Ethnocentrism Concepts

1. One of the concepts from chapter 6 that occurred in the intercultural activity was the concept of ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is the believe that my culture is superior or better than yours. In this case, there was a whole argument that the culture where people could talk was superior. I was in the culture where we couldn’t talk and when I went to visit the other culture, they treated us like they were better. In addition, at the end of the activity there were some particular individuals that changed cultures, simply because they thought the other culture was much better. Above all, in the activity, the concept of superiority was present.
2. Moreover, another point in the activity was assuming similarities. It basically is assuming that my culture is the same as theirs, when it is not. For example, when I had to visit the other culture I assumed that their rules were the same. When I got there, I stood silent and they looked at me with a puzzle stared, but no one told us what we needed to know about them. In addition, I soon got a sticker and I still didn’t know what to do; which followed by another sticker, to the point of being deported. Moreover, there were some people that tried to use our culture’s signs in the other cultures, which turned out to be offensive to them. In conclusion, assuming similarities in the cultures didn’t turned out as we hoped so, given the fact that most of us where deported. 3. Furthermore, in the activity there was also the move on adapting to the other culture, in the way of seeking and finding information. This means that there were some individuals that tried to find what the rules of the other culture were. For instance, there were some people that managed to trade well and adopt to the signals that we did. The same in the other culture, there were some people that managed to get into a conversation with a sense of humor like theirs. All in all, there was some success in adapting to a different culture. 4. Another key point, in the activity is that there was some cultural shock. This means that there was some confusion, stress, and anxiety. It wasn’t very big, but I did experience it. In the first place, I did not know what to do in the other …show more content…
Altogether, I thought that the activity was very creative, giving the explanation at the end. If there would have been more communication, there would have been different results. Everything turned out different to the second and third group after there was a form communication regarding the difference among the cultures, which came to be positive for those that knew the expectation before joining the other culture. The thing that I did not like was the rule that men could not trade with anyone unless they were approached by a female. I basically walked around, stood there, kind of gave a stare to signal a phrase of trading, and waited until a female approached to negotiate. In conclusion, I think the activity was a good sense of cultural communication, where we need to be more open minded about the possibilities in which the other culture might be a total opposite of ours. In this activity, it was the opposite and for the most part it turned out to be okay in adapting after shared