ATA4

Assignment 4 made me look at the differences in advertising practices between men and women, and from our culture to Japanese culture. There weren’t as many differences as I may have thought, which shows that marketing is relatively similar across cultures (ignoring certain products that are advertised only to a certain area). The only main differences were because of appealing to that country’s demographics, but marketing techniques remained similar in how they presented men and women stayed relatively consistent.  This assignment was relevant to my marketing class I took in high school. We took time to analyze advertisements to see what was being portrayed, the demographics the ad was trying to appeal to, and how the advertisers made the ad visually pleasant. It helped me look at the smaller details in the advertisement, which translated to being more aware the biases in advertisement that this assignment entailed. This was personally relevant to me because should I eventually decide to open my own practice for physical therapy, I’ll have to know how to provide adequate advertising. While medical advertisement is relatively limited, I’ll still have to know how to appeal to people that may have a different culture. Being able to appeal to various demographics through their preferred advertisements might assist.

 Source:https://articles.bplans.com/14-business-resources-every-entrepreneur-should-know-about/

This is an interesting representation of the assignment. Marketers use a variety of methods and information to produce the advertisements they believe will net the most consumers. By using various cultural ideas and societal norms, they can create an advertisement that appeals both visually and psychologically, possibly increasing the number of consumers.

ATA3

Assignment 3 helped me look in depth at the perspective of another student going into another culture. Going through the blogs gave insight towards what it would be like for a person raised in one culture their entire life (similar to me) and how they coped with the instantaneous transition to a foreign culture. While she struggled with becoming comfortable, she eventually developed the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in her study abroad. While I do not plan on traveling out of the country anytime soon, it’s nice to see how someone else went through their adventure, and the steps they took to make necessary accommodations. Just like when I have to learn any other lesson, whether it be in class or at work, it helps to know the strategy/strategies someone else used to experience success. While a study abroad may not be experienced the same by every single person, but having a basis to go off of will certainly help. From my learning in prior psychology classes, “vicarious experiences” is a method that we use to learn new information without having the experience ourself. This assignment is a perfect example of such a thing, as we observed someone else’s study abroad and adjustment to a new culture, and learned what it’s like to transition to a culture different from yours. The picture below is representative of this concept as although I may not visit Japan anytime soon and know what the country is like, there will be several other people similar to me who will visit, take pictures, and maybe even blog or something about the experience.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dannyfoster/9403546747/

 

ATA2

  source: thesaurus.plus

Assignment two really made me think about how blunt Americans are when we talk about/towards other people. As a culture, we’re oftentimes very direct in our speech, and we limit the amount of euphemisms when talking to people.  I’ve always perceived “getting to the point” as normal and something that everyone did, but apparently this is relatively abnormal in several other cultures. The only times that I’ve seen people be indirect in their speech here in America is either to small children or on very sensitive subjects, which I would assume is somewhat consistent across cultures. For example, I occasionally am indirect with my own younger siblings about harder-to-understand topics, such as deaths in the family, or when family members are ill. However, the idea that Americans may find it rude or untrustworthy of people to be indirect in their speech was funny to me. While I would rather people be direct in what they say, and sometimes find myself irritated with people who take too much time explaining something indirectly, I don’t believe I’ve found someone who euphemistically speaks to be inherently bad. Being considerate of others should never be really frowned upon, but according to Dr. Kohls’ The Values Americans Live By (1984) and the image I used above, many Americans perceive indirectness, even when used to spare feelings, as a negative connotation.  Being indirect is linked to being “deceitful,” “unfair,” or even “lying.” Despite being in immersed American culture all of my life, I’ve never really thought of indirectness as so wrong as this assignment’s assertions lead me to believe. The picture above shows the idea that many people see indirectness as a synonym for things like dishonesty or deceit, which was something that Dr. Kohls’ study noted in American culture.

ATA1

This last assignment with the Bennett Scale was interesting in that it helped quantify how culturally aware I believe I am.  I recognized that although I am not perfect or even near perfect in my ability to accommodate other cultures, but that I have the ability to fairly quickly adapt to situations. The accompanying document from the assignment also gave me pointers on how to improve my cultural awareness. One main point that I picked up from this assignment was to learn more about various cultures so that I can go into a conversation understanding another person’s viewpoints, as opposed to adapting to the cultural differences. This assignment reminds me of a lesson from health psychology. Oftentimes, people do not realize how insensitive they can be towards others, and will interpret it as the other person getting angry over nothing. The point wasn’t so much to berate them for their inappropriate behavior, as that doesn’t contribute to alleviating the situation, but to calmly work through the differences to find a possible common ground. Lastly, I included this particular because it illustrates how I feel I’ve reached the fifth level of intercultural sensitivity.  It’s from a party I went to in high school (I’m in the back right) where it was a gathering of several friends. Many of these people were from different countries (France, Albania, Chile, etc.), so I was able to learn about those different cultures from my interactions with them. I learned how to adapt in order to maintain friendships with these people.