Cultural Intelligence In Action Paper- TOPIC (Guidance In Enrolling To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine For Senior Citizens In The USA)
Cultural Intelligence in Action []
In June, I am going on a mission trip to _______ through an organization called ______. The mission of ______.is to promote meaningful conversations about the bible with people from all around the world. These conversations take place by workers, like me, teaching and improving English through ______.. Readers will sign up to learn and improve their English, and they will come in every day to work one-on-one with one of my teammates or me. We will then facilitate the reading session and guide them through ______.. The goal of these conversations is to share our lives with the readers and show how Christ has been at work in our lives, while also helping them with the English they need to succeed in their careers. For six weeks I will be doing this evangelistic work in ______.. Because I want to learn more about the culture of _____ and the changes I will need to make before going, I have decided to do this project on my upcoming trip.
Known for its rich and well-preserved history, the capital city of ______. has an extremely diverse background. With a population of over 2,000,000 people (unesco.org), there are many different cultures and subcultures present, different languages spoken, and a variety of customs practiced throughout the city. One of the big ethnic distinctions is that of indigenous peoples and non-indigenous peoples. This is a very dividing factor in the community, as indigenous people are frequently seen as a lower class and often live in poverty. For the purpose of this assignment I will be focusing on the culture of indigenous peoples in ______., specifically the ______. people living in ______.. There are many cultural differences which I could discuss, and I will focus on three here. First, I will talk about the religious beliefs among the indigenous population of ______.; Second, I will discuss how ______. live in a polychronic time society; Finally, I will discuss the collectivist society in ______.
Knowing about the religions and beliefs present in ______. is very important to my trip since it is an evangelical mission trip. It is so crucial to know about what people believe and where they come from before teaching them and trying to make more followers for our own beliefs. Religion is one of the most important parts about a culture. For a lot of people around the world, it determines what people do and why they do it, it shapes what they believe as well as how they act. The beliefs, traditions, and rituals that the ______. people of ______. practice really set them apart from other groups present in the area.
In _____ who identify as ______., there are several different beliefs that show up in culture. Some ______. identify as Catholic, along with ninety percent of the entire population of _____. Other native ______. have mixed Catholicism in with their original tribal or native beliefs, creating something they call “Folk Catholicism”. In Philip Jenkins article “______. and Catholic”, he discusses Folk Catholicism and some of the ways it is seen in the ______. culture. One example is how they relate the virgin Mary to the ______. goddess Pachamama, or Mother Earth. Pachamama is known for taking care of the harvest, causing earthquakes and other natural disasters, and controlling all the natural parts of the world. The ______. believe in changing worlds and ages in a complex cosmological system. They celebrate different feasts and rituals throughout the year to honor Pachamama, Mary, and the cosmology that they believe in. Some of these include the festival of Carnaval, Todos los santos (Day of the Dead), and the midsummer and winter solstices which combine the catholic beliefs about the virgin Mary with celebrations that are traditional to the ______. people. Other indigenous people leave Catholicism altogether and believe strictly in their own ______. views.
These views are very different than what I am used to in the United States. Rituals to honor goddesses of the earth are not typical, at least not with the people I grew up around. To maintain cultural intelligence while on this trip, it will be very important for me to not force any of my beliefs on anyone. My focus while on this trip is to be the illustration of God and to show his love to the ______ culture, not to spend all my time forcing my beliefs on anyone. Yes, it is important to share my beliefs because this is an evangelical mission, but I must be aware of what I am saying and how I am acting while on this trip. It will be important for me to learn about the culture and have conversations with people about their beliefs. Livermore discusses the importance of Knowledge CQ and how we must strive to understand different cultures and where they come from. Knowledge CQ is very essential for dealing with the cultural difference of religion while on this short-term trip. In any mission work, it is so important to know what the people you are working with believe so that you can reach them best.
According to Edward T. Hall, there are two different kinds of cultures when it comes to time management. The first, which is usually seen in the United States, is monochronic time. This type of time is divided into segments and is considered sticking to a schedule and doing one thing at a time. Hall talks about how people who use monochronic time are governed by it and let it control their lives; they let some people in and keep others out. Time is tangible in monochronic cultures. On the other hand, a polychronic society sees time as being very flexible. You can do multiple things at once, and there is much less of a schedule to keep. In a polychronic time society people are valued above time and events, and relationships are more important to these cultures than being on time to an event.
While talking to the family that will be hosting me in ______., I learned that ______. is somewhere in the middle of these two, depending on what type of event you will be attending. In the modernizing workforce the idea of being punctual is becoming more prevalent and employees are expected to be on time. In the past this hasn’t been stressed as much, but as ______. becomes more economically developed and modern it is becoming more important to employers that their workers be there on time. Church-goers are also encouraged to show up on time to worship services in order to show respect to God. For social events, however, it’s very common for events to begin later than the suggested hour. Guests frequently arrive late to parties and sometimes being on time can even be considered rude in this culture. It is very normal for events to start hours later than the time mentioned, and everyone is very relaxed and comfortable with that.
Since I am used to a society which runs on monochronic time, it will be a big change for me to enter into ______.where time is much more flexible in social events and meetings. In order for my project to be successful, it will require me to be more flexible with my time and to relax more instead of always worrying about what is coming next. It will be important for me to put relationships first while in that culture, so as not to offend anyone by leaving them in order to stick to schedule. Specifically, I will need to remember this is when I am waiting for my readers to come work with me, I will need to be more flexible with my time and more understanding if people are not “on time” to the lessons.
One of the conclusions that can be drawn from the polychronic time in ______. is that they are a more collectivist society than the United States. In our society in the United States, emphasis is put on being an individual. People take care of and are responsible only for themselves and their direct family. As children grow up in America, they are expected to become independent, move out and fend for themselves instead of relying on their parents. In ______., groups of people are formed based on class and ethnicity, and those groups take care of each other. They feel connected and feel a sense of responsibility to take care of each other. When talking with the hosts of my trip, ______., we discussed how the family life in ______. is affected by the community-oriented culture there. They told me that extended family is very valued and that many families will live together or very close to each other for the entirety of their lives. Mothers have very strong bonds with their children that extend far into the adulthood of the child. In general, the good of all people is regarded more highly than the good of one individual which is shown in the socialistic democratic political system in ______.. The idea of being a community and caring for each other extends throughout all types of people in ______. and throughout all classes of people.
When I am in ______., it will extremely important for me to be aware of how I manage relationships, and make sure that I am taking care of and interacting warmly with those around me. Coming from a society that is very individualistic, it will be a big change to come into a society that is so community oriented. The sense of connectedness is strong in ______. and it a significant thing to think about as I prepare to go there. With ______. there are weekly parties that workers throw for their readers and their families, and I believe this will be a great opportunity to make more connections between the members of the church and the readers from around the community. Since ______. are attracted to a strong sense of community and caring about those around them, these parties will be a good chance to welcome the ______.readers into the church family that will care for them.
While there are many more cultural differences I could discuss in this paper, I believe that these are three of the biggest things that will affect me while I am working in ______. and that they are the most important things for me to be aware of. Much of being culturally intelligent is simply knowing about that culture and being aware of the differences between your culture and theirs. Interpretive intelligence, as David Livermore puts it, is “being able to accurately make meaning from what we observe”. Going into a culture with information about their beliefs and behaviors is important because then when we enter we will be able to make sense of what we are seeing and understand why the people do what they do.
Religion is a very significant part of my trip. Knowing about the ______. folk religions and their beliefs is crucial to my understanding of the culture of ______. and will change the way I interact with the people of ______.. If I know about their religious culture, it will be easier for me to relate and talk about how my beliefs differ from theirs. The polychronic time society is something that will require me to change some, and it will be necessary to be understanding when I face circumstances involving time that don’t play out the same way as they would here in the United States. Knowing about the community-oriented culture will help me know how to best reach the readers that I will be working with and help me know how to connect them better with the local church there so that I will have a successful ______.project.
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