Intercultural Connections

Although there are many different examples of great intercultural communication from our adventures in Ecuador, but one of my favorite examples comes from Thea’s blog post about Neque y mas Neque. She discusses connecting “with the children through play,” which is a language that everyone, young and old, understands. We didn’t need to know Spanish in order to be able to communicate effectively in an intercultural manner. We just played games, helped with homework, and just spent time creating relationships through the language of play. Another example of great intercultural communication I draw from Zane’s post about BellaVista. “Millipedes, frogs, and hummingbirds drove the point home that this area was alive with a rich profusion of life,” he says. Similar to how play is a universal language, I believe that nature is a universal language as well. Sharing the hike together with our tour guide was a language all its own. Even though our tour guide spoke English, the silences were ...

Elizabeth #7: Elizabeth mentioned one of dances with deer, which she understood the story through the dance. Since this dance tried to tell more than the others and set the mood of the story well, she really enjoyed this dance and also the instruments in person. I believe a passionate dance can fully arise one's emotion. Even though the story behind the dance is not familiar for the audience, they can still understand most of it through dancers' body movements and also the strong music. Therefore, what Elizabeth said in her blog7 represents an effective communication. Eli #14: Eli viewed the cooking experience with professors as an effective communication. He felt fun and learned from professors' gestures when they were making food--a form of nonverbal communication. He felt entertained with it. Obsoletely, cooking focus more on how to prepare and cook food, therefore, Eli's experience proves that it was effective to have an nonverbal communication by doing this coo...

I chose Paige’s post on the folkloric ballet because, while I understand a fair amount of Spanish, I shared some of her feelings on miscommunication. In Paige’s blog post about the folkloric ballet, I saw a lot of ineffective communication on part of the man speaking during the intermission. It was no one person’s fault that it was ineffective communication, but since many of us could not keep up with what he was saying, I feel as if Paige is right to say that we missed out on something that could have been very interesting. As a result of not being native Spanish speakers, the jokes and references made during the intermission were not communicated well to us. I chose Sam’s post about shopping Otavalo because I feel as if many of my classmates had the same experience as him and that it showed very effective intercultural communication. Being able to barter with the native people of Otavalo shows improvement on communication skills and the ability to work with a new culture. This c...

      One example of good intercultural communication came from Carly's blog #7. In it she stated that, even though she did not know the language during the indigenous ballet, she still understood the message of the dances. This show effective intercultural communication that conveys a message outside of language, and instead in a more universal form of body language and movement.       An example of poor intercultural communication comes from blog post #3 by Sam Swem. In the post, Sam stated that one of his ethnocentric tendencies was to suspect many, or all, of the people he passed on his walk of wanting to steal from or harm him. Although he definitely understood how incorrect this line of thinking must be, he was led to it by a poor understanding of Ecuadorian body language and space. If he had a greater understanding of how Ecuadorians signaled intent while walking on the street, he would surely have been more comfortable.      Anoth...

Elizabeth Blog #11 – In this blog post, we had to talk about our experience at the changing of the guard ceremony.   Elizabeth specifically talks about how people reacted when they saw the president.   She described a lot of waving back and forth.   In this situation, this appears to be effective intercultural communication between the president and the people.   The people also included us.   Though there was no verbal communication, the president chose nonverbal ways to acknowledge his audience. Lindsey Blog #12 – In this post Lindsey describes her experience with her host family.   She talks about how things felt awkward at first, but by the time of this post things were becoming more comfortable.   This is another form of effective intercultural communication because she describes things getting better.   Perhaps things at first were not going so well, but the quality of communication must have increased because she indicated signs of imp...

Carolina's post about the Artisanal Market and Ñeque showed me that she truly communicated effectively while we were cooking with professors. Even though my experience cooking was different than hers, she got a lot out of it while I didn't. She learned new things about the culture and the language even though there wasn't much to do the entire time. She got a completely different experience than I did. I think she did a great job communicating and I need to rethink my experience a bit more. Thea's post about our host family and Ñeque, like Carolina's, demonstrated a really effective communication. Living with Thea, I experienced these things with her and know what she is talking about how easy it was to talk to Maria Dolores. Thea's blog discusses the fact that we discussed everything and anything with Maria Dolores and how nice it was to sit and talk for a few hours. Thea was always open to Maria Dolores and willing to discuss everything with passion and excit...

One effective example of intercultural communication is when Tyessa talks about her experience at Neque. She is talking about a little girl when she says, "I helped her with homework and she helped me understand that language isn’t always needed in a relationship or even in a conversation. Sometimes you just need to listen with your mind and your heart, not with your ears." She makes a very good point here. I believe she means that language is still there, but in a different form than just words. It is a feeling and connection in which we can make with one another. I found this to be the case as well when we were working with the children at Neque. When I couldn't understand them, they would just take my hand and show me the way or demonstrate something. This seemed to be the best way to communicate with one another.  Another example of effective intercultural communication is when Thea talks about her experience at Neque as well. She say that, "Despite knowing ver...

1. In Paige's Blog(#14), she mentioned that she used some nonverbal communication to communicate with teachers when they were cooking. It is an effective way of intercultural communication. I totally agree that sometimes, if you don't know how to express yourself, body language helps a lot, and it even works better than language. 2. In Blog12, Tyessa said that she feel not close with her host family, and usually, they don't communicate with each other too much, which makes she felt upset because she wants to get closer to them. In my points of view, it can be seen as an ineffective communication. I think in the process of communicating with people, sometimes you should learn to be proactive. Break the silence first, and take the initiative to communicate with others. If you are especially enthusiastic about other people, they will feel it. 3. An example of effective communication came from  Linsey. She talked about how the communication way changed ...

In blog post #4 Carly mentions how her family will hug and kiss people, even those they do not know. This is a way to use gestures as a form on communication, even if you do not share the same language. I though that this example showed effective intercultural communication. Because I did not speak much Spanish before going on the trip, using this form of communication was a large part of how I navigated conversations and relationships with the people that I met.  In blog post #6 Caitlin also displayed an effective form of intercultural communication. In her post she was referring to her time at Neque y Mas Neque. Because she was not completely confident in her Spanish speaking abilities, she found other ways to connect and communicate with the children. For her, this alternative form of communication came from dance. Dance was a universal form of communication between her culture, and the  culture of the ...

A great example of effective communication that I found came from Thea. Thea was communicating with her host mom and mentions: “I have enjoyed hearing about politics and the ways of life from Maria my host mother and would love to learn more from her.” Thea showing interest and engaging within their culture is very effective and can lead to continued effective communication. An example of ineffective communication came from Elizabeth. She mentioned that: “I feel like I respond to my host parents with the same answers all the time. I want to be able to tell them more about myself and let them understand more of who I am.” Ineffective communication is never positive, but thankfully Elizabeth’s was only due to a language barrier and not a form of ethnocentrism. She shows eagerness to communicate effectively as well which is positive. One more example of effective communication comes from Meng during her time at Mitad del Mundo. When she saw the shrunken head she initially felt “a...

I chose three examples from my fellow classmates blogs over the past two weeks to analyze and understand whether or not their intercultural communication was effective. I chose to pick one of Meng’s blog post (blog post 9) because I feel as if she offers a unique perspective being a student from China. I want to evaluate if she experiences intercultural communication differently than I do. I chose as a second blog post Sarah’s blog post 14 because she discuses the cooking with our professors and shares some of the same feelings as I do. The last blog post I chose to comment on in Zanes blog #15, which he discusses the things he is most looking forward to coming home. I chose this one because he speaks about his experience with food, which I think a lot of people experienced.  In terms of Meng’s blog post, she discusses her experience at  Mitad del Mundo. She explains that at first the  tiny  head made her feel a " bit scary and disgusting. ”  However, she re...