SPC1017 Group 1 Blog - Brianna Jean

    

       Hello everyone! My name is Brianna Jean, and I am a part of group one. Although there were many obstacles, my group was able to come together and complete what needed to be completed. My group and I did our presentation on chapter three which is about understanding what intercultural communication was, understanding the barriers, and understanding how to overcome them. My group thought it would be effective to split up the work and bring it all together in the end. I was responsible for completing lesson 3.4. My lesson was about the barriers that keep us from effectively communicating with different cultures. As I read the pages from the book and completed my own further research, I was able to properly understand and educate myself on my lesson. 

 

The potential barriers that I chose to talk about were:

-Stereotyping

-Ethnocentrism

-Incompatible Norms and Values

 

            Stereotyping is the belief that everyone within the same culture behaves the same way. This can prevent people from communicating and understanding each other because stereotyping leads to treating other people differently and negatively. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s culture is better than someone else’s. This leads to people misunderstanding other people. Lastly, Incompatible norms and values are when one culture may do something that another culture sees as offensive, or abnormal. Judging what people do in their culture is not okay. I gave my own example as a Haitian-American young woman since my family and I have experienced this firsthand.

 

        Aside from the information and research, my group, as well as myself, had to find time in our busy schedules to complete our project. I work full time at a dog facility and most of my peers work full time as well. Some of us had to do the assignment little by little until we had it completed, some of us had to do it at the very last minute, but in the end, we managed to get what we had done. Group 1 had plans to meet up in person to complete the assignment, but due to numerous roadblocks, we had to complete everything remotely without even seeing each other. I admire the strength we had to pull through! We did not have that much time for our project since we were the first group to go up. Instead of allowing this obstacle to throw us off, we applied our skills and teamwork to make it happen. 

 

        After our presentation was over, the other groups went and the whole class got to learn about the different topics the other groups had to cover. There was a group covering chapter 9 which was about communicating in groups. With their presentation, I learned ways to maintain a healthy and strategic group. Not only did their presentation look nice, but they taught me a lot of things I didn’t really know about. There was another group that covered chapter 10 which was about group leadership and problem-solving. I especially liked this group’s presentation because their chapter is something that would be able to benefit everyone for years to come. I learned about different ways leadership and organization flow through a team.  I also learned about effective ways to solve problems that may arise in these groups. I had to congratulate my peers for their hard work because everyone is pretty much on the same boat. We are all busy college students who are trying to keep up with our busy schedules, personal lives, and assignments.

 

        In high school, I always enjoyed doing presentations. Researching and designing are probably the best parts of a project. You get to learn more information about whatever you are working on and presenting allows you to showcase what you have learned to teach others. My favorite part about presenting is having the cutest presentation! Firstly, I enjoy searching for nice themes that would make the presentation presentable yet appealing to our audience. Secondly, I enjoy searching for nice pictures to bring more visuals and colors to our projects. Lastly, I am confident in my writing skills! I may not be the best writer on the planet, but I do have a keen eye for mistakes and ways to enhance sentences. Now that we are all in college, I would like to put my skills to good use to strengthen our presentations and projects. I would like to also receive feedback from my peers because I do not only think of myself when I am decorating and revising. Feedback is important to me because it allows me to improve based on the point of view of my peers. This is a group effort, so I am always open to new ideas and opinions!

 

            I believe the most important part of these groups is making connections with classmates. Now that everyone is assigned to a group for the semester, this allows us to communicate and get to know each other. We can help one another and answer any questions that anyone may have. We created our own group chat and within this group chat, we can be on the same page with whatever we are assigned to. This is the best method for effectively communicating with each other. Sometimes we even share memes and laugh at each other’s jokes when one is made! Connecting with each other now allows us to see everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. If someone is weak in one area, there is someone who is strong in that area to help them out. That is what I call the flow of teamwork and understanding.

 

            I had a positive experience with our first presentation. I got to know more about other people, I got to learn about the different topics different groups covered, and I also got the opportunity to experience the feeling of excitement when your group does well on a project. Even if this is only the beginning for everyone, there is no doubt in my mind that my peers and I will excel in any assignment given to us. I see everyone in SPC1017 as very bright and capable individuals who are bound to succeed and excel in this class. I have confidence in everyone’s ability, we will make this a great semester!