After taking this class, I’ve found that I am more culturally competent than before. I can have simple conversations about education and government from different cultures or countries like France, Korea, and China. I can also compare their systems to the ones I am familiar with. I can identify stereotypes of other cultures, like Canadian niceness and German rigidity, but I can also tell which ones are harmless generalizations and which are more harmful. I can compare and contrast family interactions in Danish culture.

To speak more generally, in taking this class I learned more about how to talk about cultural differences. As an American, I’m reluctant to even align myself with a collective culture. As a white person who has never left the country, I come from an inherently ignorant place in regards to other cultures and their relationships because I can distance myself from them without consequence. It’s easy to offend someone from that position, but after taking this class, I feel more prepared to have these conversations, and more able to apologize for the blunders I’m likely to make.