Distinguished Service Cross

On January 30, 2016, I will be leaving the comforts of New England to spend my spring semester studying abroad in Florence, Italy. My plan is to travel around Europe, including to France, Spain, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, etc. Other than making the quick trip from Maine to Canada, this will be my first time outside of America. I have made several goals for myself while abroad, with the overall goal of expanding my cultural horizons. I also have goals for developing my cultural awareness…

Assuming things about someone else's culture is a hard case of how one's culture affects the way one views the world. This happens a lot with different texts like in Two Kinds, Hapa and An Indian Father's Plea. All of which have different cultural beliefs on the world and this affects the way they view the world. Modernization significantly impacts the way one views others around the world. Firstly in the novel excerpt “two kinds” by Amy Tan a daughter is pressured by her mom to be as good as…

Gordon, Assimilation In this reading Gordon defines the assimilation theory as “a process of interpretation and fusion in which persons and groups acquire the memories, sentiments, and attitudes of other persons or groups, and, by sharing their cultural experience and history, are incorporated with them in a common cultural life.” Gordon focuses on cultural and structural marital assimilation. He defines cultural assimilation as the adoption of aspects of a new dominant culture. Gordon also…

Pride and Freedom True freedom is a subjective and diverse concept. It will likely vary in meaning from one person to the next due to different time periods, race, gender, culture, and social class. What one person may think is a freedom, may be different to the next person. Pride and Prejudice shows a variety of freedoms and lack thereof throughout the novel. It shows how the pride of a woman can sometimes take the place of her freedoms. Pride and Prejudice is set in the Georgian period,…

Intercultural communication differences are unavoidable when people from different cultures communicate with each other. In some aspects, those differences may make people exciting contacing with a new culture. However, most of time, cultural differences cause unpleasant feelings to one in a new environment. In this analysis of the film “Anna and the king”, the differences between Siam (Thailand) and England cultures will be demonstrated through four concepts: power distance, gender…

Nonverbal communication is very important in conversations between people. It is also very problematic, what can be observed by every person individually, when received message was misunderstood or taken not as the sender wanted it to be decoded. However, if nonverbal conversation is such a problem in regular contact between people, it can be assumed that intercultural communication may be even more problematic. Stella Ting-Toomey (1999: 114) in her book wrote that nonverbal communication in…

Hofstede developed a model that identifies four primary dimensions to assist in differentiating cultures: Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, and Uncertainty Avoidance. Hofstede (1980) defines his self-constructed dimensions in the following way: 1. Power Distance. The first dimension of national culture is called Power Distance. It indicates the extent to which a society accepts the fact that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally. It’s reflected in the…

The movie Biutiful (2010), directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, presents a plurality of situations in which cultural interaction is at work. Among the many themes, the nature of the relationship between workers of different ethnicities is particularly thought-provoking. The film sees the story of Uxbal, Spanish man of a poor background, who acts as a liaison between immigrants of different ethnic groups (Chinese and African), providing them with work; he is also a mediator between these…

The purpose of this essay is to determine the challenges that an employee of a company would face if they were to begin work in an entirely different country and culture from their own. Based on Geert Hofstede's five cultural dimensions, we can see what makes each country different, and how employees would have to adapt to working in a different country. First in the essay, Hofstede's theory will be discussed briefly. Next, two countries, Canada and China, will be compared in regards of the five…

In today's world, the need to understand people from other cultures is becoming more important and unavoidable as the world changes in different aspects of life. The ability to communicate effectively with other individuals from other cultures is called intercultural competence. To be interculturally competent, an individual must have the correct knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with an individual in an intercultural context. Intercultural competence is made up of a few essential…