ATA 5

For our fifth assignment I decided to explore personality differences between cultures by comparing the different coping strategies used by the United States and Portugal. My research was focused between U.S. manufacturing workers and adults in Portugal during COVID-19 quarantine. Oddly enough, I found that the U.S. workers did not cope with the stresses of their job as effectively as the adults in Portugal dealt with the stress of being quarantined for COVID. The first major difference between the groups was their coping mechanisms. The majority of the U.S. manufacturing workers dealt with their stress by drinking caffeinated beverages chatting with their fellow coworkers. When off the job though, the consumption of alcohol and legal/illegal drugs was prevalent along with the previous coping mechanisms. Comparatively, the Portuguese used emotional based coping strategies which included acceptance, active coping, positive reframing, and humor. Overall, the mental state of the Portuguese adults in quarantine was about the same as when they were not in quarantine. It’s interesting to note the differences that Americans and Portuguese go in order to cope with stress. This cultural difference reminds me of how not just the Portuguese but Southern Europeans in general stress a time in the day when everyone rests called siesta. The reason why this is significant to the coping mechanisms because it’s clear to see that one culture values rest and mental health (Portuguese) while Americans don’t. This major cultural difference has trickled down among generations and has created a big divide between national personalities of the East and West.

ATA 4

The Eyes of the Beholder

The fourth assignment explored gender and advertisement across cultures so I decided to compare American and Indian advertisements. Looking back on the assignment, I wanted to reflect on how women are subject to beauty standards in almost every society in the world. For every ad that I was looking for, I could tell that there was a certain ‘type’ of woman that is shown in the media. I would say that this was more of a problem with the ads from India than the ones from North America because of their societal standards. Something really notable about American ads is that they’ve gotten a lot more inclusive with the type of women shown in the media. I know that growing up, the media was a lot different than it is now, especially as a black woman. It’s really encouraging to see more people like me and even women of other cultures. I also think it’s encouraging that natural hair and even body types are becoming normalized in the media. For the sake of the mental health of young women, I think that society has a positive outlook concerning our beauty standards.

ATA 2

Good Times

For the second assignment, I chose to reflect on honesty, openness, and directness which was one of the 13 values of American culture that Kohl encapsulates in his article. This was really exciting to do specifically because I never considered that the things we value in the United States aren’t as valued in other cultures. It was honestly a little difficult to give an example of what honesty and openness is to someone who doesn’t understand why it’s important. I had to take a step back and get rid of my bias of growing up as an American in order to give the most informative universal examples I could think of. I really liked this assignment because there are not very many times that we as Americans have to step out of our culture in order to help others understand unless we purposefully expose ourselves to these situations. This definitely relates to something I just realized about a friend of mine recently. I went to visit a family friend in Florida and casually asked if the lakes there were natural or manmade and everyone looked at me like I was crazy. They questioned, “Who in the world would know that?” and I laughed because honestly I thought they were dumb for not knowing. The reason why is because here in Virginia, a lot of the lakes are manmade so I was interested to see in the geography would be the same in Florida. Another thing that happened which made me have to recognize our vast differences was that they didn’t know who one of my favorite authors were: Toni Morrison. I wondered why because she is a very famous African American poet, and my family friends are black so I thought it was strange until I realized they didn’t own any books. Although we grew up around each other as children, I didn’t realize that my friend and I grew up in two completely different cultures and the things that I thought were common knowledge were foreign to them. This was a major shock, but also a great eye opener to me.

ATA 1

For the first assignment 1 I really enjoyed the reading and also completing the prompt. I never knew that there were levels to intercultural sensitivity, I simply thought that it was like two sides to a coin. It really put into perspective that I may be ignorant to people who are not as cultured as I am. In my assignment, I stated that I believe I belong in the Integration of Difference phase because of my experiences as a military child which is normal to me but I never considered the people who haven’t had the opportunities that I have had growing up. I liked the fact that the reading had sections like “developmental tasks” and how to “support the learners”. It was really informational for me and hopefully in the future I’ll be a better educator for those who haven’t been exposed to a multitude of different cultures as I have.