Activity #12 What I have learned this class

Being an international student in America, I thought I knew much more about intercultural communication than others and this class would be easier for me. I thought I knew a lot what it was like to live in other country and meet with people from other cultures. I thought that was all about this class and I didn’t know any other aspect of this class.

However, actually I didn’t know at all. Even as international students, we all have different cultural backgrounds, we all speak in different first languages, and individuals are so different. Even from the same area, East Asia, Japan, China and Korea have somewhat different cultures even though we share the same part, too, Also, I still need to recognize the difference of American perspective and my own perspective. I learned a lot about American culture as I have spent one year there, but I don’t see it from perspectives of the people there and I see it from my Japanese cultural perspective. This class has taught me that there’s much more that I still don’t know and something that I’m not conscious with, and we all need to work for everybody to live peacefully.

I have learned that being open-minded is really important. I can accept the others and know their culture by doing that. If I can be open to others, we can learn from each other and tolerate our differences, and I wouldn’t hurt them. Being curious about them makes it easier to get to know them. Accepting not judging other’s ideas also helps us to be empathic. It’s important that not only me but also the others are open. If I’m judgmental to them, they wouldn’t be open-minded and they wouldn’t tell me about them honestly. Even if I don’t like the ideas, I can at least learn our differences.

It’s also nice that I have learned about issues and conflicts that we face. Intercultural communication is not always easy and fun, and it also carries risks. Even if we like to interact with people internationally, we might do some taboos that are not allowed in other’s culture if we don’t know it. As we communicate with others who have different cultural backgrounds, we need to know at least a little about their culture and their communication style. It is said that people in America communicate in a direct way, but people from Asia like me don’t. I might think that American people are rude when we talk with each other if I don’t know their different communication style from us, and Americans might think that I’m too ambiguous. Those misunderstanding cause conflicts and can hurt each other.

Even though I have finished this three weeks class, I still don’t know everything. This class never ends in me, and there will be always something to learn. I want to tell others what I have learned and what I’m learning about intercultural communication. We’re taking this class, but so many other people don’t know about what we have learned, and they don’t even know the existence of intercultural communication. Many people have stereotypes and hold prejudice or ethnocentrism about other cultures and the people. They don’t even realize it and they keep having those otherwise. It might be a little tiny thing to tell my family or friends about what I’ve learned. However, I’m hoping that there will be a lot more people realizing the benefits and issues that we all have and there will be less discrimination and intolerance about different culture and people. I also think that I need to broaden my eyes more to see the world. The world is not only about America and Japan which I spend my time, but there are almost two hundred countries and so many cultures.


Question: What is the best thing that you have learned from this class?


This is the last blog! Thank you for reading my blogs in spite of my insufficient English and it was fun to read yours. I learned a lot from each of you!