EDF 2085 Reflection Paper #5

Jackie Lawrence
EDF 2085
Reflection Paper #5

After reading the articles, I definitely agree with Sir Edward Burnett Tylor’s definition of culture over Matthew Arnold’s. To Tyler, culture includes, “knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a result of his society.” In today’s times, culture is a broad term, and includes much more than the fine art, cuisine, and music reflective of the Victorian era. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love to indulge myself with designer clothes, fine wine, and a classic novel every now and then. Sometimes I think I can be a little too materialistic, which might just be a quality I obtained from today’s society. For instance, I’ve run into a lot of judgment and superficiality since I’ve lived in Miami. To me, those are terrible qualities that initiate behavior, emotional, and cognitive constraints and can inhibit me from understanding someone else’s point of view. But that doesn’t stop me from behaving like my friends and co-workers every once in awhile. And if everyone were to exhibit traits like that, how could cross-cultural communication possibly take place, let alone cross-cultural understanding? Personally, I think Miami’s diversity is absolutely beautiful. It astounds me to this day how we all seem to get along, until I remember that we don’t do a very good job some of the time.
Reading Joyce Millet’s overview of culture broadened my own perspectives of just how much culture impacts people on a daily basis. Sometimes I forget that a person’s actions and behaviors are not just based on psychological and genetic factors, or nature. Culture is learned, or nurtured, and plays a major role in dictating our values and behavior patterns. Robert Gibson summed it up nicely with his “cultural iceberg.” In order to acquire intercultural competence, it is imperative to understand where the attitudes, values, perceptions, and beliefs of that culture come from.
The readings left me with a lot to think about. I would love to say that I am now ready to travel to a bunch of different third-world countries by myself to explore, but realistically, there’s no way. So does that mean intercultural competence too much to ask of us? Is it just a nice, little fantasy that was made up to promote world peace? Are we all just too different to understand? Honestly, I don’t think so. I think with a little effort and motivation, we can achieve a basic respect and break down that uncertainty and anxiety. We may have communication barriers, along with many other obstacles along the way, but we are all human beings. This should not be above us.