Chapter 12 - Question #3

I find it interesting the aspects of culture and role identities. Being a public relations professional, we are required to work globally. Many agencies have offices in China, Europe and other countries. Not only are re to adapt our customs to the foreign client’s needs but also to the people working in the offices there. This includes body language, dress and style of talk. One company is making this more important, Cisco. They have software that creates a real life round table meeting with as many people as you want. Everything is life-size and it appears that they are right across from you. The best part is that you can have multiple locations on the screens and hold a meeting with all countries, but feel like you never left your office. Sometimes it is important to have a face-to-face meeting. A lot can be discovered in a handshake and they way one treats you in person opposed to technologically.

Chapter 12 - Question #2

Let me analyze these one at a time. First, the Rationality premise. We are taught to take tests by eliminating the obvious wrong choices. This is teaching us how to live life. We see 4 possible outcomes in situations and we go through each of them and choose the best “answer.” This one I believe in. Next, the perfectibility premise is tricky. It is hard to say that a baby is sinful. They do not see color of your skin, nationality, gender, etc. I feel that everyone is born pure. It is the choices that are made that turn one toward sin and a life away from perfection. Lastly, mutability premise states that our surroundings and the environment shape us. Is it not true that we are a technology driven society? It was just yesterday that Internet at SJSU was unable to connect. The department that I am in, Journalism & Mass Communications, was in pandemonium. Enough so, that class was cancelled because our project was unable to be worked on. We rely on the Internet so much that people do not know what to do when in it not available.

Chapter 12 - Question #1

It is true that our habits are shaped by our cultures. It becomes easier to observe in cultures where there is a dominant culture. Traditions are passed down from one generation to the next and throughout the country. We have always been instructed by our history professors that the United States is a melting pot or tossed salad of cultures. So how are we to observe this mixture as an American culture? We are so regionally diverse that this makes the observations difficult. One way is to look at early traditions. We have picnics on Independence Day, carve pumpkins during Halloween, give thanks and spend time with family on thanksgiving, celebrate the New Year in drunken bliss. Every year, we celebrate the same holidays in the same or similar fashion. This creates the American culture. It is a hotdog at an A’s game, popcorn at the movies and a Starbucks on every corner. For me it is the little things that define who we are. Even though you can find different cultures throughout the country some things never change.

Chapter 5 - Question #3

We have become a society that relies on our cell phones. We are constantly emailing, texting and facebooking at tall hours of the day and all over the world. One of the downfalls of this type of communication is the ability to portray emotion. There are some characters that allow us to communicate some emotions such as: “J” “:D” “;)” “:/” “:0” and many others. Only with these do they show a smile on your face or a look of indifference. My best friend is constantly glued to her BBM (Blackberry Messenger). We constantly read messages in the wrong way and take a statement in the wrong way. Something that was intended to be a joke may be the result of a petty argument. The acts of texting and other electrical communication devices does not offer the receiver to view paralanguage patterns from the sender. And in this lack of encoding with body language, messages are not transferred from sender to receiver correctly.

Chapter 5 - Question #2

It is true that in different cultures that a nonverbal message will be interpreted differently. But there is a culture that is left out in these analyses. Different generations perceive messages differently as well. The middle finger to a teenager is a playful sigh of saying the “f” word. They do not take it seriously among their group of friends. Whereas if you “flick” someone off who may be from the baby boomer generation it will be perceived as a huge insult. I jut thought that this was an important aspect to mention as well

Back to the original question about regional differences. I took a cultural nutritional class to satisfy my Upper GE last semester and we studied all different regions around the world. I was very intrigued by how in Asian cultures the way chopsticks are placed is a sign of the chef. If they are sitting strait up in the rice it is a sign of death and a huge insult to the cook. Also if you slurp your soup it is a sign of a very hearty meal. This aspect is seen as rude in America.

Chapter 5 - Question #1

As a server I see many different people come into our restaurant. There are many people that give you an attitude and look at you with a belittling look on their face. Yes I am a server but it is getting me through college. They continue with this attitude and at the end of their meal they say how much a wonderful server I am with a big smile on their face. It is a complete 180. This always confuses me because they are complete jerks in the beginning. Then one day a wife told me that the guy is a grump when he is hungry. Then it came to me full circle. I take the rudeness as a sign of me not doing my job well when in reality their issues are being shown on their sleeve. Now I blow off people’s rude behavior at the beginning of the meal and make my final conclusion of how their personality is at the end of the meal after they have eaten.

It takes time to know who people truly are. In a short meeting span one’s true identity cannot be fully revealed. The judgments that people place on each other are never really accurate and only with time can you learn how to interpret their nonverbal messages.