Learning Journal 3

[Heather Schmitz]

I really enjoyed this reading - Figuring Foreigners Out.  After reading about the section on Individualist-Collectivist, I was completing a cross-cultural training, where they had us pretend to have either individualist or communal norms and greet each other. My group had the norms of - not initiating conversation, keeping a personal distance with strangers but being open with family and community, and keeping conversation formal. When the members of the other group came over and shook our hands roughly and stared me down saying hello - I felt uncomfortable for the first time in my life with hearty greetings. I even recoiled when someone tried to hug me in greeting. That wasn't allowed - it was uncomfortable - it was strange to my norms. This exercise cemented the idea of Figuring Foreigners Out for me, because people from other cultures will have different ways of life than I do. For example, their nonverbal head shakes back and forth do not necessarily mean yes. Their silence and distance in greeting does not mean they do not wish to interact with me. If they show up late (or early) it could be that their culture dictates a different usage of time. If an individual will not speak to me, perhaps there is a bonafide cultural reason such as power distance (direct and indirect communication being a factor). Keeping these differences in mind, I learned to not act on my first impulse in new cultural situations, but take my time to observe and understand and consider my interpersonal actions.