Becoming Foreign

One of the most important things that I’ve taken away from our readings and discussions is the importance of being proactive in engaging with others’ culture. For example, the Berg reading outlines the three master narratives, which are ways to engages with another culture. It’s important that I try to expose myself to experiences that […]

This 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 […]

In reflecting upon the discussions we’ve had in class up until this point, and the readings we’ve been required to do, I’ve come to the realization that acquiring global competency is much more complex than mere submergence in a cultural environment significantly different than one’s own. Intercultural communication requires an in-depth understanding of what is […]

With all these perspectives, the thing I’m learning most is how relative it all is. Everyone has a different study abroad experience and a different idea of what a “full” experience really means, so there’s no real way to say who “passed” or “failed” the experience. Even “culture” itself is relative! There are so many […]

These past few classes have been incredibly eye-opening for me; it is very rewarding to discuss this idea of intercultural communication among students from various backgrounds and life experiences. As a traveler, I believe that the information shared will help me develop a greater understanding of cultures unlike my own. Oftentimes when I travel I […]

While I have joined many of my classmates in criticizing the practicality of the theories and models we have studied thus far in this course, I do ultimately find the discussions we have incredibly valuable in strengthening my ability to understand cultural differences as well as my ability to communicate effectively across different cultures. In […]

Since first discussing the topic 3 weeks ago, I’ve been intrigued by the idea of high and low context cultures. While of course it is a spectrum, it seems to be such an informative and useful descriptor of a culture that could positively facilitate intercultural experiences. As I said in my first post, one must […]

Learning about different theories of intercultural communication and models of culture in the past couple of classes broaden my horizons on better understanding how the word “culture” is and how much is there still to learn and understand about it. I guess this class is helping me a lot in realizing that there are so […]

I think learning about different theories of intercultural communication and models of culture is useful because it provides me with a more detailed and concrete look into concepts that I may have only had a vague idea of before. I think these theories are also a great baseline for discussions. Sometimes we might not agree […]

So far, this course has been very interesting and I have learned a lot of things. Our conversation in class about the culture iceberg was very interesting. I think that it’s true that there are many different aspects to culture that we often don’t think about. In particular, in Bennett’s article, the difference between Culture […]