Sydney Svoboda

Reflection #6

Getachew

Inter Comm

I decided to write my paper over the “Promises” Documentary that we watched in class. While watching the documentary I was very thankful to live in a country that has never seen war on its own land, at least for the past so many years that is. It was very eye opening and sad all at once to hear the kids tell their stories. War is something they have to worry about in their day-to-day lives. While many of us American kids have never been affected by war except for family members, and friends who have served in it overseas.

            While watching this video I realized that these kids are very brave in the sense that they still go about their everyday lives with the constant worry, but still seem to hold a smile on their faces. For example, the two boys who take the bus to school everyday, and sit in fear that a terrorist with a bomb may be on that bus never passes many kids minds in America. Another thing that grabbed my attention was the man sitting at the volleyball game with a machine gun just sitting in his lap. I hope that I never have to, but I will most likely probably never have to experience any of these things in my lifetime.

            As the weeks go on I learn more and more about not only other cultures and countries, but also about myself from this class. It has really shown me things that I have never truly seen with my own two eyes, but rather have just heard about. I am thankful to live in a country where freedom is allowed, and war is not, and I can’t stress those words enough.

Participation Paper #6

Taylor Holzfaster

Intercultural Communications

2/26/15

Participation Paper #6

           

“Promises”

            I decided to write my participation paper over the documentary that we watched in class on February 26. It is about seven kids that all lived 20 min from each other, but each lived completely different lifestyles. The documentary is called “Promises” and include the child Mahmoud, Shlomo, Sanabl, Faraj, Moishe, and twins Yarko and Daniel.

            The documentary allows the boys to speak for themselves and explain each of their lives personally as they grow up. The point of the documentary is not to explain them, but brings out funny, sad, and exciting events that happen in each of their lives.

            People that watch this film are put into the shoes of the Jerusalem’s children and have the chance to get a sense of their everyday lifestyles and how each child has different qualities and meanings in life.

            In my opinion, I really enjoyed this documentary because it showed that these seven boys were multi-dimensional people, and not just the stereotypical people that most would assume they are. Something that was very impressive to me is that they are all very young and have such an amazing outlook on life and things that happen in their personal lives and families as a whole.

            You can tell by the way the children interact with the camera and each other that they loved the experience of being able to tell their own stories and to have the chance to experience something such as making a film.

            After watching the documentary in class, it made me reflect on how thankful I am to have been able to grow up in the family and environment that I did. Many people are not as fortunate as others and there are times that I feel people take that for granted.

Reflection 5

I Shan Yeh

Reflection 5

Comm 211

Reflection 5

    This chapter mainly talk about the difference between different languages. I found out a language can represent a country’s culture based on the slang people use. It is always interested for me to see the difference between my mother tongue language and other languages that I speak and learning. It is also gave me chance to meet other people from all over the world.

    For me, I found it is hard to learn a new language. In this chapter, it provide how the languages itself is contained which include there are feminine and masculine for certain languages. Or there is certain languages that require people to state clear for “his” or “her.” I personally think, if you know the “tricks” when learning a new language, then it will not be that hard to speak a new language.

    On the video we watched in class about a Kenyan novelist talked about he feel there are negative influence from European colonization in Kenya, which became one of the reason why he wanted to write his novel in his mother tongue language. I understand his feeling, but I still think it is great to still using English to write the novel just like what he used to do in the past. Of course there are people will translate for him, but it is always great for him to write directly in English, which shows the origin of the book that the author really wants to tell.

    To sum up, it is difficult to learn a new language, but it is worth to learn, it will definitely broaden your horizon.

Presleigh Keplinger- Reflection #5

        While I was working on researching and putting together our presentation on Chapter 6, there were many aspects that really made me start thinking about the concept of language.  One of the first questions asked in our textbook prosed the concept of whether the language each culture speaks affects the way in which we view the world around us or not.  I found this question particularly interesting, as I have never thought of this aspect of language.  Do I, as an English speaker, look at the world differently than someone who speaks French based solely on the language we use?  I don’t necessarily think this to be completely true.  I think language is just a powerful way to express ourselves.  We all experience aspects of life and all have opinions and views about certain things, yet we express these experiences in different ways, not only culture to culture but from each individual person to the next.  I watched a video the other day that interviewed many different people from many different cultures about the concept of friendship.  They all had different words for friendship but they all shared the same values and descriptions of what friendship is and what friendship means to each of them.

        Language does, however, create some sort of a unison amongst different people.  It definitely establishes a sense of community identity among its users, which can also be perceived as a barrier to those outside of that language group.  In order to approach this aspect of language more efficiently, I think that individuals need to understand that language is simply, as I said earlier, a way of expressing one's self and their experiences.

Reflection 5

I believe that culture is nothing without language.  Language is culture. Who we are, what we do and where we come from can only be understood by the comprehension of language.  As I was reading this chapter I thought to myself, “Where would I be without language?” I most likely wouldn’t be where I am now, or have the same friends, or even the same aspirations.  Or perhaps what if the world only spoke one language?  There are positives and negatives of everyone speaking one language.  It would be much easier to communicate global issues. I’m sure some would argue to say that it would even make the world a more peaceful place.  Although there are many positives to speaking or converting to just one language, there are negatives that would have a bigger impact.  With only one language the world would be losing hundreds and hundreds of different cultures and historical backgrounds.  Personally, I believe that if the entire world spoke the same language it would lead to more conflict. By adapting to one language it would also adapt society to one culture. Then the world would result in groupthink.  In conclusion, language is something that everyone takes for granted.  It’s difficult to realize how something as dominant and simple as language can impact culture. 

Reflection #5

Brad Simpson

COMM 211

Reflection 5


Before reading this chapter, I really didn't understand how hard it was for forigners to adapt to
American society.  I think the most relevant experience I have had with this subject is playing sports with a kid who was from a different country.  These perspectives have opened my eyes after reading this chapter and I can now understand the hardships they have to encounter on an everyday basis.  Language isn't just speaking in vocal tone, it is much deeper than that and people can misunderstand the meaning.  For example in chapter, a girl was perceived dumb because of her ability to speak English.  What people don't really see is their cultural background and their process of adaptation to a new society with new norms.
Language barriers are main focus point in this chapter along with influences.  Intercultural context relates to the communication process.  I believe identity can evolve with your experiences and you continue to grow.  As your language increases for the better you can start to really come out of your shell and not be timid because of your struggle.  All of these perceptions are related back to my teammate that had to overcome this process.  He was trying to learn how use basic communication while playing basketball which requires this.  I wish I could have helped him more and defended him more but it's in our American and competitive nature to create a negative perception of loss hope.  He became a great friend, athlete, and student and I believe we as teammates did the best we could to learn our cultural values and help him at the same time to adapt to our society.  This chapter explains interaction down to the roots along with its perceptions of other people.  

Reflection Number 5 (Chapter 6)

Danny Clare

2/18/15

COMM 211

Reflection 5 (Chapter 6)

            I thought that chapter 6 tied into a lot of what you have been trying to emphasize which is the communication part of culture.  It was interesting in our presentation to learn about the different styles of communication that we use in our daily lives but yet don’t realize we are doing it.  One of the interesting things I enjoyed learning about was slang.  I thought that slang was something important to bring up because now a days, we don’t have normal conversations.  Almost every single conversation we have has slang in it which makes me feel a little dumber.  It’s almost like I don’t know my own language.  Slang makes it incredibly hard for students of other cultures to come to the United States and understand us.  That is why I was so confused when I met my intercultural communication student named Modiri.  Between the two of us, he was definitely the first to use slang in our conversation, even over texting. 

            Other than slang, another interesting topic that we chose was the different ways of communication and how words can mean different things to different people in our own culture.  When we are talking to students and friends of our own, we may be more sarcastic.  But when we are talking with parents and adults, we may be a little bit more serious and not as joking.  It just depends on who we are talking to, because they will take our words in differently than others.  Not only does the person matter, but the way we speak and emphasize words in a sentence.  I enjoyed doing a presentation because it made me look at my topic from all sides which made things more interesting in my eyes.

Flora Mondi- Paired Essay

Flora Mondi

Getachew Godana

COMM 211

Paired Essay

Botswana Wedding

            When I first met my Botswana partner, Thembukazi Sigodi, we had a connection. We started off by introducing ourselves then talked about which part of Africa we were from. Then we started to compare the different cultural events/aspects between Sudan and Botswana. While talking, what interested me most was when she started the topic on weddings. Thembukazi, who goes by Nene, started explaining me the process what the female and the male have to do before, during, and after the wedding.

            Nene first told me the story of how her grandmother got married to her grandfather. Her grandmother’s wedding was arranged which means that someone else picked her without getting to know her first and she had to stop going to college to be able to get to know her chosen husband. Her grandfather had to bring cows to her grandmother’s family before they go on a first date. Before entering into her grandmother’s house, they have to stop by the gate and hand a letter called “Labola Negation” which is a letter that stated what date and the reason they were at the gate. The grandfather also had to come bearing “imvula mlomo” or gifts as well. The “imvula mlomo” is money or the alcohol, Brandy.

         If the grandmother’s parents are satisfied with the gift, they will take the gift that was left at the front of the gate and the grandfather and his uncle are allowed to enter without being told. This process happens before the male asks for the female’s hands in marriage. When the male and his uncle enter, they sit with the women’s parents and uncles. The then male offers an amount of money or number of cows to the woman’s parents and uncles. The women’s uncles come together to see if the price that the man offers is worth their niece’s life. After they negotiate the bride’s price, the bride also known as “umakoti,” now goes to the groom’s house with her family dressed in traditional clothing the color either (armanjinmarni) blue or (takis) brown. During the wedding, they have a tradition where the bride’s relative has to feed her the traditional meals that have been prepared. Nene’s wedding tradition is similar to my cultures because we also use cows or money as the way for a groom to buy the bride to be.  

Flora Mondi- Reflection #5

Flora Mondi

Getachew Godana

COMM 211

Reflection #5-

“Living on One Dollar”

Language is very important because its one of the main ways of communication besides nonverbal. Even if it’s a different language, people will still find a way to communication with each other. In chapter 6, what caught my attention was the section on critical perspective on language. “A critical perspective on language suggests that, in order to use language effectively in intercultural encounters, we need to understand the role of power and of power differentials in these encounters.” In the paragraph, it continued to go on into detail and give details on how discourse is social. Like the example of a boss and a worker referring to the company as a “family.”

Going off of the example, I remember when I used to work at McDonald’s. While working there, the managers and some employees called themselves families. I would here my manager even call some of the workers her “babies.” Even though the workers and the managers had different roles and positions, they were still able to come together at the end of the day and connect with each other as a big group who appreciated each other’s presence.