Even with the study abroad experience I had last spring, being in Becoming Foreign has certainly improved my intercultural communication competence. This is primarily because our discussions of different cultural factors – such as whether a culture is monochronotic or polychromic, hierarchical or equal, etc. – have drastically broadened my understandings of differences between cultures. By equipping me with language to discuss those differences, Becoming Foreign has played a huge role in shaping my thinking when it comes to intercultural communication.

Take, for example, my responses to the Advanced Level “I can statements” distributed at the start of the course. At the start of Becoming Foreign, my answers to questions like “how do the cultural values of this place influence its art?” or “why does this culture value certain professions over others?” would have been entirely based on my own experiences in Denmark. While this does not necessarily discredit my responses, such responses do not connect with overall themes in discussing cultural difference. Now, I am able to craft responses to such questions rooted in the language of intercultural communication competence, where I can distinguish between cultures based on their understandings of time, money, gender, and hierarchy.