Week 9 Question 3

The concept I find interesting in this chapter is Ethnocentrism, “the belief that one’s own culture is superior to all others and the tendency to judge all cultures by one’s own criteria” (p.359). I think we can see this happens a lot in the Western society. I have been living in the States for about 10 years, when I started to go to school here, I noticed most American students are very self-centered and some of them even think United States is the whole world. They are not interested in me nor they are nice to me. When I said something that is not part of the norm, they would look at me weirdly. I think part of the reason for that behavior is that back then, there weren’t many intercultural activities going on at school, therefore, students wouldn’t know how to treat other people who were a little different than they are.

Week 9 Question 2

I don’t believe in the rationality, perfectibility, and mutability premises are the three basic beliefs about human nature. Rationality premises “the belief that most people are capable of discovering the truth through logical analysis. The reason I don’t believe this is because I don’t think there is a solid truth about everything. Truths are subjective; therefore we have different parties in government. People believe what they want to believe in because truth is multifaceted. Perfectibility premise “humans are born in sin but are capable of achieving goodness through effort and control”(P.353). However, I believe humans are born in goodness and it was the later outside influence make human become more complicated. I think I have this belief is because I was influenced by my own culture, the Confucianism. The last belief is mutability premise “human behavior is shaped by environmental factors and that the way to improve humans is to improve their physical and psychological circumstances”(p. 353). I agreed with this premise because it has something to do with human shaped by culture and we later improve ourselves by improve our physical and psychological circumstances. Especially psychological, because what we think and how we proceed the world effects our choices and our choices effects our lives.

Week 9 Question 1

I agree with anthropologist Ruth Benedict that we are creatures of our culture. I believe that our habits, beliefs, and impossibilities are shaped by our culture. The reason is that when we were born in an environment, we starting to learn from our surroundings. And the surrounding affects our experience, which shape our behavior and what we believe in. As Benedict put it “We are the products of our cultures”(p.343). How can we break through the limits of our cultures? I believe as we are growing, we naturally move beyond our culture. We become more intelligent and interact with people from different culture background. In this process, we are changing, we begin to expand and become selective. Even though we are changing, we still remain some of the characteristics that reflect on our culture but adding or changing some habits and impossibilities to be more suitable in the bigger society.

Week 7 Question 3

The concept I find interesting in chapter 5 is adaptors. Adaptors “they are behaviors that people use to adapt to stresses and to satisfy personal needs. Some are behaviors that satisfy immediate needs, whereas others may be residual displays of behaviors that were once functional” (p.117). I was thinking what kind of adaptors I have when I was nervous or stress. I found out I have a couple of them. When I was studying I like to play with the fabric of my clothing with my fingers. I think this helps me to be calm and focus. When I was nervous about something, especially waiting for something, I get agitate, therefore I tend to tap my foot. However, my mom always stops me from tapping my foot. I would stop for a while and then I would feel uncomfortable. Later I would start tapping again unconsciously. Because all of these are unconscious actions, we can observe uncover hidden information about people’s emotional states (Trenholm, 2008, p. 118).

Week 7 Question 2

The nonverbal displays definitely have different meanings among cultures. I remember when I first came to the U.S as a visitor (I was 8) I saw people on the street smiling at me. When it happened more than once, I asked my dad why would strangers smiling on me. He said it is normal in the U.S, it is a sign of friendliness and he told me I should do the same. In the Asian culture, we don’t go around and smile at strangers; people would think you have mental problems. We also don’t make that much eye contact as well. In the U.S eye contact is consider respect, however in the Asian culture, its very impolite if we look an elder in the eyes when we are spoken to. As it was explained in the text “When it comes to other kinds of nonverbal meanings, such as the use of time and space, quite dramatic cultural differences occur. The implication is clear: do not assume that everyone shares your own nonverbal rules” (p.111). Basically, just like verbal language, and other culture differences, nonverbal messages are also important. If we are going to work with people with different backgrounds, we have to be acknowledging of nonverbal aspect as well.

Week 7 Question 1

Since nonverbal messages don’t involve any verbal messages, it can be ambiguous. When my father was listening to my sister’s explanation about her recent attitude problems, he had his arms crossed, lean back on the chair and with a serious look on his face. I though he was angry with my sister’s explanation and was about to burst up right after. As I was watching on the side I got really nervous and I interrupted my sister. I turned to my dad, and I asked him not to be angry with my sister because it wasn’t that big of a deal. He replied that he wasn’t mad at all and he was just listening to my sister. Later I asked him what was up with all the serious gestures. He said he lean back because my sister was out of focus in his eyes (he has eyesight problem) and his serious look was because he couldn’t hear my sister loud enough (my dad couldn’t hear in one ear). It was funny how I forgot all of my dad’s physical problems under the situation and I misinterpreted all of his nonverbal messages. A lot of nonverbal messages are unintentional and there are a lot of aspects we should consider when we are interpreting them. As it was mention in the text, “…Check the context…Compare current behavior to baseline behavior…Ask for verbal feedback” (Trenholm, 2008, p. 109). As for me, I did “ask for verbal feedback” to increase my accuracy because I think it is the easier way. However, this method couldn’t use on any situation.

Week 6 Question 3

The concept interested me the most in Chapter 4 is the intercultural language use of formality. Trenholm defined this concept “Some cultures use language in a formal way. Protocol is very important, deference should be shown to superiors, and all message should flow through proper channel”(p.97). Compare with the United States, language is very formal in the Chinese culture. The difference is obvious by how people address their names. In the U.S, we see people address other’s name by their first name even with elders. However, in the Chinese culture, they address people names by their last name with a title. For example, Mr. Tang or Mrs. Huang. They seldom refer a person’s first name especially with elders because that is considering disrespectful. The formality of language use is greatly reflected on the culture. Chinese culture is very proper and values hierarchy. On the other hand, US culture is more casual and believe in equality among individuals.

Week 6 Question 2

I agree that men and women use language differently. I also think this is because when we were little, adults communicate with us according to our gender. If a girl falls down, their parents would lift her up and calm her down. However, if a boy falls down, their parents would tell him, he is a boy and needs to be strong. Women are taught to communicate to express their feelings. However, men are taught use communication express their masculinity, to be independent, to be strong. For example, in relationship, it is very typical that the girlfriend wants to “talk about feelings” but the boyfriend would think talking about feelings is unnecessary. Men don’t think communication is a big part in the relationship because they believe communicating is a tool for them to be successful in the workplace. Women values the verbal communication in the relationship, however, men values the physical interaction even more.

Week 6 Question 1

I do not think it is possible to perceive others without judging or categorizing them at first. It is human nature that we always judge people by their first impressions. When we see someone for the first time, we are judging them by how they look, how they dress, what they wear and how they present themselves. By doing that, we are already judging them. After that, we start to have thoughts about them such as “I met someone just like him before” or “She is that kind of girl who doesn’t care about what other people say about her”. We categorized them in our mental picture and gave them labels without further understanding. I think the only way to make judgments more accurately and more fair is to get the know the person better by talking to them and listen to what he or she has to say. I met a girl before, I thought she looks tough and mean; therefore, I basically kept my distance with her. Unfortunately, I got stuck with her to do a group project. Because of the group meetings, we started to hang out more. After more talking with her, and listened to what she has to say, I found out she is actually a nice and sweet person. Ever since that class, we became best friend she is at my house right now). We should always keep in mind that first impressions aren’t always correct and it takes a long time to make the right judgment of a person.