ExpertMedium2 marksMultiple Choice
Syllabus E: Personal effectiveness and communication in businessSyllabus ECommunicationBarriers to Communication
ACCA · Question 22 · Syllabus E: Personal effectiveness and communication in business
Section A
BuildGlobal is an engineering firm working on a project in Japan. The lead architect from the UK sends an email to the Japanese site manager stating, 'We need to table this issue until next week.' In the UK, this means 'postpone the discussion', but the Japanese manager interprets it as 'put it on the table for immediate discussion'. What type of communication barrier has occurred here?
Section A
BuildGlobal is an engineering firm working on a project in Japan. The lead architect from the UK sends an email to the Japanese site manager stating, 'We need to table this issue until next week.' In the UK, this means 'postpone the discussion', but the Japanese manager interprets it as 'put it on the table for immediate discussion'. What type of communication barrier has occurred here?
Answer options:
A.
Physical noise
B.
Semantic noise
C.
Psychological noise
D.
Status barrier
How to approach this question
Identify that the breakdown happened because a specific idiom ('table this issue') has different meanings in different dialects/cultures. This is a meaning-based barrier, known as semantic noise.
Full Answer
B.Semantic noise✓ Correct
Semantic noise refers to interference created when the sender and receiver have different understandings of the words, jargon, or idioms used in the message. Cross-cultural communication is particularly vulnerable to semantic noise when idioms are translated literally or have opposite meanings in different regions.
Common mistakes
Choosing 'Psychological noise' because it involves the mind. Psychological noise is about emotions/bias, whereas semantic is strictly about language and meaning.
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