According to Dell Hymes, 'cultural competence' is that aspect of our competence "that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts." It is a "dynamic, interpersonal construct that can be examined only by means of the overt performance of two or more individuals in the process of communication."
The four components of cultural competence are as follows:
1. Grammatical competence
2. Discourse competence
3. Sociolinguistic competence
4. Strategic competence
I tried to gauge my own cultural competence based on the four components in Korean. I am still not even remotely grammatically competent. My discourse competence similarly low, as I can pass with simple spoken conversation but I would falter with lengthy written texts like news articles. Regarding sociolinguistic competence, I think I this kind of competence can only be increased if one is in the society of the target language since it deals with an understanding of the social context. As such, nuances escape me when I watch Korean dramas; even if I understand the words, the gravity of the words or the humor of a scene escape me. I think I am strongest with strategic competence out of the four components. I view the fourth competence as something more inherent in a person as it is "the competence underlying our ability to make repairs, to cope with imperfect knowledge, and to sustain communication through 'paraphrase, circumlocution, repetition, hesitation, avoidance, and guessing, as well as shifts in register and style'." It is something that informs all communication strategies.
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