One of the biggest things that I have gotten out of this class is having a framework through which to think about why cultural differences might exist as opposed to just noticing them. Additionally, this class was a really interesting opportunity to reflect on American culture and think about how American values have shaped my […]
Read MoreAs for how I communicate nonverbally, one issue that I struggled with, especially as a kid, was growing up in a household with a parent who had been raised by someone from a contact culture. My grandmother is Colombian and immigrated to America as an adult, but because of her upbringing in a contact culture, […]
Read MoreSimilar to what happened to Jennie in Denmark, I found out that a common stereotype of Americans among Russians is that Americans are too friendly to the point of being fake. On our first day in Russian class last year, our professor told us to not casually ask “How are you” (Как дела) to a […]
Read MoreThis course has been an interesting opportunity to think about the subconscious ways that I will process various aspects of my Russian host culture while being abroad next year. As someone who loves learning languages, I particularly enjoyed reading the Bennet piece about how language informs how we process everyday life . One particularly funny […]
Read MoreLike Jennie, I took umbrage with some of the ideas artiulated in the Vande-Berg article. One thought in particular that made me scratch my head was that “students who are academically serious and socially mature – the ones who have earned good grades on campus and who have respected student conduct policies” will somehow be […]
Read MoreThe reason I decided to take this class is because after my brief J-Term trip to Saint Petersburg last year, I realized there were some global competencies that I hadn’t realized I had, but that there are many more that I have yet to acquire. One course objective, to “become more aware of your own […]
Read More