#16: Final Blog

After learning all about my own intercultural communication abilities over the course of our Ecuadorian adventures, it was interesting to look at everyone else's experiences with effective and ineffective intercultural communications as well.  

 I would say that Thea was able to effectively communicate with her host mother, and describes her experience communicating with her: "I have enjoyed hearing about politics and the ways of life from Maria my host mother and would love to learn more from her." I find this interesting, because I also enjoyed hearing about our family's views on things we would see on the news over meals.  I think it is great that Thea was intrigued by her conversations with her host mom. 

 Another time I saw a classmate using effective intercultural communications, was when Sam described some communication challenges he faced at Ñeque y Mas Ñeque: "To overcome this challenge I had to think really hard about all my previous Spanish lessons as well as using gestures to communicate." I can say that I too came across this obstacle, and in order to communicate more effectively with the children, it was important to use gestures and body language to get certain points across to them. 

 One example of ineffective use of intercultural communication might be when Carly describes her challenge of speaking with her host mother: "Martha speaks very little English which can sometimes be a struggle." I can relate to this because my host father also spoke little to no English. He could not understand me when I said something in English, so it was important to phrase my ideas and thoughts in Spanish as best I could, in order for everyone to understand me. 

 Overall, I think most of the students and I faced a lot of the same challenges when it comes to intercultural communication, but we all learned from our experiences and were able to grow and be more effective in situations as time went on. I know I will definitely use the skills and experiences I gained while in Ecuador, in order to continue to work on my intercultural communication down the road in new places. 

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