Becoming Foreign

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. […]

I think that this class really helped me think about various subtleties in different cultures (and my own) that I had not considered. Additionally, I started reflecting on my own culture throughout the class and I had an ongoing process of thinking about my own culture and France’s as well specific behaviors, traditions, and ways […]

I have learned a lot in this class in terms of just broadening my awareness of the various topics that are key to intercultural competence such as understanding cultural similarities and differences when it comes to core values, concepts of time, power, verbal and nonverbal communication, etc. and I think the fact that we had […]

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 […]

One of the intermediate benchmarks for understanding cultural perspectives is describing how men and women are treated differently in the larger society, identifying some of the stereotypes and exaggerated views of a culture, and explaining some of the political beliefs. These goals can all be tied back to the research that I did for my […]

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 […]

This course has enabled me to take the knowledge I have and use it to re-contextualize the various cultures I’ve experienced, particularly the US and Denmark. It feels like I’ve been able to re-organize the experiences I had into new categories, such as things that represent how Denmark is less individualistic than the US, or […]

I entered this class blindly, with little understanding as to what I should expect. I have traveled abroad previously and am passionate about language learning. I felt relatively comfortable with my communication skills and my ability to interact with those from cultures unlike my own. However, I am very thankful for having taken this class. […]

I feel like this class has opened my mind to so many new concepts that I was not aware of (intercultural communication,Intercultural Competence, Stereotypes, cultural shock, nonverbal communication). It also made me question my cultural values and beliefs, brainstorming about my cultural values allowed me to be more aware of my culture, but at the […]

This week’s reading made me think back on my time in Denmark, and the ways in which I had to adjust my own communication and body language to better fit the culture. Our program specifically told us to avoid some “American giveaways” such as wearing a huge backpack, or carrying a water bottle on the […]