Cross-Cultural Communication
“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang
Greetings Fellow traveller!
In my major I will seek to gain a basic knowledge of human behavior so that I will be more able to integrate myself into a culture. I will study connections between the human mind and body, languages and customs, and use anthropology as a way to understand cultures through observation, and exploring why cultures are the way they are today. With this foundation I will then place myself in a cultural environment different from my own and use my knowledge to integrate myself into the culture.
Reasons for My Major
From the very beginning communication and culture has influenced my life. Growing up my siblings constantly had problems talking with my father. My second oldest sister had an especially difficult time explaining things to him. Our father in return had trouble getting his points across to her, this resulting in blocked passageways of communication and hurt feelings. Until my sister learned to speak clearly with my father, I often became the interpreter between the two. Whatever my father said I translated in a way that my sister understood and vice versa. It is from this that I began to question communication. If families were having a hard time talking to each other, then how did the world communicate? If the world was so advanced, how could such simple forms of communication cause major rifts in people’s lives? The questions went deeper along the years: is it possible to achieve world peace through perfect communication? What could I do to help this matter? Why were there such problems in homes, businesses, communication, countries, and the world? This later on led to an interest in International Business; I wanted to learn how to build trustworthy bonds between different countries. Ultimately my search led me to the major that I am creating now.
It is very important in today's day and age to be able to understand and adapt. Adaptation is something that as a human species have done for a millenia. But let's face facts, some conneciton has been lost and people are satisfied with their front lawn. In a globalized world today, your front lawn might now be enough. It may just be greener on the other side.
