Cultural Competence vs Cultural Humility: The Differences

As our world becomes more connected, it’s super important to know how to connect well with people from different cultures. Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility are two ideas that have come up to help us create inclusive spaces. Even though both want to improve how we understand each other across cultures, they have different ways of doing it.

Cultural Competence

Cultural competence is about learning how to understand and get along with people from different cultures. It means knowing about their customs, traditions, and how they communicate. It’s like gaining the skills to connect and interact with others in a friendly and respectful way, no matter where they’re from.

Major Elements of Cultural Competence

1. Learn about Different Cultures: Understand how people from various backgrounds live and what’s important to them. Like if your friend is from another country, ask about their traditions and daily life. Learn what makes their culture special, like the food they eat or the celebrations they have.
2. Know Cultural Rules: Be aware of how people from different cultures do things so you can respect their customs. Imagine you visit a friend’s house. If you know they have a custom of taking off shoes inside, you can follow that rule to be polite and show respect.
3. Be Good at Talking to Different Cultures: Practice talking and understanding others from different backgrounds. This includes paying attention to how we communicate without words. Suppose you have classmates from different countries. Practice speaking clearly and listening well. Pay attention to their body language – it’s like understanding how they feel without them saying it out loud.

Related Info: Bicultural Identity: One Identity, Two Worlds

Cultural Humility

Cultural humility is like having a friendly chat with someone from a different culture. It’s about being open to learning from them and understanding that you don’t know everything. It’s like saying, “I want to listen and learn from you,” and being respectful in our conversations.

Major Elements of Cultural Humility

1. Self-Reflection: Cultural humility says we should always think about our own thoughts and ideas. We need to realize we might not know everything about different cultures, and it’s okay to learn from others. if you meet someone with different customs, cultural humility makes you think, “Hmm, maybe I don’t know everything about their way of doing things. Let me learn more and be open-minded.”

2. Openness to Others’ Perspectives: Cultural humility is about always being ready to learn from others, no matter how much you already know. It understands that everyone has their own unique background, and their thoughts are valuable. Imagine you’re in a group project with people from different countries. Cultural humility means you’re open to hearing their ideas and respecting their way of thinking, even if it’s different from yours.

3. Building Relationships: Cultural humility focuses on making real friends with people from various backgrounds. It’s not about just learning facts; it’s about forming connections and truly understanding each other. If you have neighbors from another culture, cultural humility encourages you to go beyond just knowing about their traditions. It means spending time with them, listening to their stories, and building a friendship based on genuine understanding.

Cultural Competence vs Cultural Humility

1. Static vs. Dynamic Approach: Cultural competence is like having a fixed way of doing things. It’s about learning specific skills. Cultural humility is more flexible. It knows that understanding different cultures keeps changing and growing.
   • Example: Imagine learning about a new culture. Cultural competence might make you feel like you’ve learned everything. But with cultural humility, you think, “I can always learn more; it’s a journey that never stops.”
2. Expertise vs. Learning Journey: Cultural competence can make you feel like an expert, someone who knows a lot. Cultural humility sees learning about cultures as a journey – always curious and ready to discover more.
   • Example: Learning about a new culture with cultural competence might make you feel like an expert after reading a book. But with cultural humility, you always say, “I’m always learning, and every experience teaches me something new.”
3. Individual vs. Relationship-Centered: Cultural competence cares about how one person can handle different cultures. Cultural humility cares about making real connections and learning together.
   • Example: If you work in a diverse team, cultural competence might focus on your ability alone. Cultural humility would encourage making strong friendships with your team members, sharing experiences, and learning from each other.

Conclusion: In our big and diverse world, it’s important to learn about different cultures (cultural competence) and be open to learning from others (cultural humility). Learning about cultures helps us know useful things, and being open to learning means understanding ourselves and treating others nicely. When we use both of these ways, we can create places where everyone feels welcome, and people from different backgrounds can work and get along together.