Week 7-Culture and Relationships; Maureen Rooney

AMIS has created a great culture for Viviana to grow in. She is surrounded by people who are like her, immagrants, so she is not afraid to express herself. Although diversity and mingling with students who are not immigrants are not represented at AMIS, she is not labeled or considered an “outcast” at school. I believe this is critical. At AMIS, Viviana is not intimidating to participate in class and to express her native culture.

          Even though Viviana seems to still think boys at her school are “icky,” her opinion may change as she grows older. Viviana may find several male students attractive because “status, closeness and similarity [are] key determinants of attraction (Vaughn 116). Thankfully, Viviana has found many friends who have similarities in status and race to her at AMIS. It does not mean that she will not be able to form relationships with people who are unlike her but it is just not surprising that she is able to connect with students like her.

          Viviana’s parents are both present in her life which is wonderful to see. Although I did not ask, I assumed that when Viviana about her parents and she responded that she had a mother and a father that they were a male and a female. Unlike some states in America, other countries “recognize various kinds of same-sex marriage” (Vaughn 122).

          Viviana drew a beautiful picture for me when I asked her about her about me visiting her each week. She wanted the relationship to continue and was disappointed to hear that we only had a few weeks left of the “structured” mentoring. I hope to continue to remain in contact with Viviana throughout the summer. 

 I am very fortunate because both of my parents are still married after twenty-nine years of marriage. This is not common in America because the divorce rate is around fifty percent. I also am a lucky child because I have many siblings. Most American families only have one or two brothers or sisters. However, I have a family of seven and I love to spend time with them.

I have a great support group of friends. However, my friends are typically the same race and background as me, similar to Viviana’s friends. It is not that I am opposed to making a more diverse group of friends but rather that I find myself surrounded by people who are like me due to the activities and clubs that I belong to. 

UC is an awesome school to go because there are a variety of cultures present on campus. People of different cultures mingle with each other in classes, through events and their everyday activities. I am a very proud UC student. 

Week 7- Culture and Relationships- Dominique Lawson

Culture and Relationships

 Relationships are very important in life. For immigrant children they prove to be even more critical. "Cultural factors influence the types and expectations of friendships which can be cultivated within particular cultures," and "friendships may also serve a regulatory function so that children learn to modify behaviours to fit acceptable peer norms and ultimately cultural norms," (Vaughn, 113). With this said, immigrant children use friendships with peers to help them adjust to cultural norms and values. These relationships teach the immigrant children what is acceptable in school, on the playground, in in the world. Without a good peer relationship it becomes hard for an immigrant child to acculturate. 

The family relationship also becomes important. The immigrant child often takes on the role of interpreter for the parents because they are the first to learn the norms of the new culture because they are placed in a diverse environment for many hours a day almost immediately. 

I feel that a large part of the social support and in immigration emerges in schools. It comes from teachers and in our case, mentors. By being in the lives of immigrant children in the school we provide them good guidance in education and push them towards success in the new country. We also provide a stable go-to person that they can ask for help from and talk to if need me. I believe that being a mentor is a viable piece of success in education. I have enjoyed my time with Alina because she has taught me how to be a good model in life and in school by probing me with questions. 

When asked how she feels about me as a mentor she rated me a 10 on a scale of 1-10. She said that she wished she could rate higher than that. It warmed my heart because at times I wonder if I am making an impact on lives. I'm sad that our time is almost over.

Week 6; Jonathan Hilton

Week 6:  Intercultural Interactions -- Jonathan Hilton

I found the question in this week’s prompt, “Are you culturally competent? How do you know?” unsettling. I have spent so much time traveling, interacting with people from different cultures, and learning languages that I have never stopped to ask how I would know if I were culturally competent. UC Honors provides a “Global Studies Learning Objectives” rubric for global competence which, under its description of an “accomplished” student, contains phrases like:

“Student has substantial knowledge of...”

“The student has an excellent understanding of...”

“The student actively seeks opportunities to...”

“The student is actively involved in...”

All of these phrases can, to a certain extent, be taken in a rather vague way. Through the Honors reflections, I have gained a degree of “intrapersonal competence.” Through the experiences I have had, I have gained “interpersonal competence.” But as Vaughn writes (105), “In intercultural interactions, it is not sufficient to be only intrapersonally and interpersonally competent. Cultural competence is the ability to apply knowledge of your own and others’ cultures.” Her suggests of various models have got me thinking in terms of how I have applied (and can apply) the knowledge I have stored up about other cultures.

Me with my Chilean host family at a wedding

During my time in Chile, I certainly did the second item on Vaughn’s list (106), “personality approaches.” I developed new aspects of my personality to learn to be more easygoing and carefree to fit into the culture that surrounded me. This was part of my “development of coping skills” (100) for the process of psychological acculturation. However, I also had some interesting “psychological and emotional reactions” (100) resulting from this. For instance, becoming more easygoing and carefree gave me a psychological aversion to overwork and stress, and made me feel that there wasn’t anything in the world worth having stress about. When I returned to the U.S., this came back to bite me, because here we generally consider that some things are worth undergoing a great deal of stress to achieve.

Am I culturally competent? To a high degree, yes. However, I now realize that being culturally competent means more than I thought it did—it’s a form of applied knowledge, not a learned one.

Here I am with more members of my extended Chilean
host family, learning new cultural competencies...

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. 

Week Six: Cultural Competence

As Vaugh points out in her book, Psychology and Culture, we do not need to leave our homes to interact with new cultures. While some inter-cultural experiences do come for our time abroad, I believe that a greater percentage of these experiences occur in our day-to-day lives.

I spent some of my formative years in the Chicago Public School system, where I was the only white child in my school and I lived in a largely Hispanic neighborhood. I was surrounded by people who were not like me, but I never felt marginalized. We were all different and these differences were respected. I believe that this is how we all need to approach inter-cultural situations. Most people in our society know not to treat someone differently because they are different from you, but I believe that many people do not realize that being more cautious or formal around others because they are of a different cultural background is still discrimination. I respect differences but also realize that in many ways these people are the same as me.

Rose and her niece

My family in Ecuador

After leaving this urban and culturally diverse environment and moving to cookie-cutter suburbia, I did not have many inter-cultural experiences for a few years. Everyone was white, Christian, and upper-middle class. It was not until high school that I realized that my time in Chicago had helped me understand how to relate to people of other cultures. As I grew up, my friends and I would make increasingly frequent trips into the city. Many of my friends and I became very comfortable exploring parts of the city that were off the beaten trail. Most visitors only see Michigan Avenue, Millennium Park, and Navy Pier. We were venturing out into the smaller artsy neighborhoods to attend small-scale music events and see what cool items we could stumble upon in the countless thrift shops. When my friend Rose and I started to bring our friends deeper into the heart of the city, we realized that some of the others were not as comfortable as we were. I attribute much of this cultural comfort and social maneuverability to the fact that both of us grew up in more multi-cultural environments than many of my friends did.

Intercultural Relations

I have said it before, perhaps on this blog, and I will say it again: I live a sheltered life. I grew up going to Catholic school -- grade school and high school, and for the most part was always in school with people who were similar to me -- middle and upper middle class, Christian, Caucasians. When I got to high school, my classmates grew in diversity, but generally I was still with the same crowd. It wasn't until I began working that I started to meet people of other cultures. My first job was at Kings Island. I started in 2007, during the spring of my sophomore year. That first summer was awesome. I met so many different people who grew up in totally different worlds. No longer was I hanging out with the same sort of people every day. Each time I went into work, I feel like my outlook on life kind of expanded. My co-workers were very diverse. Usually when I heard the word diversity, I think about a mix of ethnicities. While it is true that I was meeting people of different races, I was, more importantly, meeting people of all different cultures. Some kids came from wealthy families, others not so much. Some were only children while others had lots of siblings who worked in the park as well. One of the most beneficial parts of my job at Kings Island is learning to be open to people of different cultures. I don't know who someone is just by looking at them and as such, I have to be open and respectful right off the bat. This is true for coworkers and guests of the park. Over the past four seasons (such a long time!) I've really grown as a person and became a much more open and definitely more culturally competent.

In line for Maverick at Cedar Point!



At AMIS, Dayana gets to meet people from all different cultures. At Kings Island, all of us have common goals in mind related to our jobs. At AMIS, the kids are united in the fact that they are immigrants and don't necessarily speak English as their first language. In fact, most of the kids don't. They are able to see each other as classmates, whereas if they were in a regular school, other students might primarily see them as immigrants. Attending AMIS will definitely help Dayana to be more culturally competent because she interacts with people of different cultures everyday. If the rest of us were forced to work together and with people of other cultures everyday, we would definitely be more culturally competent. Having common goals unites people in ways that we could never imagine..

I've used it before, but it really shows the diversity at AMIS

Week 6 - Intercultural interactions - Sarah Arriola

Intercultural interactions can go smoothly, or they can be very awkward. To make an intercultural interaction go as smoothly as possible, people should be aware that the person they are interacting with may look the same and speak the same language as they do, but they may come from a completely different culture. Little things, like a handshake or eye contact, can make someone from a different culture very uncomfortable, and may even offend them. What people must always be aware of is that, "During intercultural interactions, individuals can feel lonely, alienated, and isolated; which may result in feelings of homesickness or stress or in daily life, a longing for the way things used to be" (Vaughn p. 101). Being aware of this can help an intercultural interaction go better on both sides, and hopefully can help lessen some of those feelings of loneliness and homesickness.

At a UC football game!!

When I first went to college, although I was in the same state and only about an hour away from home, it still felt like a completely different culture. My high school only had about four hundred people in it, whereas the University of Cincinnati has about forty thousand. I went from having my own room to having to share one with another person. I had been in class with maybe twenty five people at most when in high school, and suddenly I had classes with over one hundred people in them. I went to football games in high school, but they weren't a big deal (we weren't very good), but coming here, football games were extremely exciting and definitely a big deal. Those are only some of the many differences that I encountered in my first few months as a Bearcat. Thankfully I met other people who were going through the same thing I was, or had gone through it a year or two before me, and talking to them made my transition from high school to college much smoother. I can imagine that if someone was moving to a whole new country or culture, it would also help to them to interact with others who had at some point in their lives had been through a similar experience. I think that's one of the reasons AMIS is such a good school. It gives newly immigrated students other people their own age to talk to about their moves, as well as gives them people who can help them understand their new culture.

My sister Amber and I playing "crazy golf."

My older sister was born in the United States but has lived in Britain for most of her life. I met her for the first time in 2005 when she came to the U.S. to visit my family. Although she spoke English, it was obvious that she came from a different culture. I was only fourteen at the time, but I still remember some of the little differences that I noticed while my sister was here. One example is that we went putt-putting, but she referred to it as crazy golf. Another example is that my mom let her drive while she was here, but we all gave her a hard time because we were "afraid" that she was going to drive on the wrong side of the road. A final example that at the time I found quite funny was that she always referred to the trunk of the car as the boot. These are all little things that probably don't seem to have much importance. However, they all allowed me to see that even though she is my sister and we spoke (basically) the same language, we both come from fairly different cultures.

"Cultural competence is the ability to apply knowledge of your own and others' cultures" (Vaughn p. 105). I don't think I am as culturally as competent as I should be. I do not know enough about most other cultures to really be able to apply knowledge of them to an intercultural interaction. I can say, however, that I have become much more culturally competent since coming to UC two years ago and I plan on becoming even more culturally competent in my next two years here, because I do believe that it is important to know more than just what food a culture eats or what holidays they might celebrate. It's important to be able to go deeper and make someone feel as though you care about who they are and where they come from.

Week 6:Intercultural Interactions/Thelma Hodge

            In all interactions with people, we must treat everyone with respect. When I meet people of different cultures, I smile, watch their body language and really listen. During my study aboard trip as a “sojourner”, I was able to meet and interact with people from Ireland, England, and Scotland. Indeed, I did visit only English speaking countries, but some American words meant different things in England, Ireland and Scotland, which created some confusion (for me) and laughter, on the part of the individual giving me directions, while abroad!

            Culture competence is defined as the ability to apply knowledge of your own and others’ culture (Vaugn, p. 105). I will admit that I’m not all culturally competent, as I would like to be. The fact of the matter is, I have not traveled to any non-English speaking countries, because I fear not being able to communicate effectively. The fear of not being able to communicate, would really hinder my cultural competency because I wouldn’t understand what others around me are trying to say or exactly what they are expecting of me. I would feel just as lost as Rosario and Dennis, were when they initially came to America, without knowing any English. It would be a traumatic culture shock. Dennis and Rosario both expressed to their former teacher, C. Igoa, how helpless they felt, when they were put into all English speaking classes. I would be just as helpless, if I had to travel to a region, where the majority of the population spoke a different language and very little English.

            I may not be an expert on cultural competency; but I do know, that I can learn fast. If I was to go to a non-English speaking country, I would be very mindful of the interactions, customs, cultural values around me and make myself open to all of that abundance of information circulating around me, so I could become better acquainted, and more culturally competent. I laugh and interact well with Leonel, because I listen to him and pick up things in the conversation that matter the most to him. I ask him to teach me words in Spanish or translate sentences; he has taught me many sayings and helped me learn the Spanish alphabet. I am learning to be a more culturally competent person, with the help of Leonel, which, is helping me become a better global citizen.

Week 6: Michelle Prinzo

Are you culturally competent? How do you know?
According to the Vaughn text, cultural competence is,"the ability to apply knowledge of your own and others' cultures. What you do before and after, are as important as what you do during, an intercultural interaction" (105).  So am I culturally competent? If I had to grade myself I would give myself a "B-". But, I am still learning. I think I have a strong understanding what goes into an intercultural interaction and how to evaluate my interaction and make changes. The actual interaction is still often very tricky. I feel that I have drastically improved my cultural competence in the past few years. I would attribute this mostly to being lucky enough to interact with people from so many different cultures and backgrounds and my coursework in Communication. I came from an area that was fairly homogeneous culturally. The majority of my interactions were with people who looked, talked, and came from similar backgrounds to me. I knew that every person was different, and everyone had a diverse background that could be shared, but there were enough apparent similarities between us that interactions and communication came easily.

Late night fun with Krysten and her sisters

Towards the end of high school, I became really close to my now best friend and her family. Krysten's mom is a Mexican immigrant and works in the city of Akron as a translator. While Krysten had an upbringing very similar to my own, many of her mom's relatives and the families she worked with were at her house. The more time I was over there, the more people from different cultures I interacted with. The more intercultural interactions I had, the better I got at it. These interactions provided me with a foundation to come to UC--a school and a city in which I have had the opportunity to interact with so many different and wonderful people.

How should you interact with someone of a different culture?

The artwork my students made to share with Relay For Life participants

I personally think that you should interact with someone of a different culture the same way you interact with someone of the same culture--by treating them as an individual. Listen to them, learn about their background, observe their habits, and share with them. I really think that is what many of the strategies in our texts have tried to convey. The more you interact with an individual, the more you can understand about them, and the better your interactions will be.

The picture above represents this understanding for me. In the picture the banner that is along the windows was created by my students (first graders at Fairview-Clifton German Language School). In my classroom I taught 20 individuals. Each student has his or her own background, but together we created a classroom culture. The banner has the word "hope" translated into 8 languages (I know you can't see it, you will just have to trust me)---the eight different languages children in my classroom speak in addition to English. Additionally, the banner has pictures of the Relay For Life symbol and our theme: "One world, one hope, one cure". This represents a part of my identity and culture that I shared with my students. My students loved to learn what it meant to be a college student, and many of them exhibited a very mature understanding of what cancer is and how it has affected my lives and the lives of many other people both inside and outside of the classroom. Most importantly, this banner is a piece of collaborative work--it shows how all of us interacted with one another. The longer we spent together, the more we learned about each others backgrounds, heritage, tendencies, and habits and the more effectively we were able to communicate.

Week 6: Cultural Competence

            Having grown up in a culturally diverse area, I spent my years up until high school with friends that, though American, participate in vastly different cultural practices from myself.  Spending time with these people, especially during my early years of life, has established in me the cultural competence I believe I possess today.

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            After my first visit to an Indian friend’s house, I recalled spotting a room of her house dedicated to a shrine to a figure I did not recognize.  I asked her about it and was intrigued by the concept of Hinduism.  At only eight years old, I was deeply curious about other cultures and spent a whole week researching various religions apart from my own, Catholicism.

            Experiences like this one have shaped my cultural competence and made me a more tolerant person through a deeper understanding of other people’s ways of life.  Having tolerance of people’s religion has gone hand-in-hand with tolerance of ethnicity, cultural practices, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.  I confidently believe that I am quite culturally competent because I examine and research these ways of life and try to do so with as little bias as possible.

            My senior year of high school, I wrote a thesis paper on the role of Muslim Americans in light of the ongoing War on Terror and the aura it has placed on the Muslim world.  I investigated statistics on Americans’ perceptions on the Muslim world, Muslim Americans’ perceptions on their social position in America, Muslim Americans’ perceptions on the September 11 attacks, and more.  Although I prior believed Islam to be a religion rooted in expelling “evil” from the world with whatever means necessary, the research proved to me that it is in fact a very peaceful religion with a basis of 6 pillars of values shared by all other Old-Testament-recognizing faiths.

            So when I encounter someone from a different culture, I try to focus not on the differences between us, but the similarities.  I then devote time to achieving a better understanding of their culture through research and learning.

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            I take pride in my successful interactions with others, and after studying Vaughn and Phillips’ model for intercultural interactions, I realize that my success in everyday interactions stems from a balance between intrapersonal competence, interpersonal competence, and cultural competence.

Week 6, Intercultural Interactions--Allison Miller

My roommate from last year (Hannah) and me

Intercultural interactions take place more frequently than many people think; the United States is often referred to as a “melting pot” due to the vast amount of cultures it contains.  Though this is true, there are many existing obstacles when it comes to interactions between different cultures.  For instance, “People may speak the same language but do not have a ‘bicultural’ understanding of another’s cultural background, which can be problematic” (Vaughn, p. 101).  People need to acknowledge the differences in culture, even between themselves and people who look like them (but are culturally different).  If there is no acknowledgment of differences, people may feel as though their culture is not being respected, and this may lead to them experiencing culture shock.     

Mission Trip to the Dominican Republic

For many people, it is very difficult to interact with someone from a different culture.  So many misunderstandings can occur within seconds—from eye contact, to personal space, to something as simple as smiling.  This reminds me of my experiences in the Dominican Republic two years ago.  I went on a mission trip with a very small group of people, and we built a house in Luperon, Dominican Republic.  Unfortunately, my four years of French studies did not do me much good in a predominantly Spanish-speaking country.  I therefore experienced a very frustrating language barrier with all of the Dominicans.  Reflecting upon my trip, I now realize how awkward the whole situation was, for not only me, but the Dominican people with whom I had come into contact.  I did not know anything about their culture, and thus probably obliviously broke a million unwritten ‘rules’. On the first day of class when we talked about having a mentee who may not speak English, I was extremely nervous that I would not be able to adequately communicate with him or her.  Luckily my mentee is fluent in both Spanish and English, so we haven't had much of a problem when it comes to communicating.  

           With that being said, I think it’s safe to say that I am not as culturally competent as I would like to be, although I think that I’ve made huge strides since coming to college.  Another eye-opening challenge that I faced was living with an Asian-American roommate throughout my freshman year.  We held different beliefs, celebrated different holidays, and essentially had vastly different ways of viewing the world.  Our family systems were different, as well as our values.  In hindsight after learning a bit about cultural competence, I think many of our miscommunication issues could have been avoided.  As I have recently learned, cultural competence includes (but is not limited to) cultural diversity, cultural sensitivity, and cultural awareness (Vaughn, p. 102).  I thought it was very interesting learning about the different approaches to cultural competence.  As I will be entering the healthcare field as a nurse after college, I feel as though I will be pretty familiar with the ResCUE method (Respect, Communicate, Understand, Engage).  My goal is to eventually work at Children’s Hospital, where I would experience several intercultural interactions every single day!