Various Factors of Intercultural Encounters Essay

When reading the first chapter of the mis-education of the Negro book, the two most interesting items that I found was how it explained about blacks being hopeless, “to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless...". To me this first point meant how the teachings towards blacks is as if blacks were a curse and not meant to move forward because of their struggles and being black. The second point that interests me is the part when a student was in a Negro summer school with a white instructor who used such a textbook that states white people are superior to blacks. And the student said why and the instructor said he wanted the students to get that point of view.

Based on theme two, they reconstructed the myths about whites and blacks. They began to explain the concept of “If they gain, we lose”. There was a concern of the participants having and not having and about sharing privilege but not wanting to give it up (McIntyre, 57). McIntyre explains that there are always exceptions to the rule and it reconstructs the myth of “equal opportunity for all”.

The intercultural challenges I am currently facing is my CQ knowledge. I am having challenges because I cannot find common ground when working with a variety of cultures. For example, I work as a customer service representative in a call center and I’m around a variety of cultures. I find it very hard to understand everyone’s triggers, their dislikes, and likes, and why they behave or act a certain way with different situations. I try to ask questions to grasp an understanding of their behaviors, and still find it quite challenging to reach common ground. I try to be very open-minded, however, it always causes me to become frustrated.

ASSIGNMENT: Achieving competence as an interpersonal communicator in a diverse society is necessary to your personal and professional success. One way to enhance our understanding of interpersonal communication as a relationship-building activity is to engage in first hand dialogue with people from cultures other than your own. This assignment gives you the opportunity to engage in the dual perspective – honoring the perspective of the person with whom you are communicating as well as honoring your own perspective. You are also able to contrast your worldview with the perspective of someone with a different life experience than your

For the intercultural interview, I decided to interview my friend Medelyn, a 19 year old female of Honduran and Mexican descent. During the interview, I focused on her Honduran culture, as she was born in Honduras, I asked her a multitude of various questions ranging from formalities in her culture to gender roles to classism in her culture.. The interview lasted about twenty minutes, I asked her about fifteen questions, and after she answered each question there would be a small discussion about her answer. When interviewing Medelyn, it was important to rid myself of any ethnocentrism, assumed cultural similarity or differences, stereotyping, and anything that could create a bias and compromise the interview.

There are several different positive and unique aspects of intercultural relationships. Intercultural relationships allow individuals to understand other people of different cultures, ethnicities, gender and etc. It is interesting understanding other peoples beliefs as well as how they have lived there life’s. A positive aspect of intercultural relationships is the difference between the two people. I think it is interesting learning how other people think and how they were brought up. When you are in an intercultural relationship you get to understand how that person feels about certain situations that they have been through. You get to learn who that person truly is.

On the very first day of the class, Introduction to the Black Experience, we learned that people are defined by their culture and geography. We are also defined by the gaze of others and our own gaze. This realization led me to contemplate what the “black experience” means to me. As a first generation Haitian-American woman at Wellesley College, it has become clearer to me how important the language and culture of parents has been in shaping my identity. I have also begun to think more critically about how my identity as a woman of color separates me from black brothers as well as my white peers at Wellesley.

Race relations have always been a very controversial topic in this country and still are. In the mid-1900s there were many writers who felt very strongly about how African Americans and white people interacted together. In this paper three individual excerpts by three different authors will be discussed. All three of these authors have different viewpoints because of how they see the world based on their individual life experiences.

Productivity in the new culture is experienced to an extremely positive extent. Business dealings and negotiations become secondary nature to the expatriate, and the expatriate’s journey becomes a great success in the perspective of their employing company.

In sixteen years of life, I have received an opportunity to experience different cultures, learning styles, and languages. To start of, I am an American since I was born here, but the reality is that I was raised in India. My parents’ main motivation for moving back to India was because they wanted us to embrace our traditions, and most importantly, value our family relationships. We relocated back to the US at the start of 9th grade. This transition was a huge factor for transforming me as a person. I am cognizant of the two systems, cherish both, and realize that these multicultural experiences have encouraged me to grow and mature beyond my years. Relocating from a place is not as easy as one can imagine. When compared to the US, India

Mahabouba was affected by gender discrimination because she was female. Females are not treated as equals in these types of countries. Mahabouba is from Western Ethiopia, a country that is poor and has been ravaged time again by famine, genocide, and war. “Only a fourth of all children regularly go to school. School is free, but schoolbooks, school supplies and school clothes are not.”(Abagond, 2009)Mahabouba’s aunt did not educate her and instead treated her like a servant. “In the Ethiopian countryside, if a young man has an eye on a girl but doesn’t have a bride price, or if he doubts the girl’s family will accept him, then he and several friends kidnap, the girl, and he rapes her.” (Kristof, Nicholas D and WuDunn, Sheryl, 2009)This improves his bargaining position because he has ruined her and she will find it difficult to marry anyone else.

Thesis: Even with the creation of Black Studies as an academic discipline, the culture and influence of white dependency still seem to block people of color’s mental potential, and inherently their ability to progress as a group.

To learn from another that is not like you, that is from another country, gives you the opportunity to acquire knowledge that opens your eyes and lets you better understand the world around you. That can definitely be said after conducting my interview for the Cross-Cultural Interaction Report. I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Blanchefort Djimsa, a Food Science major, who is from the country of Chad which is located in Central Africa. Blanchefort is from the city of Moundou, the third largest city, which is in the South of Chad. Here on scholarship, he is attending Oklahoma State University to further his education. Blanchefort told me about his country and gave me a different perspective about Chad.

For the course of International Management the following assignment has been giving with the objective to select a topic in the field of International Management. The topic for this paper is Cross-cultural Communication in Marketing/advertising.

Education is one of the most important factors in every person’s life regardless of where they’re from, their race, or their culture. Becoming educated not only makes life easier for us but also can help people become more successful in all things. However with so many people of various races, ethnicities and backgrounds in the United States it is difficult to create an education system that attends to each student’s individual culture. Ones own culture influences their actions and lifestyle, therefore this can create conflict if it is different from their schools cultural teaching style. Multicultural and multilingual classrooms have become the norm in many educational and professional settings throughout the U.S. because of changing immigration patterns caused by globalization (Institute for Educational Leadership, p. 2). For teachers today, it is essential to understand the role of culture and have the ability to interact interculturally in the classroom to create an effective learning environment. Analyzing cultural issues or differences can help teachers to understand some of the unconscious processes that shape individuals’ actions and interactions, as well as their language use and communication. “Teachers who understand cultural diversity…are more likely to be successful in their multicultural classrooms” (Samovar, Pg.2).