Ethnocentrism.( Week of March 19-25) D3

A concept that I found interesting was  the barriers of intercultural communication. The one that stuck out most was the ethnocentrism on page 341. It is the belief that a person’s own culture is superior to all others and the tendency to judge all cultures by their own criteria. Many people do believe that there way is the right way and they either judge or criticize other people for doing things differently. Every culture has their own way of doing certain things, and there really is not a right or wrong way. One cultures way does not make it better compared to different cultures. It is just how they belief it should be done and that is fine. People should realize that not every culture is the same and that’s okay. People can do their things their way and others will do it the way that pleases them as well. I liked the concept and the books examples about how certain cultures pray and wear clothing. It’s all too everyone’s own preference and it should be acceptable even if it is different from your own. It is one barrier that needs to be knocked down. One culture is not superior to another.

Premises (Week of March 19-25) D2

There are three basic beliefs  about human nature that Larry Samovar, Richard Porter, and Nemi Jain argue about. They are; rationality, perfectibility, and mutability premises. I agree with them to an extent. Rationality is about the belief that most people can discover the truth through logical analysis. I do believe that people can figure certain things out through logical analysis. Some things that are either common sense or judgment calls can be made through this belief. Some institutions where this practice is based on would be in our government or trial by juries like the book mentioned.  The next belief is Perfectibility. It is based on the old Puritan idea that humans are born into sin and they can achieve goodness through effort and control. I do agree that people can achieve goodness by doing certain things and becoming better people by what they do. The last premise is Mutability and that assumes that human behavior is shaped by environmental factors. It also says that ways to improve humans is to improve their physical and psychological circumstances. I do believe that our behaviors are shaped by our environment and how we see other humans behavior. In some cases to improve humans it can be done by improving their physical and psychological circumstances but it depends on what they want to improve. So I do agree with the premises for the most part. I don’t completely agree with the perfectibility premise 100% but I understand what it is trying to say and mostly agree with it.

Ruth Benedict, (Week March 19-25) D1

I do agree with anthropologist Ruth Benedict that we are “creatures of our culture”. As we grow up we are surrounded by our culture and learn from how others do things. We watch people in our same culture  do things in a certain way and we do the same since that is what we see growing up and are told how to react. The things that we believe are true are learned from our culture and we belief what we see happening. I also agree that our habits, beliefs and impossibilities are shaped by our culture as well.  We learn from seeing others do things, our parents(family), friends and teachers. They are all part of our culture and they shape us into the people we are today. When we are born, we are exposed to a certain culture and learn about that culture and how to do things. One way to break through the limits of our culture would be to learn about others culture and to get a better understanding on how they do things. Also by parents exposing their children to different cultures growing up can make them more culturally diverse and that can break the limits as well.  

Personal Space. Week 6 d3

On concept that I found interesting was about personal space on page 121. It says that personal space acts like a portable territory that people always have. It also mentions that when people are to close to us that we either move away or feel uncomfortable. Same with them people stand too far away, we move in closer to them. In some cultures, they don’t have the same norms with personal space as others do. I have found myself standing in line at stores and the person behind me is standing literally on top of me and I can feel them breathing down my back. It becomes very uncomfortable and I always turn around to look at them and give them a facial expression of “back up’ but they never get it. I have then tried to move a tiny bit forward or to the side and they seem to follow. It becomes very frustration and all you can think at the moment is how much longer is this going to take and when can I leave. I liked table 5.3 that talks about the interacting zones for most Americans, and it would be nice if all cultures had similar if not the same standards when it comes to personal space.

Nonverbal Mistakes. Week 6 d2

Some nonverbal messages are not universal in different cultures. When displaying a nonverbal message to someone another than from you’re your culture, you have to make sure that you are not offending them or sending a different message to them. It can be hard to know what nonverbal messages mean in other cultures and it can get you in trouble some places. If you were to travel outside of the US, giving a thumbs up to people might be a bad idea. In the US thumbs up means good job or ok and it usually mean a good thing. In other cultures, giving a thumbs up is very insulting and it can be like giving the middle finger to someone in America. So one should avoid giving a thumbs up to someone outside of the US or even to a person of a different culture. Even giving handshakes can be misunderstood. In some cultures, it is wrong for a man to shake a woman’s hand at all.  Also pointing with your index finger is different. If you point with your index finger it can be rude to Asian cultures. Smiling is also another one that seems harmless and just a sign of being happy or a hello or acknowledging a person, but it some cultures to much smiling is rude and in others it is used only when you are sorry about something. There are many other nonverbal messages that mean different things to different cultures. It is a good thing to know what nonverbal messages are accepted for different cultures, especially if you are traveling to a different country. You wouldn’t want to insult anyone.

Nonverbal Messages. Week 6 d1

Nonverbal messages can be hard to understand at times. You may think it could be referring to a certain thing, but the sender might actually be trying to convey a completely different message. I have found myself wrong about someones meaning of a nonverbal message. At work I had seen one of my coworkers crying after talking to our boss. I had made eye contact with her and she had such a sad facial expression that all I wanted to do was comfort her. I then walked over to her to ask if she was okay because she seemed like she wanted to talk to someone since she motioned me to come over and as I approach her, she then turned the other way and walked off. I was rather appalled and very confused because we were such good friends I didn’t understand why she would walk away. I then didn’t know if I should follow her or not, so I went back to what I was doing because I didn’t want to make things worse. It turns out that our general manager was also walking over to her to talk with her and she went to try and hide so she wasn’t confronted by him. I had then thought that maybe she was mad at me when she walked off, but her nonverbal communication of not letting me know what happened and just turning around gave me another message. In order for people to increase the accuracy with which they interpret nonverbal messages would be to make them clearer. If you motion for someone to come to you, don’t then leave without an explanation or at least signal to them that you will be right back or “one sec” to them. They can also look at the content in which the other person is seeing it from and try to make sure that what they are trying to communicate nonverbally makes sense to the other person. Nonverbal communicate can be at times very blunt or hard to read.