Processes, communication, etc., which involves two or more cultural groups; often implies the bridging of a gap between the groups.

Broad meaning:
All that people have learned and shared, including skills, knowledge, language, values, perceptions, motives, symbols, etc.

Narrow meaning:
The dynamic patterns of learning behaviors, values, or beliefs exhibited by a group of people who share historical and geographic proximity.

Ethnic/Cultural Competence:

The capacity to function effectively in more than one culture, requiring the ability to appreciate, understand and interact with numbers of ethnic groups other than one's own.

Ethnic Group:

A group of people bound together by common traits which include either or both:

1. shared history and understandings and
2. similar physical characteristics.

Official meaning:
A lesser number compared to the "majority" as in votes, years of age, or a certain aggregate of subgroups in the population.

Implied meaning:
Lesser status, power, and influence, as can be seen from synonyms of the word "majority," such as "dominant."

Prejudice:

Over-generalized, oversimplified, or exaggerated beliefs associated with a category or group of people which are not changed, even in the fact of contrary evidence. Any group can prejudge or be prejudiced toward another group.

Stereotypes:

Rigid preconceptions we hold about all members of a particular group whether it be defined along racial, religious, sexual, or other lines. The belief in a perceived characteristic of the group is applied to all members without regard for individual variations.