Final Essay

Module 1: Why Navigate another Culture

Contents

What do we mean by Navigating another Culture? Navigating another Culture is Rewarding The World is Full of Situations where Cross-Cultural Misunderstandings can occur. Often, there is One Key Cause of these Misunderstandings Article: Negotiating in China Read the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners of the 2016 MSU International Student Essay Contest. Chinese Students Navigating U.S. culture (short radio report)

What do we mean by Navigating another Culture?

By navigating another culture, we simply mean that given a situation of cultural difference and/or intercultural interaction, you can effectively analyze and adapt to that situation.

One could say that there are two basic levels of navigating another culture. At the simplest level, navigating another culture refers to a set of behaviors: it means that when you are in a different cultural setting, you use appropriate behaviors and avoid inappropriate ones, and that you communicate effectively. Please view the eight minute video below in order to to see examples of inappropriate behaviors caused by not knowing how to navigate different types of intercultural situations. If your browser does not show the video box below, or if you want to view the video with closed captioning, please click here to open the video in Youtube in a new browser window.

(Source: this video was produced by the US government agency the Peace Corps and was accessed from their old -- no longer accessible -- website at https://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/multimedia/videos/culturalgaffes/ in 2010).