This paper to me seemed like it would be a very tough one to accomplish. I am not one to go into another person’s home and just observe them and maybe put myself in an awkward position. But, this assignment actually pushed me out of my comfort zone. Because of this paper, I talked to an old friend of mine who has an all Hispanic family and they live where I grew up but hold a lot of their culture with them and inside their home. I asked my old friend if I could come over and catch up with him and maybe have dinner with them. He kindly said yes and we set up a day that worked best for everyone and went through with it. On that day, I went about my usual daily business and later that night, I went over to his house. Which, happens to be above
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Brandon’s grandfather lives with Brandon’s parents and I could tell as soon as I walked in that he carried more of his Hispanic culture in him than Brandon does. I was greeted by his grandfather with a kiss on the hand and this was not a shock to me because I read about the Hispanic culture prior to going into Brandon’s home and read that a kiss or a hug is common among Hispanic’s when greeting someone. The first actual barrier I had was meeting Brandon’s grandmother. She did not speak as much English as the rest of them and the English she did speak, was very hard to understand. Recognizing quickly that I could not understand her because of my long pause and me asking her to repeat herself, she used hand signals and pointed me to the chair beside her, where she wanted me to sit. I got over this barrier by asking politely if she could repeat herself and she did not mind at all to work it out with me. Something I did to overcome intercultural communication competence was to just go with all of the traditions that they were doing. Before dinner, they all held hands and kissed each other just because they are thankful to be together and to be eating together. I got over this barrier by doing exactly what they did. I joined in on their circle and gave kisses on the cheeks to the family and telling them thank you. They seemed very happy that I did not act indifferent about what they were doing just because it is not what my family
Brandon’s grandfather lives with Brandon’s parents and I could tell as soon as I walked in that he carried more of his Hispanic culture in him than Brandon does. I was greeted by his grandfather with a kiss on the hand and this was not a shock to me because I read about the Hispanic culture prior to going into Brandon’s home and read that a kiss or a hug is common among Hispanic’s when greeting someone. The first actual barrier I had was meeting Brandon’s grandmother. She did not speak as much English as the rest of them and the English she did speak, was very hard to understand. Recognizing quickly that I could not understand her because of my long pause and me asking her to repeat herself, she used hand signals and pointed me to the chair beside her, where she wanted me to sit. I got over this barrier by asking politely if she could repeat herself and she did not mind at all to work it out with me. Something I did to overcome intercultural communication competence was to just go with all of the traditions that they were doing. Before dinner, they all held hands and kissed each other just because they are thankful to be together and to be eating together. I got over this barrier by doing exactly what they did. I joined in on their circle and gave kisses on the cheeks to the family and telling them thank you. They seemed very happy that I did not act indifferent about what they were doing just because it is not what my family