Assignment Takeaway

ATA 5

Assignment 5 was actually really difficult for me to complete because I had a hard time sticking to one country or just one topic. I kept bouncing around with multiple until I decided to focus on chapter 9 culture and emotions with the country being focused on was Japan. It was very hard to find a article that I had access to and correlated with the assignment. I eventually found one that focused on the differences and similarities between Japanese and American and how they express emotions that are socially engaging and disengaging. The researchers had taken university students and asked them about how certain situations made them feel. They sorted the emotions as positive and negative and went farther by labeling them as socially engaging or disengaging. This tied into chapter 9 that talked about emotions and how they are expressed. The article I read was actually referenced in the textbook, I did not realize it until I had went back and reread the chapter.

This is one of the graphs from the article I looked at and it shows the levels of emotions during positive and negative situations and goes further by showing which ones where socially engaging and disengaging.

ATA 3

Assignment 3 so far is my favorite assignment. This is due to the fact that I have always wanted to study abroad but it was never the right time. Reading these blogs about students who went abroad was exciting but also eye opening for how different cultures can clash and cause a bit of a shock. The blog I read was about a girl who was born in America but her parents were from the place she went to study abroad. The place she went to was Ghana and she was surprised by how different the cultures were even though she had experienced the culture through her parents. I thought it was interesting and it makes me really want to study abroad.

https://leverageedu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/how-to-study-abroad.jpg

This image was chosen because this assignment aligned with how much I wanted to study abroad when I was younger and makes me want to either study abroad or at least experience taking a trip abroad.

ATA 2

This assignment was interesting because it had me look at my values as an American, which is not something I had put much thought into. Starting with the article, I agreed with the author when they expressed that even Americans have a hard time telling what American values are. I felt this might be due to how individualism plays such a big part of America so we do not really look outside ourselves enough to think of the more common American values most of us share. I had to chose which value I identified with the most was the action/work value. This pretty much means that Americans are very work driven and think that if they are not busy then they are wasting time and not living up to their full potential. I picked it because I grew up working with my family and developed a strong work ethic. I also think that with some other countries value being opposite in this respect, they might think they Americans are workaholics that do not know when the right time to rest and right time to work is.

This was chosen because that is a good representation of how Americans view work and taking a break. Americans are very work oriented and feel that if you aren’t working then you are wasting time.

ATA 1

I enjoyed this assignment because it gave a name to what I experience. I fell under integration of differences for intercultural sensitivity stage. I gave myself this stage because I am mixed, having a white mother and black father. This led me to have more than one culture having an influence on my life and some of the advantages and disadvantages that come with that. This assignment was relevant because learning about exactly what culture is helps me understand that people all feel differently about culture and how much of an influence it can have on people. I found the assignment was relevant to me because I am mixed and have been through almost all the stages and it makes sense that I am in the stage that I am in. Because being born mixed have exposed me to the good and bad of more than one culture and at times it got confusing and still is confusing.