PAKISTANI CULTURE: UNITY IN DIVERSITY OR DIVERSITY IN UNITY?

Abstract

Cross-cultural interactions are highly demanding, as they require the participants to have sufficient knowledge of each other’s’ culture, lack of which can act as an obstacle in successful communication. It is through cross-cultural communication and the problems that arise through it, which makes one realize that sharing a common language is not a guarantee that the communication would be carried out smoothly. There is something beyond language which has to be mastered to sustain the thread of communication in cross-cultural or intercultural contact. This inter-cultural contact can be either between two culturally diverse societies when people travel from their place of origin to another country for a specific purpose and a limited period of time or among people belonging to ethnically diverse groups within multi-cultural societies, like Pakistan. The current paper focuses on both the types of cross-cultural communication. The aim of this paper is twofold: to make the local people aware of culture specific no rms that operate within different ethno-linguistic groups belonging to different regions of the country, and to
familiarize foreigners with different communicative norms that constitute what is known as Pakistani culture. The paper ends with a few suggestions that can help minimize chances of miscommunication among culturally heterogeneous groups.