The Impact of Intercultural Communication within My World

On most of the trips that we went on, we had to change something about how we acted or looked be it the words we chose to use or how we dressed. In changing our dress, that was usually a religious aspect with whatever country we were in but sometimes it was for many different reasons. During one of the trips that we took to Canada, we had to alter things even down to our lifestyles. We were asked to only wear clothing without labels or even college names on them as we were in an area where most of the families could not afford to buy their children expensive clothes or did not have the opportunity for an education after high school. We were also told not to bring up any expensive gadgets that we may own or to use any sort of in depth vocabulary as there might be common words that we know and use, but that would be unfamiliar to those who we were ministering to. These steps were taken with the intention that the people we were communicating and working with would feel comfortable enough opening up to us and that they would not feel any sort of intimidation. Looking back, I feel like we were dumbing not only ourselves down, but at the same time, we were insulting the intelligence of those who we were visiting. Upon arriving in the city we were working in, we realized it wasn’t quite as intense as we had been taught and realized that just because someone is from a bad area, or we may have heard things about a city and its people, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will turn out exactly how we are expecting. The people we encountered were students all around our age who talked excitedly about which colleges they were looking at, and how they looked forward to going to the states to shop in the bigger malls. They were exactly like us in every way, and we realized that while our training is helpful and necessary on these trips, perhaps we would do just fine with being ourselves in these situations. Occurrences such as this is where the basis of Intercultural Communication comes into play, where we learn to not stereotype and to go in maybe with a few expectations but not enough that will skew your perception as you go into a situation.

        Before moving to the city, I had no idea what to expect. It wasn’t until I made Chicago my new home that I was able to open my eyes and mind to new ideas and perspectives that I had never held before. Looking back to when I first moved here two years ago, I was a very naïve twenty year-old. While growing up in the church had given me structure and a belief system for which I still continue to live my life by, as it turns out, I had been very sheltered. When I first arrived in the city, there were all of the little obvious things that stuck out to me such as language and the general pace of everyone and everything I was encountering was very different than what I had known for the last twenty years. I would get looks from my friends when I mentioned grabbing a ‘buggy’ at the grocery store instead of a cart, or I would say that he ‘wallered’ around so much he fell off the chair instead of saying squirmed or wiggled, and I’ve always gotten mixed reviews when I use “ya’ll” which I still do very often. Those simple parts of myself I’ve still held onto, but have learned to catch myself before saying something to someone from the north that they might not understand. I have also learned that up here, amongst the most diverse group of people in the country, it’s ok to have an open mind. I thought I was open-minded before I came here, and I may have been by anyone’s stereotypical Southern standards, but once I caught my first glimpse of Boystown, or had three different roommates all at once from different countries in the DePaul dorms, I had never fully grasped how diverse the world, let alone my own country could be. Since arriving here, I have slowly been able to come unwound from my strict background and embrace people and ideas that I never thought that I would before, either because I was taught not to, or even because I didn’t know certain types of people existed.

Intercultural Communication has allowed me to broaden my idea of what is normal or what is accepted within our society today, and it is quite a bit more than I could have ever imagined. I have no idea what sort of future is in store for me, but I would like to think it will be in the Advertising field where I can help companies appeal to and reach larger audiences through having the knowledge of various types of people and cultures. I feel as though my life has changed and will continue to grow for the better with the use and continuously changing concept of Intercultural Communication.