reflection essay(1-2pages)

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Reflection Essay

Intercultural Communication

Question 2

In the presentation and chapter on intercultural communication, several tactics for intercultural communication competence are described.  Choose an intercultural communication interaction from the film Crash where you feel the communication between parties was ineffective.  Explore how their interaction might be improved by specifically applying two of the tactics for intercultural communication competence mentioned in the chapter and presentation.  Alternately, you may choose to apply two of the tactics to an event from your personal experience that you feel is an appropriate example of an ineffective intercultural interaction. 

When I came to America with my family, we had a new experience of having a new culture and values. However, it is challenging to embrace a new culture and values, especially for my family and me, who we had been living in India. It is because the culture and values in India are different from that in America. Therefore, my main goal was to gain knowledge through learning and making new friends in America. Therefore, I was able to accomplish my goals since, after some time in America, I was able to make new friends and have good progress in my education. However, it was hard for my mother to embrace American culture and values. My mother uses to tell me that we should never forget nor abandon Indian culture and values even if we have to adopt the new American culture and norms. Comment by Zoe: You had been living in India?

Therefore, my mother always viewed Indian culture as superior and more accurate than the new American cultural norms. For instance, our Indian culture of "Sikhism" does not allow piercing, tattoos or haircuts. It is because it is believed that it changes our nature of how God made us. However, in the United States, those activities, such as tattoos and piercing, are acceptable. Thus, because of peer influence, I was planning to have tattoos on my body, but my mother never supported it. It is because she still beliefs in our original Indian culture. Therefore, I had to explain to her that every society has its own culture and beliefs. Thus, one cannot change what other people believe in based on the perception of the cultural norms of your community. I would feel that my mother was never open-minded about different concepts in life about various societies. She seemed to be judging American citizens on their freedom of lifestyle, including having tattoos, piercing, and haircuts, which is not acceptable in Indian culture. Comment by Zoe: While you are on the right track. But the example might not be appropriate. I see the “communication” happens between you and your mom, by definition it is not inter-culture communication. Also, Whether she would allow you to have tattoo should not be the criteria to evaluate the “effectiveness” of your communication.

Question 3

One of the themes explored in the film Crash was the use of cultural stereotypes.  Choose 3 specific stereotypes referenced in the film and discuss how they impacted the events portrayed in the film.  If you had hypothetically switched places with one of the characters in the film discuss whether or not you might have (even unknowingly) been influence by some of the same stereotypical perceptions and explain the reasoning behind your answer.    

 Alternately, you may choose to discuss in detail 3 situations where you erroneously applied stereotypes in an interaction with someone else or were affected by another inaccurately stereotyping you.

In my teenage age, according to our cultural beliefs, I had a long hair wrapped around my head (i.e., "turban"). I had never cut my hair as it was not acceptable in our culture and religion. Therefore, when I was in high school, students always felt that my hairstyle was awkward. I was, therefore, stereotyped by my peers and other people. Many people would judge me based on their prior knowledge. Many people would assume that I am from the Islam community because I was wearing a "turban," which implies a wrong judgment. For instance, during my first time in school, many of my peers asked me if I was from an Islamic community, and they were eager to know my country of origin. My peers would never believe that I was from India, as they said that I resemble most Muslims.

The terrorist events in America were another stereotype because many American people blamed the Muslims for the terror attack. Therefore, the lives of "Sikhs" were restricted because of stereotyping. It is because they were seen as Muslims. After all, they use "turbans." The Sikhs were judged on how they look and spoke.

Another common stereotype involves making jokes regarding Bin laden. Many of my peers asked me where I was hiding Bin Laden and why we are attacking America. Therefore, this was very hurting and disrespectful because of wrong judgment and stereotyping. Comment by Zoe: I prefer you use your own example in this assignment. But apparently your two examples contradicted with each other.