Presleigh Reflection 8

As I read through the final chapter “Striving For Engaged and Effective Intercultural Communication,” I felt as though it tied a lot of this class into an appropriate ending summary.  I think that this chapter is what the overarching goal of this class was.  What I found most interesting in this chapter was William Howell’s four levels of intercultural communication competence.  He describes these four levels as being unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence.  I feel as though this class has helped me reach the conscious competence level of intercultural communication.  After all of the class interactions, readings, discussions, presentations, and documentaries, I feel as though that I am consciously aware of how I interact with everyone that I come in contact with, no matter their cultural background.  Reaching this level is a necessary part of being able to communicate effectively with others.  At this level, I am aware that interaction is going well and I also understand why it is.

Going off of that, I think this class has been a very valuable tool in helping us to reach this level, or close to it.  As Audrey had stated in class, this class is a very necessary class for everyone to talk.  No matter one’s gender, age, race, culture, language, major, or career type, everyone can benefit in more ways than one.  It has provided me with opportunities to learn about the importance of being culturally competent communicators and has helped me to hold a respect for cultural diversity.