In this week, I feel the class is different from last week. And I do learn a lot this week.

I did the presentation this week, and I think all members did a really good job. During this process, I learned how to get along with foreigners. Actually, I don’t think there is any problem on communicating with them in the daily conversation.

At first, I worried about offending their culture or offending a taboo during conversations. So, I always try to refuse to talk with foreigners to avoid making mistakes. However, in the actual conversation, there is no need to worry that. We just communicate normally like the way I talk to my Chinese friends. Since we have just met several times, I would like to say that it is more like chatting rather than some deep conversations.

And as I observe, most foreigner students are really humorous. They like joking in daily conversation. My Chinese classmate and I both think this way. They also like self-deprecating. I am humorous, too. They will also laugh when I say something funny. That makes me think that maybe there is no big difference between people from different countries on punchline. Maybe one reason is that we Chinese people have a more international view on culture. I can remember that I don’t understand jokes from foreigners. I don’t even know where is the punchline in a joke. Then as I grow up and accept more foreign culture, I gradually understand their jokes. Another reason may be that there is little connection with culture difference.

Now I want to talk about my feelings. First is new things I learned in class. I have learned so many new things about greeting styles from different countries. I have never seen most of them, especially in some African countries. The most impressive greeting style is lying greeting style. I can’t remember the exact country. Maybe it is Nigeria or Uganda. Because there is several African countries and their greeting styles are similar as I see. However, we can also see the status of female in these countries. That really makes me shocked. In some African countries, we can see it is obvious a male-dominated society after knowing the way they greeting between male and female. The strange thing is that they still let some female to be the leaders in government. And the greeting way these female leaders will do depends on the situation. All I felt in class is that I am so lucky born in this country. After class, I think this phenomenon again. Actually, I feel a little sad about the unfair between two gender. But then I think maybe it is their tradition and culture, and I should respect that. After all, I am learning intercultural communications and I also should appreciate that they are willing to share this even they know feminist movements happened all over the world.

Second is class itself. I felt it really interesting because there is more interaction such as all the performances of students’ greeting style in their countries. More question time made the whole class become active. In this way, I can deeply feel various cultures in our class and has a further understanding about culture difference, perceptions, value and definitions of other words from textbook.

Third is the atmosphere of the whole class. Thanks to all the performances and more interactions, the atmosphere is active and relaxing all the time. More question time and the atmosphere made more students like to take part in interactions and answering questions. My Chinese classmate and I both answers more than last class. Some of them also performed on the little stage. I also tried to be brave this week and made some progress. Taking part in class and express my own opinions makes me enjoy during the whole class. But I also noticed that some students still don’t want to speak in class especially our Chinese students and southeast Asian students.

At last, I want to write down the question going through my mind in class. Is cultural inheritance in our country a good thing or a bad thing? This question came into my mind when teacher was explaining the part about high and low context and so on. Teacher mentioned that China and some other countries are collectivistic culture which comparing with individualistic culture. I also learned factors which influence the cultural conflict among Chinese. China has a long history, and basically our cultural inheritance is doing well. Good qualities are inherited such as Confucianism. But as I see, these good qualities are facing problems nowadays. People under this education may not adapt to the trend of globalization, and I guess there will be some conflicts. For example, we are taught to be polite to the elders in our family, and never try to contradict them. They like to teach us by using their so-called life experience but they are not always right. At that time, young generations may point out but they will be likely to be blamed by all the elders in the family. This is just a little example. 

In this case, the conflict happens between old tradition and new education. Respecting the old is right, and pointing out mistake is not wrong at all. While these two things have a conflict in some context. This really confuses me. Then I think there is no right or wrong in any culture. But we have to admit that some culture is out of date these days, such as sacrifice in a group. People are selfish today. Everyone pays attention to their own benefit. If you sacrifice for the group at work, then maybe no one will be moved by your actions. In this situation, are such characters inherited from ancient necessary?

 So, I was wondering whether cultural inheritance is good or bad. I try hard but I really can’t figure out these answers now. I know the reason is my poor reading quantity. Then I think I should read more paper, improve my reading and think more. But I have a feeling that there is no absolute answer for now.