Flora Mondi- Reflection #8

Flora Mondi

Getachew Godana

COMM 211

Reflection #8

Class Overall

            The first day of class I remember doing the activity of meeting our classmates by walking around the classroom and asking them questions to try to fill our worksheets in. The checklist included many different activities or descriptive words which first started the bond and communication. First starting off the class with a communication showed us that we are able to create a bond with our classmates and not make judgements or assumptions about them.

            There were many different activities and movies we watched in class. One of my favorite movies that we watched besides Living on One Dollar was Promises. The movie was very inspirational as well as educational. We were able to see the different sides of the Israel and Jew children and get their opinion of how they feel about the situation they are in. The movie gave us two different perspectives instead of one so people would not make judgements instead of hearing each other’s stories and backgrounds. This is also another reason why I enjoyed the class which is hearing our classmate’s stories about their study abroad stores as well being international students.

            The class was great because not only did we learn about communication and how to become better listeners and interactors but also because we were able to share our own background stories and experiences.

Flora Mondi- Reflection #7

Flora Mondi

Getachew Godana

COMM 211

Reflection #7

An Idiot Abroad

            The show An Idiot Abroad was entertaining and funny at the same time. The main point that the show was trying to depict to the viewers is that do not go into the world with a close-minded attitude. We make perceptions about others all the time. It might me an opinion of how an international student might not know much about the place that they are studying abroad in, or how someone who looks “foreign” does not know the language that’s spoken throughout the country.

            My Nigerian international best friend always assumed that I did not know any Nigerian music. So the first time few times we hung out, she would just play American music assuming that I only listen to it. One day when she started playing a Nigerian song and I started sing, she was stunned and excited and surprised all at the same time. She could not believe that I knew songs that she always played back when she was at home. This proved how we cannot just make judgements and perceptions without asking nor getting to know the person first.

Flora Mondi- Reflection #6

Flora Mondi

Getachew Godana

COMM 211

Reflection #6

Living on One Dollar

            The movie we watched in class, Living on One Dollar, was very informative and eye opening. While watching the movie, I was able to see how difficult and how other people live their lives on a day to day bases. Here in the western culture, life seems to be look as if everyone is rich and has all that they have. The media portrays it that way, but if you go to the poor side of town or even downtown Lincoln, you would be able to see all the homeless and poor residents. This makes us unease as well which shows that we are uncomfortable with seeing sights like that but in some households, people throw away food every day or clothes when they can give it to the poor and homeless.

            In my household, my little brother and sister are the most spoiled children from all of us in the house. They are also so westernized that they refuse to eat African food that my mom would make. Once in a while, my mom would only cook African food, no American or processed foods in the house for a whole week and we have no option but to eat it. My little sister and brother would refuse to eat and would hide in their rooms for the remaining time being when dinner is served. All they want to eat is chicken nuggets, fries, or even pizza.

            While watching the movie, it brought memories of my sister and brother and I was disgusted by their attitudes. They don’t seem to see that there are many other people and families that struggle every to put food on the table to feed their families and my little siblings are starving themselves because they don’t like the food that was cook. The movie opened my eyes to see the other sides of the economy that is in the worst shape then what our perceptions seem to see the world.

Reflection #8

For my final reflection post, I've decided to summarize what I've learned this semester in this class.

For starters, it was easily the most diverse class I have ever been a part of, and I still remember going back to the first day of class having that "ice breaker" activity getting to know everyone based on questions on the paper such as "born in the same city as you". to "has the same first initial in their name", to "has gone backpacking."

I thought this was truly a great way to meet most everyone in the class, to get us comfortable enough to begin to talk about our own personal experiences with intercultural communication and how our competency levels have changed over the time in the course. We learned that some people are unaware of cultural miscommunication, that some know they are not competent yet do not attempt to change it, other like where our class is now at would be the consciousness of competency, and unconscious competency of intercultural communication. the majority of us, I would assume are at the conscious competency stage as only a few in the class have traveled abroad.

One thing I enjoyed most about this course was the eye opening documentaries about the situation in the middle east regarding how little religious tolerance there is. It is crazy to think that people have so much energy for hatred in their lives when still living in a third world country where they even struggle to survive.

Another documentary I really enjoyed was the "Living on a Dollar" and seeing how the truly poor people live. Not the beggars you come across here in Lincoln, Ne, but those who couldn't go to a homeless shelter as there are none in tiny poor countries.

My favorite part of the course was getting to see the pilot episode of Idiot Abroad and continuing to get more and more hooked on this great show. It really sums up how NOT to travel the world and live your life being ethnocentric and closed-minded.

Great semester and great class!

Reflection 7

I think that this was the most beneficial lesson for me.  More often than not, I think that I assume that everyone is somewhat alike.  Everyone understands my own terminology, my background, or the way I interpret something.  That is the farthest thing from the truth.  I think that one of the most difficult things to learn in college is how diversity plays a huge part of those four years.  For example, one of my roommates is from New York and it would be an understatement to say that we don’t see eye to eye.  Or another example would be my paired essay partner, Chi.  She was from Zimbabwe and I remember my first impression was that she wasn’t going to speak English or know much about the United States.  She ended up proving me wrong very quickly.  I think one of the biggest take away messages of this section was to realize that to have a positive self-perception you have to first see all other cultures in a positive perspective and not jump to conclusions. 

Reflection 8

As a final reflection, this class was truly eye opening.  I came to college from a small town with a graduating 
class of 48.  I think that in my 20 years I have been blessed with many travel opportunities.  However, it wasn’t until this class that I realized how intercultural incompetent I actually am.  It isn’t often that I find a college class that is interesting and I am able to take the lessons into real life.  This class was one of the most beneficial classes in the sense that I know that I have a lot more to learn.  I still have so much of the world and other cultures to see.  I think my one of my favorite parts about this class was the documentaries we watched and then reflected on.  I also thoroughly enjoyed everyone’s personal experience and stories about 
their travel abroad endeavors.  

Reflection 8

I Shan Yeh

Comm 211

Reflection 8

    The semester past really fast, it is almost the end of the semester, which is also a great time to look back what I have learnt from intercultural communication class. In the last chapter, “Striving for engaged and effective intercultural communication” is a good chapter that wrap up all of the chapter that we learnt from this class.

    In terms of knowledge, as an individual, I feel I learn many knowledges about different types of approaches and see how each approaches is like to use in different kinds of situation, which includes strengths and weakness. I also learnt about attitude toward different people. In terms of attitude, I feel taking this class makes me have different perception to many things, especially the chance of being able to paired up with SUSI students from Africa, I feel my attitude change to open up myself to my partner that I got pair up with.

    I also feel my intercultural communication competence changed from conscious incompetence to conscious competence. I wasn’t sure about why there are so many difference between me and American students in class and I don’t know why, to using the knowledges I learnt from this class applied in daily life and think about “why,” understand “why.” I feel glad to be able to take this class and be able to know more cultures.