Week 3: Communication and Culture - Blog Assignment

Do you find yourself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures?

If yes, in what ways do you communicate differently?

I do find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures. However, I don’t consider myself as fake, prejudice or inconsiderate, but I do change the way in which I communicate with the group or person I’m communicating with. If I’m in a professional setting I try to use proper English and give a lot of eye contact. I strive to be an active listener when I’m in a professional setting because I want to ensure that the individuals I’m communicating with know that I’m giving 100% of myself. However, when I’m with my immediate family I find myself not to be an active listener because sometimes my son will ask me a question and I will say “yea” and he will know that’s the wrong answer and he will say “what” and then I will realize that I wasn’t even listening to what he was saying. I often do the same thing with my husband as well as my coworker, friends and other family members. However, I am going to strive to become a better listener to members of my family, friends and coworkers.

 One particular situation I can remember when I did alter my communication in relations to communicating with an individual for another country/culture was about ten years ago involving

a remarries of my husband’s sister. First remarriage involved her marrying a man from Italy

when she was stationed over there so that was very challenging for our family and then they

divorce and several years later she remarries someone from Ecador and this was also

challenging however his personality was somewhat like ours and communication wasn’t quite

as difficult. Needless to say it was still hard communicating because they both have such

different culture and views than our family has.

Communication Skills

I was watching a movie on the ET network, Serendipity and my phone rang….therefore I put on my television volume on silence.  I know this movie has been out for years but I had never had a chance to watch the movie until now. After my phone conversation I proceeded to turn the volume up and thought…I’m actually doing my blog listen and didn’t even realize it until I got off the phone. I was actually trying to keep up with the money by reading lips and by their nonverbal behavior.

The particular scene I choose to discuss is the scene when she coming in from a long day at work and opens the door to a room filled with rose petals and candles and a large box which is filled with smaller boxes….she finds a tiny box and opens the box to only find that the box is empty her boyfriend walks into the room and it’s obvious that she is very disappointed and the boyfriend walks into the room with something in his fingers and she begins to smile when she sees the ring….just by the nonverbal actions of the two individuals it seems that the couple has great communication between them because they are very happy because of facial expressions.

Once I turn the volume on I had the assumption that even though the female seemed very elated by her facial expression her tone wasn’t quite as convincing that she was as happy as her face appeared. If I had known the movie I would have understood the circumstance behind her unconvincing tone of voice that she was elated.

What Is Communication

The first individual that comes to mind for me is a politician who is our United States President, Barack Obama. Personally, I haven’t agreed with his choices and decisions he has made while in office, however, I think he is an excellent speaker and communicator.  When President Obama speaks he captures my attention and I’m immediately drawn to his message. He has a charisma about him that enhances his communication skills.  He also speaks in a tone that is conducive for effective communication.  President Barack Obama is a born public speaker; his talents are rooted in a set of techniques that I would love to obtain. President Obama looks directly at one person in the audience while delivering each phrase during his speeches. He shifts his gaze from person to person only between sentences or ideas which give the president time to form connections with audience members. President Obama often opens with topics that resonate with his audience. Only when the president sees heads nodding in agreement does he move on to more controversial matters I have notices. President Obama’s words don’t drag on in long streams. He divides his speeches into phrases, each of which conveys a single complete idea. He drops the pitch of his voice at the end of each of these phrases and pauses before starting the next one.

Personally, I would love to model this same type of communicational skill……I would love to be a proficient speaker and communicator.

Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope I have in reference to working with children and families who come from a diverse background would be that I had a positive impact on their life.  For families who are diverse and particularly those who are not from this country for the most part have issues of trusting people, therefore, I hope to create a line of communication with the family and child to ensure that success takes place.  I always hope to strive to provide the families and children with the upmost respect and to stir away from stereotyping.

One goal I would like to set for early childhood related to issues of diversity, equality and social justice to also provide the families with equality and always provide them with respect.  I also pledge to avoid stereotyping and making assumptions related to their culture or diversity.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this class…it has been one of my favorite and it was a joy having some of the same colleagues in this class. I wish everyone the best of luck on their endeavors and professional dreams. Also thanks to Dr. Ferrari for providing such an interesting class and information.  I look forward to seeing some of you in the next class!

Country of Origin:  Ecuador

Five Ways in which I will prepare myself for their arrival:

1.   First of all as a Head Start Employee we must provide a translator, therefore, I would ensure that this is set up.

2.   Gather basic information regarding their country, culture and traditions. Learn about the culture, language and history of their family and not make assumptions.

3.  Prepare my current students for the upcoming arrival of a new student, who is culturally diverse.

4.  Take the time to visit a family that is possibly from the same country is available, search my resources and community contacts.

5.  Try and get supplies that are in the native language and also decorate the classroom with things are familiar to him or that respect his or her culture.

In preparation of the above steps I hope to ensure my sensitivity in learning about cultures, language, and history of the families. I also hope to not make assumptions about anything and provide information on the most basic things that we take for granted. I just hope doing the above steps will ensure a smooth transition.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I have discussed my personal experience with prejudice growing up and being educated in school setting where my culture was not represented many times in discussions, journals and applications therefore, I will discuss an incident where I was the witness.

I work in a community that is predominately Caucasian; I suppose it’s about 95% white.  However, my assistant is African American, who was born, raised and educated in this county and as result of this statistic she and I share similar challenges during our childhood.

I have worked at this center for nine years and she has worked there for about 11 years. Needless to say that we have a classroom full of children who are predominately white and occasionally this becomes a problem for my assistant.  I work for a Head Start Agency who has five centers in four different counties; however, my center is just one classroom. Therefore, with me being a center manager and lead teacher I have to attend many trainings and meetings, so at least once a week I’m away from the center.  From time to time my parents often use microaggression remarks that are hurtful and she often thinks they are discriminating against her. It also puts me in an uncomfortable situation because she and I are very close and have a great working relationship.  Recently I had a parent say to my assistant, “I don’t think K likes it when Mrs. Lewis is away from the center, it seems like she has a bad day every time she is away”.  A few days later after my assistant tells me what the parent had said, I had the opportunity to mention the remark to the parent, who stated, “Yea K isn’t use to black people and I don’t think she likes Mrs.????.  I thought I would fall out of my chair, I couldn’t believe this parent was admitting this to her child’s teacher. I explained to the mother the importance of teaching our children about diversity and that we would in cooperate diversity into our curriculum throughout the year. However, I thought it was right think not to tell my assistant what the parent said. I thought it would only make matters worse.

This often causes my assistant to have hard feelings toward the parents who make these comments. In reference to how this diminished equity is that our schools are no longer segregated therefore, everyone should be treated equally and if your child is educated in public school you should leave all the microaggression at the door.  When I’m put in situations like this it makes me very uncomfortable and I immediately become defensive inside in protection of my friend/my assistant but have to keep my professional composure.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

It very interesting that we are talking about micro-aggression this week and I experienced this in a very important meeting I attended this week.   We were attending a Policy Council meeting where there were key staff, parents, board members and community representatives present.  During this meeting individuals were elected for the five officers we have and all were Caucasian except for one individual.  At the end of the meeting a VERY key employee, who is African American instructed a staff member to take a picture for the local newspaper and the group proceeded to get together for the picture.  Well needless to say the one African American female was sorta on the side of the group and this KEY staff member stated “Now you know you need to get in the middle because you are a minority” to the African American female, who currently serves a community representative.  I immediately recognized the comment as being a micro-aggressiveness statement but didn’t comment to anyone about this.  However, I had my community representative and parent riding with me so as we made it back to our community they commented on how they were offended by the comment, both of whom are officers , included in picture and are Caucasian. Therefore, I had to explain to the individuals that I really didn’t feel that this was intentional and that the two of them are respected and appreciated. I feel that this experience just reiterate how important it is to be mindful of what we say because the two representatives from my community took a total offense to this comment and felt as though they were not appreciated. Therefore, again it’s so vital that we are cautious on the words that come out of our mouth, especially those of us who hold key management position, because these are leaders!