INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE

There is a saying I've heard since I was a kid. It says...       'When in Rome, behave like the Romans'

My living environment may have diversity because most modern societies now are diverse in some sort or the other. Moreover, I have learned that even I as a social entity am diverse in variety of ways; and even my family is diverse from those with whom it has close similarities in terms of common nationality, ethnic background, religion, political affiliation and social status. However, the kind of diversity I am experiencing is vastly different from the ones I have come across in my on line studies' resources and materials and classroom. This is simply because, the United States is a country made up of several nationals.

Back to my locality, I find myself communicating differently with people of different groups. It almost comes naturally, its like an intrinsic intention to ensure that you are understood and it is born out of an assumed understanding of what gets across these group of people. 

The ability to behave appropriately based on knowledge  about the other plus an intrinsic motivation is known as intercultural communication competence (Beebe,Beebe, & Redmond, 2011).

Competent Intercultural Communication: 

I may be a director, but I do a kind of routine class visit every now and then. when I go into the day care class which comprise of children between age 1 and 2, I have a communication style that enables me get connect with them, otherwise, I would feel awful and afraid if they don't respond to me ordinarily ( they are capable of that when they are not used to you). I usually come in with a captivating familiar rhyme. I come in acting the rhymes the way their teachers and care givers would act it. I get on the mat and I become like one of them. They are usually very passive at the beginning. I just continue linking one rhyme to the other and before long, some of them begin to respond. Eventually, they all start participating and eventually, we all have great fun learning time. In this communication, we engage a lot of high context cultural behaviors when we act out the rhymes with ourselves and we all understand. sometimes I am crawling on my furs and they can tell where I am going. Some other times, I just chant... This way, la...la....la, ..... and they can tell its outdoor time. They love it outdoor a lot!

Every one gets on their fore in search of our little missing dog.

OUTDOOR ACTIVITY.

 










Another instance that I remember was when I went to Asia for a brief holiday, U.A.E to be precise, I found myself adapting my English language to suit what I was hearing them speak. They had this intonation which is not what I am used to using in my country, but I found myself adjusting my speech because I want to be understood, otherwise I would give them a tough time understanding me and I do not like to get into such situations. I always want to be understood and I think most humans do.

Creating A Third Culture 

My husband & I are from different ethnic group with their unique various cultures. As time has evolved, we have had to generate a 3rd culture which is what my own family now operates. It is like a blend of both  backgrounds, at least the aspects we both admire, like the respectful nature of the Yorubas and the expressive bold nature of the Ijaws. 

View in addition pls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrJTf97Ev8o


Reference
Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

THE FEATURES OF NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION

 

I was not a regular with TV shows or programs before I started my Walden program, but Walden program has made time for entertainment even stricter. I chose to look at a Nigerian movie so that I can contribute our kind of context to the class. Its about 2 hours home video, but I just caught in on a brief period, 3 scenes to be precise.

Movie seen with sounds turned off.
Scene 1: Three young females sat down playing a local game and suddenly a car arrives in the horizon and all three of them ran to receive the passengers which happened to be a young man and a young woman. They all showed excitement on their face and the swiftness of their movement. All five of them walked back a short distance to the house. The compound had a man who sat down and and conversed with them all and a woman also came in from within the house and joined the conversation. They were all happy, and these was depicted by their grins, laughters and eye contacts. The car passengers brought some gifts and cash for the residents, especially the seeming papa  and mama figures after which they left.

Scene 2: Two young men came visiting. The elderly Man is always seated, while the elderly woman comes in to meet the conversation. This time, the atmosphere seem tense. The elderly woman seem to dictate what happens. She kept talking and one of the young females was very displeased and offended as expressed by her countenance. The two young men eventually left. The elderly woman acted as though to hurry them away.  

Scene 3: The unhappy and offended young woman, is seen expressing her disgust at the two elderly people. She seem dissatisfied that the young men had been hurried away. 

My Interpretation of the Scenes:
The elderly man and woman are the parents of the younger women and the relationship is in scene 1 is cordial, but scene 2 & 3 are non cordial.

What they are feeling in scene 1 is happiness, family togetherness, while scene 2 revealed contrary. Scene 2 seem to depict that the elderly woman is in charge.

 Movie  Scenes with voicing confirmed that they are a family but revealed that the father figure is blind. For the first scene, I was not sure if the young man or the young woman that arrived in the car is a member of the family that was visited. I just knew one of them was. It would have been clearer if I heard the conversations.

For the second scene, I was also unsure what the bone of contention was, I assumed, it could be business or  relationship issue. Again, the voicing would have made it clearer. At the end, I could tell the elderly woman, being the mother is dictating to her daughters the kind of dates she approves for them.

If it were a show that I knew well, maybe, it would have been more predictable.

This week, one of the things that I learned about non verbal communication is that it could be ambiguous. One can imagine he knows what is said only to find out that he/she may be completely wrong because the situational context is what determines the interpretation of behaviors (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012).
Secondly, my accurate guesses like happy and cordial versus unhappy and non cordial atmosphere were strengthened by the fact what I saw beyond what I heard is one of the things non verbals do, they reinforce verbal messages.


Reference
O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

MEET A COMPETENT COMMUNICATOR

I met an instructor on-line that I will never forget because she both impacted and inspired me. I will like to hold back her name because I met her in the course of my studies with Walden but for a more coherent reading, let's call her Dr. K.

My experience with Dr K was so intriguing because I felt like giving her Hugs of Gratitude and appreciation after each grading. Being a first time online student at graduate level was not funny because a lot of things were completely strange and I was without understanding. Dr.K was my second course instructor and I so enjoyed that course. Dr. K graded each week's work by stating the specific areas that needed improvement, providing aids like a link to a resource that could help overcome noted challenges, a detailed comment to deepen understanding, very direct and specific comments inclusive of instruction on how to solve it. In addition to correction, affirmation of what you have done well is also clearly stated and what specific thing you did well is appraised. She just makes sure that you are not guessing what she means, you have been supported to understand what she means. At the beginning of each work graded, she puts up  exhaustive summaries like:

I graded all your work for the week--beautiful work!

 Infant and Toddler Development for Week 2:

Content: Good thorough responses to each section.

I especially liked the content on language development--very good.

Very well done with good graduate-level writing.

See suggestions for improvement listed below:

  

Section 3: You need a resource. See instructions document on Application Assignment Page. Do not just use the text. You are supposed to do research on a topic.

You are not doing the reference list correctly. I suggest that you contact Walden Writing Center for help.

You are being graded with application rubric—so you need all of the required parts on the application rubric

                                          OR

Some of your responses were less than the minimum.

To earn a straight A, all responses need to be thorough.

Please work on reference list.

See sample reference list on APA template in doc sharing.

Contact Walden Writing Center for help:

On the left side of the Home Page of the course, you will find the Walden Links. I will copy the links here from Walden Links on left side of Home Page:

• Walden Writing Center
  http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/
• Ask a Writing Tutor
  writingsupport@waldenu.edu

 Please copy and paste application rubric after reference list. It is located in doc sharing. 

                                                             OR

Comment:

You did not copy the application rubric for grading.

I saw a link for it, but you need to copy and paste the entire application rubric at the end of your document—It is in doc sharing.

Contact technical help if you need help in finding doc sharing documents.

In doc sharing:

They are listed on the right side in an index.

Quick notes and Write Ups were very good.

Reflection was short. You need 1-2 pages for reflection.

You also need to cite correctly in APA format—You are not doing citations correctly.

See my help in reflection section

Then, every item or area refereed to in this general summary gets a detailed highlight of how better to do it the next week within the body of the work. For example, where I entered one or two sentences as responses, she would put, this is too minimal, it should be more. Her mode of correction makes me want to learn, and though it will take me into lots of searching out for myself, her approach makes me want to go all out for it.

Up to the 5th week, I was yet to know how to paste the rubric. She was patient about it, teaching me each week till I got it right.

My experience with that course enabled me to grow confidence in the handling of technical matters in the course. She inspired me such that I would like to be like that with everyone who works with me. That I would be attentive, decipher these needs and meet them. It enabled me feel a sense of worth and confidence that I was learning. Of course, I will say it again and again, She made a role model and mentor of herself for me just from that course.