Year of Germany: The Fall of the Berlin Wall

While my knowledge on German history is up to the standard, a few details on this important event in German history I was unaware of.  This event about the fall of the Berlin wall was thrown to remember the effect it had both regionally and globally on massive amounts of people.  The event was staged in a large enough open space so that it could be divided into two separate parts, to represent the two different sides of Germany.  There were smaller activities ranging from tasting different parts of German food, to a soccer ball and play brick knocking down the wall game.  One activity that seemed particularly poignant was the large roll of paper that was put up for people to graffiti, but only on the West side.  The East side of the wall was apparently completely graffiti free, perhaps showing an even bigger difference that the two sides had.

The fall of the wall represented more than just a barrier being demolished, but a unity between a people that had been too often pitted against each other.  East and West Germany, separated by the wall was an unfair dividing line between a country that, after the fall of the wall, could become the Germany we have come to know today.  This could be used as a metaphor for what we can only hope to see happening today.  The breaking down of barriers not for domination or for violence, but for the unity of a people which should all share some very human and basic values.  The border of the Berlin wall was unfair to the rights of the people of Germany, and the fall represented something great for their nation that we would all do well to remember.  There is a famous saying that goes somewhere along the lines of this, those who do not pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it.  I can only hope that walls like this continue to fall around the world, decades later, breaking down the barriers that separate people from unity and a better tomorrow.

Different stars of the 1980's were very involved in voicing their opinion about the separation of people in Germany by way of the Berlin wall.  Even stars that had no relation to Germany at all had a basic desire for the human rights of these people to be respected.  An event halfway around the world can now effect people everywhere, if that is not a great testament to how globalized this world was and is, I do not know what is.

Year of Germany: Remembering Kristallnacht

Recently I attended a service for remembering Kristallnacht at my small liberal arts college.  This year is the year of Germany, so many of the school sanctioned events focus around events and issues that have historically been a part of that country.  This remembering Kristallnacht event was something that all who attended benefited from, not just by gaining historical knowledge, but also to know more about a country far away from the one we live in.

Kristallnacht is roughly translated in German to "The Night of Broken Glass".  This historically monumental event in German history happened on the night of November 9, 1938.  Throughout the event which was led both by students and a pastor, the event-goers were educated about the terrible events that took place and how the events leading up to and following this event were important not just to Germany, but also to the whole world.  30,000 Jews were not just arrested, but put into concentration camps.  275 synagogues were burned, as well as 7,500 businesses being destroyed through various means.  As we were being told these facts, the students intermixed reading accounts written by firefighters that were on the scene during burnings, and other people who had witnessed or taken part in that night.  Not everyone in Germany agreed with the terrible crimes that their country was committing, but that didn't mean that they could openly disagree without fear of retribution.

While the event was short, is was tasteful, with a symbolic lighting of candles at the end in remembrance of those that lost freedom and at times life during that event.  While we lit the candles, I was reminded that human life is something that should be revered globally, uniting us all in a way which can never be broken.

This event was not just educational, but thought provoking.  In regards to what I've learned about the effects of globalization today, it's clear to see that historically we've been on the track to this point for a long time.  The events in Germany that night helped lead to a series of events that threw most of Europe into turmoil.  Countries thousands of miles away were forced to choose sides and eventually the United States threw their hat into the ring in the hopes of minimizing human loss in the terrible and never forgotten world war.  Kristallnacht may only be about one night, but it's after effects can be, and at times, will still be felt today.

Limited Viewpoints

When I was six or seven me and my family travelled to Mexico.  At the time, I had no idea how lucky I was compared to my classmates to have the opportunity to experience another culture.  As opposed to going to the typical tourist attractions, my parents decided to take us to local businesses such as the markets and shops geared towards locals and not visitors.  One of these places we visited was the local Mall.  While we were there we felt it appropriate to try the local cuisine.  We settled on a pizza place and ordered a pizza named the Americano.  What could go wrong with that?  Soon we have a pizza to split between the six of us.  The Americano is a pizza with thousand island dressing in the place of sauce, covered in three meats.  These meats were vienna sausages, bologna and mystery meat.  Needless to say we were surprised.  Is this what people in Mexico really thought we ate?  This issue goes for both sides, we base our ideas of other cultures of media we see, which often portrays exaggerated cliches, a slippery slope for understanding other cultures.

With the rise of the media worldwide, a variety of cultures have been allowed to share parts of what makes them unique with a worldwide audience.  In America, one can rent a movie made in India, allowing us a unique though often somewhat unrealistic glance into another people groups culture.  The issue that we may be having in America, is the general lack of interest in other people's cultures.

First we can define the word media.  The definition of media according to Intercultural Communication  refers to the modes, means, or channels through which messages are communicated (Sorrells 2012).  Media has effected us on a global scale on both very positive and very negative ways.  When talking about media, it is also important to understand the difference between media and popular culture.  While these terms are often used interchangeably (I am guilty) they are in fact different concepts.  Popular culture is defined as systems and artifacts that the general populous or broad masses within a society share or about which most people have some understanding (Brummet 1994).  These terms can be interrelated, as the media often helps to expand the reach of popular culture both regionally and worldwide.

 I don't mean to overgeneralize and say that NOBODY born and bred in the USA is ignorant to other cultural experiences, but rather that the culture in general is not apt to encourage other countries media to impinge on the ever growing American dominance.  Americans run the risk of becoming increasingly ignorant to other countries and cultural values and norms.  When the majority of the exposure Americans get to other cultures is through limited media aspects, often movies or books, we begin to perceive other cultures by cliches portrayed in mass produced fantasized stories.

I believe that extreme ethnocentrism, or the belief that our culture is the best, mixed with lack of exposure will ultimately lead to the next generation being sorely out of touch with other peoples cultures.  Globalization may have allowed us the opportunity to be exposed to other cultures, beliefs, and ideals, but ignorance to the benefit that the exposure could provide may lead to some troubling difficulties in the future.

Other countries import media from the US into their countries, while in the US considerably less importing of media is done, while plenty of export is.  Often, when we do import other countries media, we may not even know that we are doing it.  For instance, the incredibly popular sitcom in the US named "The Office" was actually originated, with different actors of course, in the United Kingdom.  While no copyrights were infringed in the transfer, people in the US often times don't know that the idea for the show did not originate on American soil.  Also, by liking and reproducing the idea, but Americanizing it, it lost in sort of cultural exposure value it may have had to US citizens.

Globalization

Have you ever thought about the effects of globalization?  I hadn't given it much though until recently, when I discovered that my understanding of the concept was a little to vague.  Globalization has impacts on nearly every aspect of first world countries.  The impact is felt on levels including, but not limited to: Economic, political, cultural, social, and religious.  The idea of globalization is a huge concept of how most parts of the world have become interwoven, a vast network interconnected by non-physical means.  Hopefully we can discover in what ways, both good and bad, globalization effects us, the common people, today.

Historically people travelled for long periods of time, just to exchange cultural practices, goods, ideas, etc.  Even the idea of missionary work is in a way one of the early effects of globalization, transplanting religions originating on one continent to all different areas of the world.  Beyond people traveling the globe for religious purposes, migration has played a huge role in how certain areas have become a melting pot of different ideas, cultures, and religions.   As we all have learned from our American history classes, migration of the British people to the America's had a very negative effect on the Native Americans, one of the many possible downfalls to the ever increasingly globalized world.

In today's day and age, a person in the United States has numerous opportunities to experience the positive effects of globalization in their daily life.  As far as culture goes, you can often find books in your local library from all different continents of the world.  In most major cities there are restaurants from dozens of different countries and cultures.  If you go to a larger college, the odds are good that you will find dozens of people who speak multiple languages, and/or come from incredibly diverse people groups.  Often times we feel the positive effects of globalization without even realizing it.

In an ideal world, globalization would allow for the blending of cultures, without the loss of any cultural identities.  People would only reap the positive benefits of the idea, sharing culture would be easy etc.  Unfortunately with globalization, there is the argument that individual aspects of culture may be swallowed by the global culture as a whole.  When a dominant culture group comes into a place, where many smaller cultures are thriving, there is a chance, that the dominant culture group will start to envelope the smaller ones making cultural identity seem more uniform.  Of course there is also the chance that the dominant culture group will begin to add aspects of the individual groups to it's identity, but the odds historically have not been in favor of that.

Interdependence becomes an increasing factor in our ever globalizing world.  Not only are cultural ideas being shared, but aspects of everyday life are becoming interdependent on each other.  The successful economy in one state, or nation, can be heavily dependent on other countries and states.  While this has allowed many countries to thrive whereas otherwise they might be struggling, there is the argument that this takes away jobs from local entities.  For instance, large U.S based conglomerates often outsource manufacturing of their goods to one of the countries in which labor is significantly cheaper.  This allows companies half way around the world to provide jobs to thousands of people in poverty stricken areas, where before they may or may not have had the opportunity to work.  Whether or not this is taking advantage of the cheaper wages out of country or not, is an ethical debate which has long been had and will continue to have.

Ultimately, globalization effects us in ways both clear and obtuse.  We may not always know when we are supporting other countries and vice versa, but the interdependence that countries have created is an exciting and often times positive experience.  There are things which we, as a culture, should remain aware of in regards to globalization.  The hope is that the more we become a global economy sharing ideas and cultures, we can learn from one another and create the largest melting pot consisting of the world.

Children and Fire: The Effect of Ethnocentrism

Ursula Hegi's thought provoking novel Children and Fire provides the reader with a fictional yet stark sense of the propaganda effects during Hitler's tyranny.  The book starts by briefly detailing the life of our brave heroine,  given the name of Thekla Jansen, a well meaning and seemingly naive German citizen.

Initially Hegi places the us, squarely in the daily life of Thekla during Hitler's rule in a small fictional town in Germany named Bergdorf.  Thekla is intellectually very gifted, being a teacher of young boys, but her morals soon come into question.  The majority of this novel is based on the day of the one year anniversary of the burning of Reichstag, the parliament building located in Berlin.  This burning was blamed on the Communists, though throughout the book several characters question the validity of that assertion.  This anniversary, February 27, 1934, is a school day in which Thekla must deal with all of the questions of her adolescent students, some of which have some unsavory answers she might wish to avoid.

Thekla inherits her rag tag group of schoolboys from her favorite teacher and mentor who was dismissed due to the Nazi regime.  The author places Thekla in some challenging situations in which she must try and teach the boys while still learning how to maintain her own moral integrity.  At times the book comes across as heavy handed with the message, but seeing how important the message is, it is understandable that moments like that are bound to occur.

Thekla openly challenges traditional morals of the time, considering her personal relationships are not in line with the church.  Later, however, she conforms to the expectations of the time, encouraging her boys to join the Hitler Jugen and conform to a political party in great ethical question for their own good.  Unintentionally, Thekla is becoming part of the Nazi machine encouraging the training of new young Nazis getting swept up in the ethnocentrism so prevalent during the time.  Thekla even goes so far as to start to make her family genealogy, soon to be required by the government when she makes her life changing discovery, she's a illegitimate child and worse, a JEW.

Thekla is an interesting heroine for many reasons, not the least of which being the fact that she is far from perfect.  Thekla remains relatable, even when her decisions make you question her integrity.  To make a perfect protagonist would have made an impossible person, destroying the legitimacy of this thought provoking work.  Thekla remains morally gray throughout much of the book, justifying her no doubt wrong or at the very least questionable actions.  Instead of taking responsibility for her mistakes and wrongdoings, she, like many of us, would prefer to scapegoat anything in sight from politics down to society.

From a social standpoint another excellent point is highlighted by the author, the ethnocentrism that was so highly promoted in that time and area.  Thekla tries to justify the obvious racism that is happening, and ultimately ends up at least acting more ethnocentric and racist than she did in the beginning.  While in the end, while trying to prove her Aryan superiority and submit her family lineage to the government, she finds out that she is the very people she has been singling out.  This fact rocks our heroine to the very foundation, causing her to question her position in her daily life, and in the political and social spheres.

An interesting question this poses is our heroines true moral compass.  If she was to have continued believing that she was a rightful descendant of the Aryan nation would she have ever questioned her ways?  Would she have continued to follow down the path that was slowly and surely turning her into at the very least a Nazi apathatic, if not a supporter?  It is impossible to know considering this is solely fictional, but it proves the point at how surely and slowly the propaganda effected regular and 'good' people in the end.  Was she truly a good person?  Perhaps, or perhaps not, I suppose that is up to the individual to decide.

The content of this book was undoubtedly very informative for a fictional novel, the method by which this was conveyed, however, could have been improved.  The conversation felt realistic, but the jumping around from place to place left me feeling more confused and disoriented, losing my desire to continue reading.  This was my only critique for this otherwise very well done novel.

I take the good with the bad and give this novel a strong thumbs up.  While the characters and hometown may have been fictional, the author made us feel as if we had been transported to twentieth century Germany under Nazi regime.  The book allows for an interesting read with a deeper message and much to analyze. If nothing else, this read can help people to remember that less than a century ago thousands of people were capable of such atrocities.  These people didn't all start out saying they would be haters and evildoers, but ultimately it is easy for group psychology and propaganda to take over. All in all, an informative and worthwhile read that I hope many more people can enjoy and learn from.

Ethnography in Theory and Practice

If you've ever been a student of Sociology, anthropology, or communication, you've probably heard about ethnography and ethnographic projects.  The concept behind the word is crucial for effective research into a culture and community.  Ethnography as described in The Cultural Experience is "the process of discovering and describing a culture." (McCurdy, Spradley, & Shandy 2004).  In my little experience, easier said than done.  Today it is my goal to better explain to you the concept of ethnography.

When talking about ethnography, it's really the thorough study of culture which may possibly include sub-cultures and microcultures.  Subcultures means smaller cultures found inside a national culture, and microcultures are cultures even more restricted than subcultures, found within the subcultures.  Microcultures are typically very specific and are not restrictive on how many different ones a person can be a part of.  Microcultures remind me of a picture within a picture,within a picture again.  While microcultures are part of the larger group, the focusing on a smaller group of customs and people make it easier to quickly immerse the student in the culture.  For student projects with a shorter time frame, studying microcultures is a much more efficient way to still have a thorough project.  For instance, instead of studying all sports at your school, you might just study the microculture that occurs in, say, soccer or football.

If one does decide to study a microculture, the encouraging news is that they're everywhere!  Microcultures exist in places that you might not necessarily think of as being separate from other cultures.  You could have a whole grocery store microculture or just a deli department microculture; the possibilities truly are endless.  As McCurdy asserts, it's definitely better to choose a topic that's interesting so that hopefully you'll be more encouraged to actually get into your ethnography project.

There are several necessary steps one must take in order to start the whole ordeal of an ethnographic project, which I'm sure I will detail at a later date.  Today, I will focus on what I have learned by reading about a particularly interesting ethnographic project by an anthropology student Jennifer Boehlke titled "Juicing Their Way to the Top"(McCurdy 2004).  This shortened ethnography project studies the microculture of a downtown Tattoo parlor, to which the author gives the pseudonym of "Damascus".  While I'm sure there are multiple facets of this microculture that could be highlighted, this ethnographic student focuses on the selling techniques used by these social chameleons we call tattoo artists utilize.

First, Boehlke observes the type of people that frequent the tattoo shop, quickly realizing that there is no set type of person that gets a tattoo.  But the key here, I believe, is to observe your surroundings and the people in it.  In this case, there were old, young, lazy, motivated, successful (or not) people, the door is constantly revolving with different and interesting people looking for tattoos.  Alternatively there were people just looking to browse tattoos, or groupies.  The real emphasis of Boehlke’s project, however, is the term 'juicing'.  No, not the real juice we drink; in this context, the author uses the term as a particular metaphorical juice, often like a motivator that the tattoo artists give their customers to achieve a particular action or feeling from the  customer.

Juicing can be done by one or two people depending on the situation.  These “juicers” attempt to achieve a variety of different responses.  It seems there is a juice for just about every desired action throughout the process of  getting a tattoo.  There's  a juice for getting people to come by the shop, a juice for raising the price of a tattoo even a juice for pain (to help them forget it, of course).  A juice to cover mistakes and a juice to get people to add more expensive items to their bill, just to name a few.

The flirt juice is typically used to pick up customers and consequently sometimes turns into obtaining groupies.  Apparently, groupies for tattoo shops are not uncommon.  Other tattoo artists will team up in the same shop to lay on some add-on juice to try and get the consumers to spend more money.  To gather her information Boehlke interviewed the artists about juicing as well as observing the group from the inside.

An interesting facet to this ethnographic method of total immersion is the effect it can have on the researcher.   By the end of the project it almost seems like the authors tone has changed. In one of Morgan Spurlock’s episodes of 30 Days, a minute man agrees to spend 30 days with a family of illegal immigrants.  Considering that minute men's sole self-assigned duty is to call in illegal immigrants and get them deported, this was a considerably tension-ridden situation.  Though in the beginning the man gave no wiggle room to the illegal immigrants only seeing right and wrong, by the end of the month he saw that they were just people.  Of course he was still very much against illegal immigrants, but by experiencing their life right alongside them, he was able to more fully relate to them on a human level and understand their cultural experience.  

This effect is not necessarily the case or goal of all ethnographic projects, but rather an interesting possible side effect to consider. This man devoted to being a minute man, found his convictions at the very least questioned.  In the name of research or not, the author of this project ended up getting a tattoo, even knowing that 'juice' would no doubt be used.

Ultimately, studying this ethnographic project and watching this documentary gave me, and I'm sure every other reader, a unique insight into the type of microculture that exists within cultures and subcultures. Even the most seemingly simple and straightforward of culture or subculture, has microcultures with hidden facets that without further study, we wouldn't know about.

Experiencing Cultural Research

In researching ethnography, I have learned that the simple idea of studying a culture is actually a highly complex and more structured undertaking than I thought at first glance.  While I had no misconceptions

that it would be an interesting and involved process, I was unclear on exactly how much attention to detail would be involved.  Mainly I would like to inform all of you about several key points to remember when attempting an ethnographic project yourself.

Previously I have defined ethnography and looked at a practical example.  Today I will detail a few of the necessary steps involved in starting the no doubt exhilarating ethnography project journey.  Many of these I have found in my reading of The Cultural Experience by Mccurdy Spradley & Shandy (2012).  

After you've decided what you will be studying, or perhaps even before, you need to choose an informant.  He or she should be your guide through the world of the microculture you have decided to observe. Picking a friend is a feasible option, but consider the impact that might have on their answers to your questions about said microculture.  Because someone knows you on a personal level before embarking on this journey, their reactions around you might be changed, or they might not be willing to take the project as seriously.  This also deprives you of the truest form of ethnographic immersion into a culture to which you are truly a stranger . This choice is, of course, purely up to the student.

Think of the cultural informant as a tour guide.  You don't really know your tour guide to well when you sign up for the tour, but you only sign up for tours that YOU want to go on.  Because it's voluntary you want to learn about what you’re seeing, and because they agreed to this job, they want to teach you.  The tour guide is friendly,  sharing knowledge without bias to how you personally might react to any information.  Unlike a tour guide, however, your informant must be actively involved in the group you are studying.

Ideally, you would want to find an informant who is sociable and willing to talk to you about their microculture in a clear and coherent way.  You want to find someone who has been fully immersed in the culture, someone who is not new to it and "knows the ropes".  While this process can be stressful, many people have found that informants are willing to help and eager to teach about their passion or life.  When talking to your informant (and also when you are interacting with and observing your microculture) keep your eyes open.  Just be observing what's going on and you can learn more than what your informant may be able to remember in your interviews.

After you've picked your ideal cultural informant, it's important to think about how the interviewing process will go.  What questions will you ask?  How many?  Will there be more interviews?  All are valid questions which need thorough answers.  Don't limit yourself on questions.  Putting too much structure and constraints on your interview might stress you and/or your informant out.  Take it on a step-by-step basis.  Asking the right kind of questions can be equally or more important than the number of questions being asked.  The saying rings true; quality over quantity.  The goal is to keep them talking and you talking as much as possible.  On track, of course.  While it might be entertaining to hear about their toy poodle for half an hour, it probably won't be useful for your study of the night shift nurse’s microculture.  Discovering as many 'folk terms' or jargon during this stage is incredibly important.

Folk terms are important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is understanding what is going on when you are immersed in the culture.  For instance, if someone in the surfer community were to say that something is “gnarly” (meaning cool or awesome), without previous knowledge of the word, one wouldn't necessarily come to that conclusion about meaning.  Many microcultures have large sets of jargon or folk terms that make the culture more exclusive, making it increasingly important for the ethnographer to fully understand the terminology.

While you're asking questions, you need to remember some key information to gather to help you understand taxonomic structure.   Taxonomic structure meaning a way to define and categorize lists of terms and sets of ideas.  Also, when asking your initial set of questions, discover facts and details, but not the complex meaning of anything in particular.  Discovering what things mean can distract from your initial information gathering interview. Taxonomic structure is just a fancy way of saying categorizing or classifying something under broad and specific terms.  The book gives the example of cars as the domain with several car makes under it.  It is important to remember that each subcategory in your taxonomy should have at least two strings attached to it, or none at all.  In such a way, we also classify different ethnographic factors to form graphs which help the reader to better understand the inner working of said microculture.

Ultimately, learning about these few steps to effective ethnography helped me better understand how I am going to approach learning about different cultures.  Hopefully, it can inspire some of you to take the leap and learn about some different cultures yourself.  After all, you never know which one you'll end up joining eventually.

Intercultural Praxis and Other Cultural Learning Concepts

When I first started to read about intercultural communication and my position in relation to it, I realized that while I have a general grasp on what the idea of culture is, I couldn't pinpoint a conclusive concrete definition of culture. After searching for it, I found that the definition is highly contested and debated.  So, of the many definitions I found, the question arose, which is correct?  Determining the most correct definition is unfortunately subjective, as many different definitions make a strong case from different viewpoints.  My personal theory is that the actual concrete definition of culture is an amalgam of competing theories both from the past, present, and most likely the future.  For the purposes of this, I will provide three definitions extrapolated from my readings. 1 - Culture as a site of shared meaning.  2 - Culture as a site of contested meaning.  3 - Culture as a resource. (Sorrells 2012)

Once I knew the broader definition of the subject matter, I could more fully delve into the sub-genres, concepts, and discipline based jargon that inevitably follows.  One of the first concepts that caught my attention was intercultural praxis.  While the idea is something relatively easily understood, some key words and working parts to the theory require more finite definition.  Intercultural praxis consists of six different and equally important parts, and they are as follows: Inquiry, framing, positioning, dialogue, reflection, and action.  Intercultural praxis as defined by Kathryn Sorrells in her book Intercultural Communication: Globalization and Social Justice, "a process of critical, reflective thinking and acting" (Sorrells 2012).

Let's start with Inquiry. When I say inquiry, I literally mean to inquire or to ask questions.  Asking questions when it comes down to effective communicating is a huge part of better understanding any culture.  I feel as if curiosity is a major key in a subject like this. Next we can look into dialogue, which I believe goes hand in hand with inquiry.  Dialogue goes beyond the questions you might ask, and more into trying to imagine yourself in the shoes of your study. You can ask question after question and learn a substantial amount, but when you start talking with somebody and not at somebody, a sort of mutual understanding is made that you are willing to try and understand or hypothetically experience the other persons opinions and ideas.  This, is of course my interpretation and by no means the best or only one.

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Think for a moment about taking a picture, and all the important things we take into account before we shoot.  Where you are, where the object you're photographing is, how is the lighting etc.  I think of the next two terms much like I would think about photography.  First up we can look at framing as the frame or parameters  we place around any situation.  For example, looking at a close up frame of a situation would be evaluating minute details like the problems with your neighborhood grocery store, while evaluating from a large frame can compare larger issues like the universal problems with grocery stores across the country. Like zooming in and zooming out we have to consider the frames we use when evaluating cultures.

Positioning and framing relate closely to one another as the both require the studier consider themselves as a part of the cultural learning process.  For instance if you are from a family that is very affluent, your view on poverty would be subconsciously affected by your position in society. Where do you, the photographer so to speak, stand.  If I were to go to Africa and  do an ethnographic project on a particular tribe, my position as a Westerner would, to a degree, effect my thoughts about all aspects of their culture.  Try as we might, our positions are far more concrete than our literal physical position, say on the couch or in a room, unlike a photographer we cannot always move or change it.  Positioning also encompasses where the subject of your study is positioned, why might they have certain discriminations or feelings towards a subject.  What is their frame.

It's time for reflection.  Well, defining reflection in regards to understanding culture anyways. Reflection applies to so much more than just thinking about the questions you ask or the answers you receive. Reflection encompasses thinking about why you are asking questions, in essence, why are you curious?  Reflecting and thinking about what your projects will accomplish, then of course, reflecting on the results of your inquiry and framing etc.  Last but not least, we can look at action, perhaps the most important part to intercultural praxis. When we have gained all of this knowledge about other cultures, when we analyze it and break it down to truly understand others, what do we do with this knowledge?  The answer is not simply to document it and write it down, but to act in a way which is morally and socially responsible.  Actually working on thinking and fixing and organizing a solution to said problems is incredibly important.  Of course, the willingness to act does not always translate into the means to do so.  In the words of Francis Bacon "knowledge is power", what we do with that power is completely up to us.

These terms and concepts are just a few of the myriad I have learned in the past week of my studying intercultural communication.  Before, I probably could have told you that culture is important, but I doubt I would have been able to effectively understand the real definition and implications included with that word. Through my very topical study of culture so far, I have learned far more than I could have expected. I expect to learn even more about the concepts I THINK I understand and morph them into concepts that I can grasp and help teach others.  After all, what good is knowledge if I can't use it for something.


REFERENCES:

Sorrells, Katherine (2002).  Intercultural Communication: Globalization and Social Justice. United States.  Sage Publications.