Reflection 8

I appreciate the interesting information obtained from the documentaries that we watch in class. As we were watching "An Idiot Abroad," I was in awe of his ridiculous antics and pessimistic attitude. Throughout my life, I've had the opportunity to travel, and I've been raised to value different cultures and embrace differences to better myself. This man's attitude was exactly the opposite. I understand the dramatization of certain emotions for comedy or entertainment, but as I was watching, I realized that some people have not had the opportunity or even awareness to travel to other cities, let alone other countries. Traveling is a privilege that I believe especially college students should work towards and strive for because it provides so many educational opportunities. When we travel, we can learn about history, language, culture, and so much more. My strongest desire is that people view immersing themselves in different cultures as a challenge, but a joy, unlike the idiot abroad. When we suppress these ethnocentric and superior attitudes, we can learn a lot.

Reflection 7

DeAnna Cyza

Comm 211

Reflection Post #7 : An Idiot Abroad

          We watched the first episode of this Netflix show in class one day, and it was odd how at first it was entirely just comical. This British, middle aged Caucasian man is set up to travel the world by his close friend who decided to film the spectacle of his trips and produce it as a television show. Carl Pilkington is the gentleman's name, and he is completely interculturally competent. 

He is first sent to China after reluctantly agreeing to go. He gets there and literally hates every minute of it. From seeing the Great Wall, the learning some karate and eating traditional Chinese cuisine of toad, he is not impressed by anything. In later episodes I have since watched, he goes to Mexico and India, and I can see how much of an incompetent person he is. If these contacts he meets on his trips abroad could fully comprehend everything he says and does, they would be tremendously offended by his abrasiveness and lack of cultural awareness.

I believe that him being so culturally incompetent has opened up some of my own misguided stereotypes about other countries, and shown me a small part of how the rest of the world really lives. The best thing we can do to promote competence is honestly traveling with an open mind to experience the wonders of the world. 

Sydney Svoboda

Reflection #8

Professor Getachew

April 21, 15

            While reflecting on this chapter it has really put into a bigger picture why some are culturally incompetent. I think that the motivation definition has a big factor to play in why many aren’t culturally competent. Not only Americans but also all of us can say we have been ethnocentric at some points in our life, when it comes to things we do in our daily lives involving our own culture. Since many think like this it may also factor in the idea that most are unmotivated to learn about others cultures. Some may find it a waste of time because they think that their own culture is better than others or that it wouldn’t benefit them in anyway. Others may not travel often, or when they do travel they only see the “American” side of traveling to other countries. Because of the low motivation I think that pop-culture could play a role to help motivate people to cultural competency. If pop-culture wouldn’t derive from only the United States, and wasn’t filled with certain stereotypes of other cultures people would be motivated to travel and learn more. I also think pop-culture generalizes certain places for example, Africa, America, or Asia as making up one culture, which is also not true, but rather they are made up of thousands of cultures. A lot of the things we see in pop-culture are the same assumed stereotypes of every race and culture. If only one could break those stereotypes and fill our mass media with more of the truth and what the roots of a certain culture really are, I think people would be more interested in traveling and learning more about these awesome cultures that reside all over the globe.

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.

Audrey Beedle - Reflection 8

Audrey Beedle

COMM 211

Reflection #8

            I have chosen to do this reflection as one of the entire course through the semester.  I can’t believe we’re only a few short weeks away from summer time!  It went by way too fast.  I can genuinely say that I learned and experienced some very beneficial things throughout the course of this semester in COMM 211.  I decided today in class that I and leaving this class with three main take-away points:

1.     Everyone can benefit from taking and learning about Intercultural Communication.

There is no age, class, gender, race, or career type that wouldn’t benefit from becoming more interculturally competent.  It can help with your job and schooling, but even more importantly than that it can help you with your day-to-day life and make yourself more comfortable in many more situations.  As well as creating and overall understanding and respect for cultural diversity.

2.     You can never learn everything there is to know about intercultural communication.

This subject is ever changing and is extremely subjective.  No two people will have the same cultural experiences, which will lead to different understandings.  Culture exists in every facet of human civilization, and can be regional, state-to-state, or even international.  And even if I just so happened to travel to every single continent, country, region, city, and neighborhood, I would still not be an expert because culture changes all the time and among individuals.

3.     Becoming more interculturally competent makes you a better person.

I mean this in all aspects of the term “better person.”  It makes you more aware of your self and you place in this big, culturally diverse world.  It unavoidably creates a sense of unity and understanding for individuals from different cultures than your own, which in turn when applied to a bigger picture could mean the difference between war and peace.  It is beneficial to everyone to become more aware of the world that we live in and the people that live on it.  Intercultural communication could be the key to world peace.

Reflection 8 Danny Clare

Danny Clare

COMM 211

4/21/15

Reflection Number 8

            I thought discussion in class today was extremely beneficial because it tied everything together.  The main topic we discussed was cultural competence and how there are different stages of cultural competence.  Being cultural competent is a timely process that won’t come overnight.  This process takes a lot of time and many aren’t willing to put in the time and effort to become culturally competent.

            During the presentation, I thought the most standout part to myself was when forgiveness was talked about.  I never really thought about intercultural communication from a forgiveness standpoint.  People from different cultures make mistakes all the time and we must be aware that that will happen.  What we must change is being judgmental to these mistakes.  We must be able to forgive people of their mistakes and help them learn what they need to do instead.

            Personally, bringing this all together, I want to continue to work on being culturally competent.  It is something that doesn’t come easily but if you stay caught up with people of diverse cultures, competence will come naturally over time.   

Reflection #7

Danny Clare

COMM 211

4/21/15

Reflection number 7      

The chapter 7 discussion was something that I find very intriguing, indirect and direct language.  This is used so much within intercultural communications and although it’s a strange subject to talk about, noticing these two language differences something we must be aware of.  When we begin to notice how we interact with people of different cultural backgrounds, our behavior can either stay the same or be changed according to how much we like the type of language we are speaking. 

First I am going to discuss direct language.  Direct language is the form of language in which I prefer to use, because there is no mix up in feelings and no possibility of someone taking an action the wrong way.  Direct language is more of a confrontational behavior in which someone “directly” talks with another individual.

Indirect language is where mishaps may occur.  Within indirect language, people might make a body motion or talk behind peoples backs, and through the grape vine words get mixed around and peoples’ feelings could end up getting hurt.  Like I said before i don’t prefer indirect because people’s words get flipped around to mean something completely different than what they really mean.