Cross Cultural Communisation: A Case Study with Reflections on the Ministry to Vietnamese People in Ulsan Presbyterian Church

Abstract

The author would like to address the issue of cross cultural communication with a specific case study of foreigners’ ministry of Ulsan Presbyterian Church to Vietnamese people in Ulsan metropolitan city. Upon this case study, the purpose of the paper is aiming at evaluation and reflection on the practical experiences in terms of cross cultural communication for the Vietnamese in Ulsan area. According to the current statistics taken by Korean Immigration Service(KIS), Vietnamese migrant population in South Korea is the third largest group of foreigners. In Vietnam as well as in Korea, there are certain churches and missionaries who, though investing their great effort in terms of time, labor, and finance; have failed in recognition of these dissimilarities, and thus, their ministry becomes unfruitful, even frustrated. There are certain obstacles in communication of the Gospel cross culturally to realize and overcome for interpersonal interac tion with Vietnamese migrant groups. Those obstacles could be non-verbal behavior, prior experiences and preexisting attitudes, beliefs, or perceptions as well. And it needs to keep in mind, “acquire culture knowledge by studying national cultures; study role behaviors of different cultures relative to communication and decision making; know and have an in-depth understanding of the language of context.”