If I think back on all the things that I learned in this class I think that the topic that interested me the most and the one that I will remember in the future was the one where we looked at our culture. I thought that it was interesting that the world we live in today can be so diverse and have so many different perspectives on just one certain topic. I was able to look at my culture and see this that I hadn’t before. With every generation of people there comes a new perspective or way of looking at things. The ideas and the beliefs that our grandparents or great grandparents had, seem very conservative and old-fashioned and our children’s children will think that of us.
Another thing that stuck with me though this class was the activity where we viewed people’s actions and norms. This was a fun activity and watching how we react to others and the things that we do without knowing was fascinating. After doing the activity I still find myself doing the same things that the people I viewed were doing and see the same types of norms that I saw during my observation.
I think the biggest thing that I learned from this class was that every person has their own culture and their own background. Doing the activity about our ethnicity showed me that everyone grew up with different views and ideas. We are the way we are because of the people that we grew up with. Doing these activities and having to think about my culture, ethnicity, and about the different accents there are just in the United States opened my eye to something that I had never thought about. One thing that I will do is to continue think about my culture and why we act the way we do. How we do things without knowing it and the norms that are set that we unknowingly follow. I think that after taking this class I will be able to better understand why intercultural conflicts occur and ways that we can help prevent them. We did a lot of different activities that taught us about intercultural communication and helped us to better understand what intercultural communication really was about. What activity did you enjoy doing the most?
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Activity 11
What’s The Conflict?
I’m doing this activity on the recent conflict that is taking place in my town. Everywhere around the world we are seeing people getting laid off or losing their jobs and companies shutting down. Where I live this is taking place and recently schools in my area are considering laying off all of the janitorial staff. This is causing quite a conflict because the school is planning on letting go of the janitors and hire a cleaning company to take over their jobs. The reason that the school is considering this drastic move is that it will save the school at least 350,000 dollars to up to 1.3 million dollars in the next four years. Although the school would be saving a lot of money and that money could be used to give the students a better education most of the janitors that work at the school have children that attend t he school also. My father worked as janitor at the school for many, many years so part of my thinks that letting go of the Janitors is a bad thing and the other part sees the advantages of the layoffs.
The conflict that is going on is that some community members believe that the superintendent of the school is getting paid too much and if they would have pay cuts then they would be able to afford to keep a few of the janitors on staff. This is making the community uneasy in a recent town meeting; the members of the community filled the large board room and left others out in the hall. Everyone wanted their voice to be heard on the topic and wanted to support the janitors of the school. Parents have even gone as far as the say that if the janitors are cut they will move to a different district that supports their janitors. The community feels that the janitors help keep the school in as good of conditions as they are. They keep everything running smoothly and give the students a better learning environment.
I think that one way that they could help to resolve this conflict would be to offer the janitors less hours. The school would still be able to save money and keep the janitors on staff if they would just cut back on hours. Also they could offer the janitors that have worked at the school the longest to stay. By doing this they would cause less conflict between the school educators and the community. There are two sides to every story and in this case you have to think of what is going to be the best situation for the school. If cutting all the janitors would save that much money than the school could afford to give students a better education, but could have that amount do just the same and save some of the current janitors from losing their jobs.
How do you feel about this situation? Should the school cut the janitors, save money, but have the community upset or should they figure out a different situation?
I’m doing this activity on the recent conflict that is taking place in my town. Everywhere around the world we are seeing people getting laid off or losing their jobs and companies shutting down. Where I live this is taking place and recently schools in my area are considering laying off all of the janitorial staff. This is causing quite a conflict because the school is planning on letting go of the janitors and hire a cleaning company to take over their jobs. The reason that the school is considering this drastic move is that it will save the school at least 350,000 dollars to up to 1.3 million dollars in the next four years. Although the school would be saving a lot of money and that money could be used to give the students a better education most of the janitors that work at the school have children that attend t he school also. My father worked as janitor at the school for many, many years so part of my thinks that letting go of the Janitors is a bad thing and the other part sees the advantages of the layoffs.
The conflict that is going on is that some community members believe that the superintendent of the school is getting paid too much and if they would have pay cuts then they would be able to afford to keep a few of the janitors on staff. This is making the community uneasy in a recent town meeting; the members of the community filled the large board room and left others out in the hall. Everyone wanted their voice to be heard on the topic and wanted to support the janitors of the school. Parents have even gone as far as the say that if the janitors are cut they will move to a different district that supports their janitors. The community feels that the janitors help keep the school in as good of conditions as they are. They keep everything running smoothly and give the students a better learning environment.
I think that one way that they could help to resolve this conflict would be to offer the janitors less hours. The school would still be able to save money and keep the janitors on staff if they would just cut back on hours. Also they could offer the janitors that have worked at the school the longest to stay. By doing this they would cause less conflict between the school educators and the community. There are two sides to every story and in this case you have to think of what is going to be the best situation for the school. If cutting all the janitors would save that much money than the school could afford to give students a better education, but could have that amount do just the same and save some of the current janitors from losing their jobs.
How do you feel about this situation? Should the school cut the janitors, save money, but have the community upset or should they figure out a different situation?
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Activity 10
My Culture
1. Who do the members of your culture consider to be part of their family?
My culture considers my immediate family members and extended members to be family. At all of our birthday parties we have our immediate family, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.
2. What are some roles and responsibilities of specific family members?
The roles and responsibilities vary from person to person in our culture and also by the age of the person. I live on a farm so there are a lot of responsibilities and roles that everyone in the family has to do or take care of. My mother was the one that milked the cows and took care of the farm and my dad worked as a custodian. My mom was always busy so when I got my license it was my responsibility to drive them to school and pick them up from their practices. When we got older we gained new responsibilities we had to get jobs of our own so we could pay for our own stuff and we had to do more things around the house like mowing lawn, doing our laundry, and washing dishes.
3. Are family members encouraged to stay in the same house/area as their family after adolescence?
In my culture it is not a bad thing to live with your parents after adolescence. I am currently living at home with my mom for the summer. It is not looked down on to live with your parents while you are getting on your feet and finding a job or looking for your own place. Family is a big thing in my culture and I hope to live close to my family when I find my own place. All my family and extended family live in the same general area. So staying around the same area means staying close to home.
4. What are the cultural norms and taboos regarding dating and meeting people with whom to become romantically involved?
Having a close family life and living with my mother, two sisters, and my younger brother it is a dominantly female household. It is common around our house to be able to talk openly about the people we date and for them to feel welcome in our house. My boyfriend of 4 years stays at our house most of the time and he is part of our family. If my mom needs something to be fixed around the house she can count on him to get it done. I am close to my younger sister her being only 2 years younger than me we hang out with some of the same friends so if she would date someone that the rest of the family has heard bad things about or someone didn’t like than normally that person would not stick around too long.
5. How are marriage proposals conducted in your culture?
When a person wishes to marry someone in my culture it is common for them to talk to the parents first. The man my sister married asked my parents well before he proposed to her. Respect is a big deal in my culture and if someone did not give the parents that respect it would be difficult to gain it once you were a part of the family.
6. What is the typical wedding like?
Since we are Catholic we are known to have very long wedding ceremonies followed by the dinner reception and dance. There are always a lot of people that show up and are kind of like a family reunion with all the distant relatives. There is normally drinking involved for those who are of age and the dance goes well into the night.
7. How do members of the culture view divorce?
My parents got divorced last spring and my older sister is currently going through a divorce now. Getting divorced is not fronded upon in our culture. If two people are not happy with each other then they should live the rest of their lives stuck with each other and hating each other.
8. If divorce occurs, what are the rights of each partner?
When my parents got divorced, we kids stayed with my mother, we see my dad very often and spend as much time at his house as my mothers. My sister is going through her divorce and her and her ex husband get equal custody of their son. My parents don’t talk to each other much but when they do there are civil with each other.
9. What are the general opinions of the culture toward homosexuality?
In my culture being a homosexual is not looked down on. I have two homosexual cousins who have been dating their partners for many, many years now. I think since they are ten years or so older than me and growing up with them and knowing at a young age that they were gay I never knew them any other way so I always have openly accepted it. Even though some family members are very religious homosexuality is not something that is discriminated against in my culture.
10. How are the general perspectives of this culture the same/different from yours regarding gender roles?
Typically when you think of a famer you would picture a male, well in my case, my mother was the one who milked the cows and ran the farm and my father left for work every day. Since my brother is the youngest one in our family when we were younger my older sister and I where the ones who helped in the field and with the farm work and my brother stayed in the house and cleaned. Some of the similarities between my culture and the general culture are that my mother also cooked and cleaned the house and my dad was the main “bread winner” in our household.
After doing this activity it made me see that I am lucky to have such a close family where I can talk openly about anything and I know that I will be accepted for whoever I am or choose to be.
What was something that you noticed about your culture after doing this activity?
1. Who do the members of your culture consider to be part of their family?
My culture considers my immediate family members and extended members to be family. At all of our birthday parties we have our immediate family, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.
2. What are some roles and responsibilities of specific family members?
The roles and responsibilities vary from person to person in our culture and also by the age of the person. I live on a farm so there are a lot of responsibilities and roles that everyone in the family has to do or take care of. My mother was the one that milked the cows and took care of the farm and my dad worked as a custodian. My mom was always busy so when I got my license it was my responsibility to drive them to school and pick them up from their practices. When we got older we gained new responsibilities we had to get jobs of our own so we could pay for our own stuff and we had to do more things around the house like mowing lawn, doing our laundry, and washing dishes.
3. Are family members encouraged to stay in the same house/area as their family after adolescence?
In my culture it is not a bad thing to live with your parents after adolescence. I am currently living at home with my mom for the summer. It is not looked down on to live with your parents while you are getting on your feet and finding a job or looking for your own place. Family is a big thing in my culture and I hope to live close to my family when I find my own place. All my family and extended family live in the same general area. So staying around the same area means staying close to home.
4. What are the cultural norms and taboos regarding dating and meeting people with whom to become romantically involved?
Having a close family life and living with my mother, two sisters, and my younger brother it is a dominantly female household. It is common around our house to be able to talk openly about the people we date and for them to feel welcome in our house. My boyfriend of 4 years stays at our house most of the time and he is part of our family. If my mom needs something to be fixed around the house she can count on him to get it done. I am close to my younger sister her being only 2 years younger than me we hang out with some of the same friends so if she would date someone that the rest of the family has heard bad things about or someone didn’t like than normally that person would not stick around too long.
5. How are marriage proposals conducted in your culture?
When a person wishes to marry someone in my culture it is common for them to talk to the parents first. The man my sister married asked my parents well before he proposed to her. Respect is a big deal in my culture and if someone did not give the parents that respect it would be difficult to gain it once you were a part of the family.
6. What is the typical wedding like?
Since we are Catholic we are known to have very long wedding ceremonies followed by the dinner reception and dance. There are always a lot of people that show up and are kind of like a family reunion with all the distant relatives. There is normally drinking involved for those who are of age and the dance goes well into the night.
7. How do members of the culture view divorce?
My parents got divorced last spring and my older sister is currently going through a divorce now. Getting divorced is not fronded upon in our culture. If two people are not happy with each other then they should live the rest of their lives stuck with each other and hating each other.
8. If divorce occurs, what are the rights of each partner?
When my parents got divorced, we kids stayed with my mother, we see my dad very often and spend as much time at his house as my mothers. My sister is going through her divorce and her and her ex husband get equal custody of their son. My parents don’t talk to each other much but when they do there are civil with each other.
9. What are the general opinions of the culture toward homosexuality?
In my culture being a homosexual is not looked down on. I have two homosexual cousins who have been dating their partners for many, many years now. I think since they are ten years or so older than me and growing up with them and knowing at a young age that they were gay I never knew them any other way so I always have openly accepted it. Even though some family members are very religious homosexuality is not something that is discriminated against in my culture.
10. How are the general perspectives of this culture the same/different from yours regarding gender roles?
Typically when you think of a famer you would picture a male, well in my case, my mother was the one who milked the cows and ran the farm and my father left for work every day. Since my brother is the youngest one in our family when we were younger my older sister and I where the ones who helped in the field and with the farm work and my brother stayed in the house and cleaned. Some of the similarities between my culture and the general culture are that my mother also cooked and cleaned the house and my dad was the main “bread winner” in our household.
After doing this activity it made me see that I am lucky to have such a close family where I can talk openly about anything and I know that I will be accepted for whoever I am or choose to be.
What was something that you noticed about your culture after doing this activity?
Activity 9
Who Are You on TV?
For this activity I watched the TV series Glee. The show takes place in a high school setting and the focuses is on the Glee club, which is a club that remakes popular songs and performs them in front of audiences. This show has a very diverse group of people, from every shape, size, ethnic background, religion, and sexuality.
To be an American in this show you can be anyone you want to be. You can believe whatever you want and you can look however you want too. The show consisted of having a Middle Eastern principal and students who are Asian, African American, Caucasian, Jewish, Christian, Gay, Mentally disabled, and physically handicapped. All these different cultural backgrounds, religions, sexualities, and disabilities came together to show just how diverse the United States really is. It shows how just one small school can have such a mixing pot of students and to think the show takes place in Ohio.
The Glee Club consists of all these different diversities too. There are the football players and the cheerleaders mixed in with the artsy and the so called “geeks” and they all get made fun of by their own clicks for being in the Glee Club. In this show there really isn’t one certain way that everyone acts. There are football players that are in the Glee Club that get made fun of by other football players and the same with the rest of them. It shows that just because you are in a certain group doesn’t mean that they all have to act the same or look the same or believe in the same things. There are people in every group who are quite, more outgoing, loud, or just plain annoying. This TV series shows that to be an American you can be anything.
If you were watching this show and had no experience with the United States than you would see that the United States is a very diverse place even though I don’t think that every school is as diverse as the one on the TV show you would get that feeling from watching the show. It illustrates that if you are a certain race or religion that doesn’t mean that you are only friends with other people who are the same race or religion. In this show everyone one wants to make it big with their singing and although a few do, it does show that you should just rely on that to get you through life. When watching this show you will see that although you may have a good voice, that doesn’t mean that you can make a career out of it and if you do it won’t come easy and you should have something else to back you up. Glee portrays the United States as it truly is a diversity of cultures, skin colors, and beliefs.
Was your high school this diverse? If so what did your high school consist of?
For this activity I watched the TV series Glee. The show takes place in a high school setting and the focuses is on the Glee club, which is a club that remakes popular songs and performs them in front of audiences. This show has a very diverse group of people, from every shape, size, ethnic background, religion, and sexuality.
To be an American in this show you can be anyone you want to be. You can believe whatever you want and you can look however you want too. The show consisted of having a Middle Eastern principal and students who are Asian, African American, Caucasian, Jewish, Christian, Gay, Mentally disabled, and physically handicapped. All these different cultural backgrounds, religions, sexualities, and disabilities came together to show just how diverse the United States really is. It shows how just one small school can have such a mixing pot of students and to think the show takes place in Ohio.
The Glee Club consists of all these different diversities too. There are the football players and the cheerleaders mixed in with the artsy and the so called “geeks” and they all get made fun of by their own clicks for being in the Glee Club. In this show there really isn’t one certain way that everyone acts. There are football players that are in the Glee Club that get made fun of by other football players and the same with the rest of them. It shows that just because you are in a certain group doesn’t mean that they all have to act the same or look the same or believe in the same things. There are people in every group who are quite, more outgoing, loud, or just plain annoying. This TV series shows that to be an American you can be anything.
If you were watching this show and had no experience with the United States than you would see that the United States is a very diverse place even though I don’t think that every school is as diverse as the one on the TV show you would get that feeling from watching the show. It illustrates that if you are a certain race or religion that doesn’t mean that you are only friends with other people who are the same race or religion. In this show everyone one wants to make it big with their singing and although a few do, it does show that you should just rely on that to get you through life. When watching this show you will see that although you may have a good voice, that doesn’t mean that you can make a career out of it and if you do it won’t come easy and you should have something else to back you up. Glee portrays the United States as it truly is a diversity of cultures, skin colors, and beliefs.
Was your high school this diverse? If so what did your high school consist of?
Monday, June 7, 2010
transitions
I think my biggest transition would have to be leaving my small town and going to college. Even though River Falls isn’t all that big of a town and the school is fairly small, it was a lot different than where I am from. I graduated with a class of just about 100 students and most of the people I was good friends with I had been going to school with since kindergarten. Deciding to go to River Falls was a big decision for me, no one I knew was going to River Falls and all my friends were going to a different college closer to home. One part of me wanted to get away from my home town and the other part of me didn’t want to miss out on hanging out with my friend and living the college life with them. It came down to what I wanted to do with my life. I have always wanted to work outdoors and I dreamed of working for the DNR, River falls was the perfect school for what I wanted to do since they have such a good conservation program. So instead of going to a school that didn’t have a good conservation program and being with my friends, I went to River Falls. This decision turned out to be a positive one. I meet some great friends at school and am hoping to graduate in a year and a half. I think that going to River Falls was the best decision and if I would have followed my friends I would not have been able to have the job I wanted or meet the great people that I met in River Falls.
What was your biggest fear when you went off to college, or did you not have any?
What was your biggest fear when you went off to college, or did you not have any?
Thursday, June 3, 2010
activity 7
Nonverbal communication
This activity looked into how a conversation depends on nonverbal conversation just as much as the verbal. For this activity I chose to do this experiment with a close friend of mine. The first part of the activity was the full eye contact part. We went out to lunch and were sitting right across from each other this I thought would be easy, just get a conversation going and make sure to notice their reaction. When my friend started into the conversation I was looking directly at her and would nod my head or make small comments to show I was listening. I could tell that this was making her uncomfortable even for being as good of friends as we are and knowing so much about each other; she still would look away or fiddle with her silverware. When she would look to the side I would lean in that direction to get into her field of view and at one point she even gave me a look like she was wondering if I was all there.
The second part of the activity was where we would not look at the person at all. This was going to be the easy part of the activity. I find myself getting uncomfortable when people stare at me the whole time I’m saying something and find that I look away from them. At this point our food can so I could pretend that I was really into that instead of looking at my friend. I could tell that she was looking at me and waiting for me to look back. I would still nod my head in assurance that I was still listening but I could still sense that she was annoyed that I wasn’t giving her eye contact.
The final part of the activity was the part where we slowly get closer to the person that we are doing the experiment on. For this I was already sitting fairly close to my friend as the tables where small. I slowly would start leaning closer until my friend started leaning back and looking around not making eye contact with me. After the experiment I told my friend about the activity and we started to talk about how when someone doesn’t follow the unwritten rules of having a conversation it makes it awkward and starts to get annoying. It wasn’t until doing this experiment that I became aware of the different “rules” in having a conversation and what it does to the conversation when one or some of them are broken. Everyone likes their space and likes to being acknowledged when they are talking and these are universal codes that we live by. If you where on the receiving end of this experiment what do you think your reactions would be? Do you think that you would have had the same reaction as my friend did or would it be different?
This activity looked into how a conversation depends on nonverbal conversation just as much as the verbal. For this activity I chose to do this experiment with a close friend of mine. The first part of the activity was the full eye contact part. We went out to lunch and were sitting right across from each other this I thought would be easy, just get a conversation going and make sure to notice their reaction. When my friend started into the conversation I was looking directly at her and would nod my head or make small comments to show I was listening. I could tell that this was making her uncomfortable even for being as good of friends as we are and knowing so much about each other; she still would look away or fiddle with her silverware. When she would look to the side I would lean in that direction to get into her field of view and at one point she even gave me a look like she was wondering if I was all there.
The second part of the activity was where we would not look at the person at all. This was going to be the easy part of the activity. I find myself getting uncomfortable when people stare at me the whole time I’m saying something and find that I look away from them. At this point our food can so I could pretend that I was really into that instead of looking at my friend. I could tell that she was looking at me and waiting for me to look back. I would still nod my head in assurance that I was still listening but I could still sense that she was annoyed that I wasn’t giving her eye contact.
The final part of the activity was the part where we slowly get closer to the person that we are doing the experiment on. For this I was already sitting fairly close to my friend as the tables where small. I slowly would start leaning closer until my friend started leaning back and looking around not making eye contact with me. After the experiment I told my friend about the activity and we started to talk about how when someone doesn’t follow the unwritten rules of having a conversation it makes it awkward and starts to get annoying. It wasn’t until doing this experiment that I became aware of the different “rules” in having a conversation and what it does to the conversation when one or some of them are broken. Everyone likes their space and likes to being acknowledged when they are talking and these are universal codes that we live by. If you where on the receiving end of this experiment what do you think your reactions would be? Do you think that you would have had the same reaction as my friend did or would it be different?
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
activity 6
Language of the United States
Each of the quizzes focused on the different accents in the United States. One was on the different regions and how accents differ from where you are from and seeing how well you are able to place the accent with the region. The other was on how we can perceive different meanings from the way someone pronounces certain words and how different people pronounce vowels in such a diverse way.
I will admit that on both of the quizzes I did not do so well. The first quiz on the different accents was actually quite difficult for me. I thought when reading the directions that it would be easy for me to tell the different accents apart. However after hearing all of them and trying to pick out the ones that I thought I was confident about, I was left with ones that I thought all sounded similar. I was able to get both the south United States accents correct as well as one in both the west and the north Unites States sections. I have not done much traveling and have pretty much just been to the states surrounding Wisconsin so that may have something to do with my lack of recognition of the different regions accents. I thought that be watching TV and going to a school where there are people from all over would have made this exercise easier but as my score shows it didn’t.
The second quiz was a little easier, it was interesting to hear how someone says a word and we can think that we hear something so different. An example of this would be how the first phrase that was said on the quiz was the word block however without using the hint I thought that the word being said was black. I can see how these could have gotten mixed up, but on the second one the word was socks and I guessed the word was fax. Even after I listen to the hints, some of the words were still hard to differentiate with the accent. It is interesting how the United States can have so many different accents and the way that we communicate when faced with accent differentiation can have such a significant impact.
These different accents can make it difficult for people to communicate. When two people are having a conversation and they each have a different accent the conversation may be a little difficult hard to comprehend. I live in a town where there is a lot of Somalia immigrants and when having a conversation with them I sometimes have to have them repeat themselves and sometimes I have to also. The different accents make what should be a simple conversation much more difficult. Have you ever been in a situation where you were having a conversation with someone who had a strong accent and you were having a hard time understanding what they were trying to say? What did you do and how were you able to continue the conversation?
Each of the quizzes focused on the different accents in the United States. One was on the different regions and how accents differ from where you are from and seeing how well you are able to place the accent with the region. The other was on how we can perceive different meanings from the way someone pronounces certain words and how different people pronounce vowels in such a diverse way.
I will admit that on both of the quizzes I did not do so well. The first quiz on the different accents was actually quite difficult for me. I thought when reading the directions that it would be easy for me to tell the different accents apart. However after hearing all of them and trying to pick out the ones that I thought I was confident about, I was left with ones that I thought all sounded similar. I was able to get both the south United States accents correct as well as one in both the west and the north Unites States sections. I have not done much traveling and have pretty much just been to the states surrounding Wisconsin so that may have something to do with my lack of recognition of the different regions accents. I thought that be watching TV and going to a school where there are people from all over would have made this exercise easier but as my score shows it didn’t.
The second quiz was a little easier, it was interesting to hear how someone says a word and we can think that we hear something so different. An example of this would be how the first phrase that was said on the quiz was the word block however without using the hint I thought that the word being said was black. I can see how these could have gotten mixed up, but on the second one the word was socks and I guessed the word was fax. Even after I listen to the hints, some of the words were still hard to differentiate with the accent. It is interesting how the United States can have so many different accents and the way that we communicate when faced with accent differentiation can have such a significant impact.
These different accents can make it difficult for people to communicate. When two people are having a conversation and they each have a different accent the conversation may be a little difficult hard to comprehend. I live in a town where there is a lot of Somalia immigrants and when having a conversation with them I sometimes have to have them repeat themselves and sometimes I have to also. The different accents make what should be a simple conversation much more difficult. Have you ever been in a situation where you were having a conversation with someone who had a strong accent and you were having a hard time understanding what they were trying to say? What did you do and how were you able to continue the conversation?
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