Week 6- Intercultural Interactions-- Jamie Nickell

My husband, Joey, and Ashton in Washington D.C.

Dr. Vaughn defines cultural competence as "the ability to apply knowledge of your own and others’ culture (Vaughn, p. 105). I would not consider myself to be culturally competent, although I would not have a problem learning and interacting with other cultures if the chance was given. I have never left the country to even experience what it would be like to interact with other cultures and mingle with people who do not share the same language or beliefs as I do. I find it to be very important especially in education to have cultural diversity even if it is just the knowledge of the culture, because you can really reach out to children better and gain their trust by knowing something deeper about them and their families.

As I mentioned that I have never had the opportunity to leave the country and experience other cultures besides my own, I sought out the opportunity to go to Italy for 3 weeks. I leave in June! I will be taking courses to learn the language and the everyday cultural practices that make Italy what it is today and the cultural practices that have influenced so much of our history here in America. I will be staying in Florence for about 17 days and then going to Rome for 4 days. I will get to interact culturally with others and try to communicate with them the best I can. I find this to be a critical experience in my life because I am taking the initiative to go place myself in another culture and environment I am not familiar with and live.  It is one thing to visit places such as Washington D.C and learn briefly about American History but it is a completely different story to place yourself in another country that you know nothing about and learn that history and way of living. I hope to gain some cultural characteristics from my experience because my family background is Italian. So having that intercultural interaction will hep me get in touch with my history and to gain knowledge of others culture that I am not familiar with.