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What I learned in Intercultural Communication Class
I have learned a great deal about different cultures and the communication between those cultures. I didn’t really think I would learn as much as I did. I am from an older cohort than most of the people in my class; therefore my experience level is a little greater. This did not prevent me from learning a few things and enhancing the knowledge I already have.
During this class there was a great deal of exposure to essays written by people from different cultural backgrounds. These essays tell the stories of these people over the course of their lives and occur at different times in our society. The essays are used as teaching tools to convey different ideas and facts about other cultures. They were all taken from the book “Among Us Essays on Identity, Belonging, and Intercultural Competence” by Myron W. Lustig and Jolene Koester. This is the second edition and was published in 2006. The textbook Intercultural Competence also by Lustig and Koester helped to bring a better understanding of the essays.
The very first essay of the class was written by a young Korean woman. Her name is Mei Lin Kroll and her essay is titled My Name is…. (Lustig, and Koester 19) She was adopted as an infant by white Americans. She spoke in great detail about the trials and tribulations she experienced growing up in a white household.
As a Korean adoptee she faced not only an identity crisis but a cultural one as well. The typical teenage issues became exacerbated for her. She had friends that were like her, but there were other Koreans that weren’t raised like she was being raised. It caused her a great deal of confusion and frustration.
Throughout the six pages of her essay she expresses a very...
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...Through this class I have learned that there are many differences between cultures, but there are also many similarities. People identify with the people that are most like themselves and have the same values and outlooks. Our culture is how we know where we fit in, but our culture is not set in stone. We can change certain aspects of our culture just as Ms. Halualani’s parents did for her.
I have also learned that we need to approach all cultures that differ from our own with respect. We must ask questions when we do not understand, and have an open mind when dealing with other cultures. The world is not as big a place as I believed it to be as a child. There have been and will continue to be encounters with people of other cultures. Respect and understanding are needed if there is to be any meaningful communication between the differing cultures.
Monica Dodson
Thru-out the centuries, regardless of race or age, there has been dilemmas that identify a family’s thru union. In “Hangzhou” (1925), author Lang Samantha Chang illustrates the story of a Japanese family whose mother is trapped in her believes. While Alice Walker in her story of “Everyday Use” (1944) presents the readers with an African American family whose dilemma is mainly rotating around Dee’s ego, the narrator’s daughter. Although differing ethnicity, both families commonly share the attachment of a legacy, a tradition and the adaptation to a new generation. In desperation of surviving as a united family there are changes that they must submit to.
Written by Margaret K. Pai, the Dreams of Two Yi-min narrates the story of her Korean American family with the main focus on the life journeys of her father and mother, Do In Kwon and Hee Kyung Lee. Much like the majority of the pre-World War II immigrants, the author’s family is marked and characterized by the common perception of the “typical” Asian immigrant status in the early 20th century: low class, lack of English speaking ability, lack of transferable education and skills, and lack of knowledge on the host society’s mainstream networks and institutions (Zhou and Gatewood 120, Zhou 224). Despite living in a foreign land with countless barriers and lack of capital, Kwon lead his wife and children to assimilate culturally, economically, and structurally through his growing entrepreneurship. Lee, on the other hand, devoted herself not only to her husband’s business but also to the Korean American society. By investing her time in the Korean Methodist Church and the efforts of its associated societies, such as the Methodist Ladies Aid Society and the Youngnam Puin Hoe, Lee made a worthy contribution to the emergence and existence of Hawaii’s Korean American community.
Throughout Asian American literature there is a struggle between Asian women and their Asian American daughters. This is the case in The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan and also in the short story "Waiting for Mr. Kim," written by Carol Roh-Spaulding. These two stories are very different, however they are similar in that they portray Asian women trying to get their American daughters to respect their Asian heritage. There are certain behaviors that Asian women are expected to have, and the mothers feel that their daughters should use these behaviors.
Adams Johnson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Orphan Master’s Son, amazingly depicts the disturbing lives of North Koreans and government horrors through its simplistic language with relatable characters. The Orphan Master’s Son takes place in North Korea and revolves around Jun Do, who is the son of an orphan master, but who receives the shame that Koreans place on orphans. Then he enters the military where he learns different fighting tactics and becomes a professional kidnapper for the North Koreans. For his reward, the government assigns Jun Do to a listening position on a fishing boat where he becomes a hero for fighting the Americans with a story that the fishing crew and he invented to keep from getting placed in a prison camp after to one of their crewmates defects. Jun Do then goes to Texas as a translator, where he learns about freedom and other cultures. When the mission fails the government sends him to a camp where Jun Do’s name and identity die.
When I turned to look, I was excitedly greeted by my relatives and their big signs that read: “Welcome to Korea!” What happened next was a flash of tears, hugs, and kisses. I had seen my parents emotional before, but not to this extent. This made me wonder how much my mother truly missed her family when she parted from them to move to America. It also made me consider how her relationship with her family strengthened her identity as an Asian-American.
In conclusion, this book gave me a whole new view on life and how we can interact better with different people. The book emphasized that culture is key to understanding people. Sometimes it is hard to connect with others because they are indicated as different but in due time we can adjust. Every culture has their own traditions when it comes to what they eat, what to wear, dating, various ceremonies, holidays and more. Reading this book helped me become more accepting of who I am and where I come from.
Person Plural, Bontoc Eulogy, and History and Memory." Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Korean Adoption Studies. By Nelson Kim. Park, Tobias Hu%u0308binette, Eleana Kim, and Petersen Lene. Myong. S.l.: S.n., 2010. 129-45. Print.
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
Throughout the centuries, regardless of race or age, there have been dilemmas that identify a family’s thru union. In “Hangzhou” (1925), author Lang Samantha Chang illustrates the story of a Japanese family whose mother is trapped in her beliefs. While Alice Walker in her story “Everyday Use” (1944) presents the readers with an African American family whose dilemma is mainly revolving around Dee’s ego, the narrator’s daughter. Although exibiting different ethnicity, the reader should meditate that both families commonly share the attachment of a legacy, a tradition and the adaptation to a new generation.
Koreans are the third largest and fastest growing minority populations in the United States. They are mainly middle to upper middle class, well-educated individuals who are strongly defined by their native culture. This population is defined by three groups: first generation- which are people born in Korea to Korean parents, who have immigrated and reside in the United States, and are either American citizens or have obtained permanent status. A very small part of this population is made up of college-age young adults who have student visas who may or may not have established family or social support. The second generation is comprised of individuals born in the United States to first generation Korean parents. There is a third group, who are individuals who have been in the United ...
Whether you have experienced a lot of traveling to other countries and continents or perhaps you have never left the East coast, it can be assumed; whether through school or a work environment, you have had at least one experience dealing with different nationalities and cultures. The realization is that we may come from different places and have different backgrounds but most people, cultures included, have more in common then we could imagine.
... so many things about interacting with others and about understanding different cultures, Things are different everywhere you do because someone was raised that way or because they believe in something different than you. Culture isn’t all about the way someone lives or the society that they live in. Culture is about things you own, the way you act, where you live and your lifestyle. I now look at people with a different culture than me with so much more respect. I don’t know what they have gone through or what kind of culture they grew up with, life is harder in other places then it is America. I understand the differences in the way people live and see things. The culture and diversity in the world is amazing. Overall I loved this class, I learned things that I never could have imagined learning, I am impressed with the book and the class discussions that we have.
Write an Essay (900-1200 words) in which you analyze and comment on Amy Chua’s article “Why Chinese Parents Are Superior”. Part of your essay must focus on how the writer engages the reader and on possible consequences of adopting Amy Chua’s values and methods of upbringing.
Also, how other cultures have had a phenomenal impact on how I view everyday situations and how I draw conclusions, whether it’s about an ethnic group, my own and others or about hot topics in the news. Before this class I did not realize cultural relativism. I really was ethnocentric because I never took the time to evaluate other people’s cultures independently of my own. While I think it is normal for people to judge their peers, coworkers, etc. based on their experiences I also feel it would be beneficial for all of us to take the time to try and understand the sociological point of view of others that are not familiar to us or view things very different from us. The tools I have learned in this class seems to have made me a better listener and emphasizer because I have caught myself listening to people just to hear them and not just to respond. The change in my outlook about being intertwined in society has improved my communication skills at work and at
Humans have been communicating since four million years. On the other hand, the birth of culture is estimated to have taken place about 35,000 years ago. Today, both culture and communication have evolved considerably and have become interdependent of one another, to the point that communication is considered to be a product of culture. Thus, our own culture has a deep impact on our thoughts and behaviors. Since each culture has its distinct aspects, intercultural communication can be the cause of conflict and disorder. There are three main issues which are at the root of the problem of intercultural miscommunication : language as a barrier, cultural diversity and ethnocentrism. I will analyze these three notions in situations in which intercultural communication is frequent such as : the workplace, the classroom and vacation trips.