AT4; Gender and Advertising Across Cultures

During this assignment, I really enjoyed taking the chance to look at the gender differences between cultures. It was a little more difficult than I thought to find advertisements that showcases these differences. One similarity between the American and Asian cultures is that women are viewed as “sex objects” and inferior to men. It is obvious that in both cultures, the men are expected to be bringing home the money and women are supposed to cook and take care of the household.  It is very rare and often a surprise when we find a man who is a stay at home dad and the wife is out making the money.  While doing this assignment, I have realized that in practically every culture, women are seemed to be inferior to men and that women are more of a “sex object” and that men are supposed to take care of the women in their lives.

 

AT3; Blog Analysis

This assignment was by far my favorite one yet. I really enjoyed this one because I found it entertaining, relatable, and refreshing. This assignment gave me the opportunity to read another student’s blog and get a glimpse of her experience studying and traveling abroad. I picked Annabelle’s blog. Annabelle is a Psychology major and a senior at Temple University who traveled to Jamaica. At first, it took her a while to transition to a new place and she felt all the emotions that came with it. She was nervous and excited, and her anxiety was through the roof as she was on the plane heading to Jamaica. On the very first day in Jamaica, she was very nervous and was afraid of the culture shock. However, by the last day, Annabelle said that Jamaica was her second home and how she had mixed feelings about leaving. This assignment goes hand in hand with the course itself because it is about Annabelle crossing between two cultures; her American culture and newly founded Jamaican culture. From this project, I learned that it is okay to be open minded and travel abroad to learn and experience another culture first hand. This was relevant to me because I have always thought about traveling abroad and getting to see how people of different cultures are similar yet different from me.

AT2; The Values Americans Live By

I really liked doing this second assignment because it allowed to take this time to reflect on my values and who I am as a person. This assignment allowed me to read through all of the values and picked the one that described and closest to me; Equality. The idea that everyone is the same, no one is above anyone else and that everyone was created equally. While the idea of equality is very good to reflect on, it also gave me time to realize that not everyone views this value the way I do. Some people are very vocal about equality and how they believe in it; yet, these are the first people to pick on and harass someone just because they are not the same skin color. I also learned in this assignment that not all cultures and countries have the same values like we do in the United States. This assignment was relevant to me because I thought back about my family members who are still in Vietnam and realized that I don’t see eye to eye with them on everything, but we can coexist and live in peace together. I can definitely apply this assignment in my everyday life and learn to furthermore treat others equally and not laugh at our differences, but embrace it. I took this assignment as a way to reflect on who I am as a person and what values I connect with and why that made me who I am.

AT1; A Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

After doing the assignment, I learned that there are different steps in order to realize how to deal and cope with people of different cultures. The assignment aligned with the expectation that I had for the class because I did not know about the different stages and what they contained. I truly feel like after this assignment I have gained a more generalized idea on how to properly and respectful handle a person’s difference when it comes to religions, cultures and moral. This assignment also made me realize that it is okay for people to not be the same when it comes to cultures, however, it just leaves room for improvement and room for people to grow. This assignment gave me room to reflect and look at who I am as a person and what level of cultural sensitivity I am. The category that I fall under is Acceptance. This stage builds on the idea and uses enthusiasm to promote and embrace the difference between the cultures.