Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity Guidelines
- View human difference as positive and a cause for celebration;
- Have a clear sense of your own ethnic, cultural, and racial identity;
- in order to learn about others, you need to understand and be prepared to share your own culture;
- Be aware of your own discomfort when you encounter differences in race, color, religion, sexual orientation, language, and ethnicity;
- Be aware of the assumptions that you hold about people of cultures different from your own;
- Be aware of your stereotypes as they arise and develop personal strategies for reducing the harm that they cause;
- Be aware of how your cultural perspective influences your judgments about what appropriate, normal, or superior behaviors, values, and communication styles are;
- Accept that in there can be uncertainty, that can make you anxious. It means that you need time to get more information;
- Take any opportunity to put yourself in places where you can learn about differences and create relationships; and
- Understand that you will be perceived as a person with power and racial privilege.
Gender Sensitivity
It refers to the aim of understanding and taking account of the societal and cultural factors involved in gender-based exclusion and discrimination in the most diverse spheres of public and private life.
Gender Sensitive Language
It is the realization of gender equality in written and spoken language. It is attained when women and men and those who do not conform to the binary gender system are made visible and addressed in language as persons of equal value, dignity, integrity, and respect.
Gender Neutral Words
- ancestors, forebears (instead of forefathers)
- Artifical, manufactured (instead of man-made)
- Average/ordinary person (instead of common man)
- Chair, chairperson, coordinator (instead of chairman)
- Courteous, cultrues (instead of ladylike)
- First-year student (instead of freshman)
- Flight attendant (instead of stewardess)
- Human resources (instead of manpower)
- legislator, representative (instead of congressman)
- Mail carrier, letter carrier, postal worker (instead of mailman, postman)
- people, human beings (instead of mankind)
- person, individual (instead of man)
- Police officer (instead of policeman)
- Solidarity (instead of brotherhood)
- To operate, to cover, to staff (instead of to man)
Checklist for Gender Revisions
- Have you used man or men or words containing one of them to refer to people who may be female?
- If you have mentioned someone’s gender, was it necessary to do so?
- Do you use any occupational stereotypes?
- Do you use language that in any away shows a lack of respect for either sex?
- Have you used he, him, his, or himself to refer to people who may be female?
Political Correctness
It is used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society.
Politically Correct Vocabulary
- academic dishonesty (instead of cheating)
- aesthetically challenged (instead of ugly)
- black (instead of negra)
- comb-free (instead of bald)
- differently abled (instead of disabled)
- drug dependent (instead of drug addict)
- dysfunctional family (instead of broken home)
- economically marginalized (instead of poor)
- elderly, senior (instead of old)
- ethnically disoriented (instead of dishonest)
- Hearing impaired (instead of deaf)
- Informal settlers (instead of squatters)
- Intellectual disability, intellectual development disorder (instead of mental retardation)
- Intellectually impaired (instead of stupid)
- Little people (instead of midget)
- Morally challenged (instead of a crook)
- Nondiscretionary fragrance (instead of body odor)
- Outdoor urban (instead of homeless)
- People of mass (instead of fat)
- Rape survivor (instead of rape victim)
- sexually dysfunctional (instead of perverted)
- Socially misaligned (instead of psychopath)
- Technologically challenged (instead of computer illiterate)
- Vertically challenged (instead of short)
- Visually challenged (instead of blind)
Varieties of Register of Spoken and Written Language
A variety refers to any variant of a language which can be sufficiently delimited from one another.
Variety of Language
Pidgin
is a new language which develops in situations where speakers of different languages need to communicate but do not share a common language.
A lexifier is a particular language where the vocabulary of a pidgin comes from.
Creole
It is a pidgin that becomes the first language of the children and the mother tongue of a community.
Regional Dialect
It is not a distinct language but a variety of a language spoken in a particular area of a country.
Minority Dialect
It is a variety used as a marker of identity, usually alongside a standard variety, by the members of a particular minority ethnic group.
Indigenized Varieties
These are spoken mainly as second languages in ex-colonies with multilingual populations.
Types of Registers
Frozen
It refers to historic language or communication that is intended to remain unchanged, like a constitution or a prayer.
Formal
It is used in professional, academic, or legal settings where communication is expected to be respectful, uninterrupted, and restrained. Slang is never used and contractions are rare.
Consultative
It is used in conversation when they are speaking with someone who has specialized knowledge or who is offering advice. Tone is often respectful (use of courtesy titles), but may be more casual if the relationship is longstanding or friendly.
Casual
It is used when they are with friends, close acquaintances and co-workers, and family.
Intimate
It is reserved for special occasions, usually between only two people and often in private