Barriers to communication

Noisy environment - Having a noisy environment makes it hard for the listener to hear what the speaker is saying because of the background noise. To avoid this it is better to speak in an environment that is quiet so you can hear each other when you speak to each other. If moving to quiet environments are not possible, you can text or write down what you’re saying.

Deaf - Having to learn a whole new way of speaking to deaf people (sign language) is a barrier. Even though deaf people can lip read to some extent it is still very hard for them to communicate with you because they have to either write down what they are saying or use sign language. To help speaking to deaf people, lessons on sign language will help or you can give them something like a whiteboard to write on. You can also text to each other via mobile.

Accent - People with thick accents are hard to understand for some people who are not used to how they speak. For example i can't understand people from Liverpool. This usually depends on the person; some people might understand an accent and some might not. To avoid this speaker can talk slowly, pronounce well and also use Standard English. If you still don’t understand each other you can simply write down what you’re saying and give it to the person you’re speaking to. You can also use texts.

Language - Language is a big barrier because it’s a different language, it is very hard to make each other understand what you’re trying to say. Even though most people who don’t know much English might understand a bit, it might not be enough to communicate. If this barrier is very common (for example living in a foreign country that doesn’t speak English) it might be a good idea to take lessons on learning the language if you are living for a long period of time. If this is short time using something like Google translate to type into can be useful. If what you are trying to say is simple then hand gestures can help you communicate.

Slang - Speaking slang might confuse the listener if they don't know what you are talking about. Slang might also differ depending where you live. Not everyone understands slang so it is better to just speak Standard English so everyone can understand what you are speaking about.

Lacks of interest - If you are not interested in what people say and they speak for a while, you tend to ignore them after a while because you lose focus. As the listener to avoid conflict act like you are interested. It is important to keep contact to person you are communicating say is a colleague at your workplace. If you are the speaker and you realise your boring the other person, either change the subject or you can just not speak about it any further.

Blindness – Communicating with a blind person might be hard for example, trying to explain what something looks like is very hard to make a blind person understand for example trying to explain colour.

Distance - Trying to speak to someone who is far away results you to shout across to make the listener understand which can be unclear. To communicate you can either get closer to the person you are talking to or you can text or phone the person.

Cultural/religious differences – this can be a barrier because some cultures/religions do not allow male and female to speak to each other without the presence of another male family member/friend. This can be a barrier because you cannot speak freely because someone is constantly there listening in and you cannot talk about personal things easily. Sometimes there is no solution to this unless for example the female member or the culture/religion that has this barrier wants to speak to you. You can always call/text her but it is important to understand that it could ruin her relationship with her family/friends so keeping it private is probably a good idea.

Gender - This can be a barrier because most men and women are different on the way they communicate. Men tend to speak to people about his emphasise on power, status and independence whereas women tends to try to speak to someone to get close and intimate/have some connection. Women tend to say men do not listen, but men tend to say that women complain on a lot. Men boast more about their achievements or accomplishments (for example high score in games when you’re young, promotion at your workplace when you get older). So gender can be a barrier because they can behave in different ways, you avoid this barrier it is good to understand this and work around it and communicate how you feel/what you think.