Post Service

            There a many themes that I have noticed in my service learning project. One major theme is the impact on language in communication. Of course sharing the same language with someone is important but even little variations can throw off communication. I noticed that in the adolescent’s inability to concentrate on what someone was saying if they couldn’t perfectly understand it. Another theme I noticed is that as an American culture, we are very ethnocentric. We believe that our way is the right and only way, especially when it comes to social matters. In many situations I experienced with these teenagers, they were forced to assimilate to the American culture. They didn’t get the chance or they didn’t feel it was necessary to keep their own culture alive and to share it. Their identities were at a stage of exploration and trying to figure out where they fit in.

            This experience has a great impact on my intercultural interactions. I never realized before how big of a transition immigrants face when they enter a new culture. They are bombarded by the fact that they now have to make a life in this new country but expected to learn the language and costumes within weeks. The negative connotations of being an immigrant also play a part which in reality we all were immigrants at one point.  These experiences have shaped my beliefs about other cultures and have learned to appreciate diversity. It also has made me sensitive to the issues that face new immigrants and the ability of a simple smile to impact someone’s day.

Service Learning Project #4

 My service learning project is spending time with adolescents with behavior problems. Adolescents notice everything and anything that is different about someone. The participants are all from different cultures but there are some that get teased more than other. For example there is a teenager that is from Iraq and is sometimes difficult to understand or has troubles with sentence structure. These are phonological and syntactic problems with his language. Phonology is the rules of how a language sounds and syntax are the arrangement of words or how they are sequenced in a sentence. Every language has different rules and coming into a new culture there is a learning process of these rules. Ethnocentrism also plays a role in this situation. Ethnocentrism is the belief that your own ethnic or social culture is superior than someone else’s.

The adolescents were teasing him about his unique accent and were using ethnocentrism by applying their beliefs how things were supposed to said and didn’t accept other variations.  Most of the other teenagers had learned from an early age how to pronounce words correctly or how to arrange a sentence in English. They didn’t take into consideration that this boy hadn’t lived in America most of his life and was learning those rules for the first time. 

This situation how taught me how to handle these types intercultural situations in the future. It shows that a person’s use of grammatically correct English is not an indicator of their intellect.  This has also showed that I need to try harder to understand what someone is trying to say rather than just awkwardly smile and shake my head.

Service Learning Project #3

          Working with people from different cultures, I expected that there might be some difficulty communicating. With the population I work with, it is mostly adolescents. Their biggest language problem is pragmatics. Pragmatics is the effects of language on human perception and behavior. Pragmatics is the social use of language and the ability to participate in conversations. The situation I encountered involved an adolescent boy who wouldn't make eye contact when talking to you. He was very friendly but always looked down or away when we were having a conversation. He also had trouble with answering simple questions like: How are you? He would answer these questions with a lengthy answer about what he had done all day. This situation also involved cultural norms. Norms are group-held beliefs about how members should behave in a given context.

                This teenage boy was from an Asian cultural that thinks looking people in the eye especially someone what is older and of authority is disrespectful. That is his cultural norm. In America it is our norm that you look people in the eye because it shows that you are paying attention and care about what that person has to say. Pragmatics comes into play when I ask a simple question and he answers it very open and honestly. In his culture or at least his own family structure they tell each other about every detail of their lives when you ask how are you? Pragmatics are difficult to learn when entering into a new culture that has a different communication style.

                This situation has taught me to not jump to conclusions as to why someone doesn’t follow the “typical” communication style. It also has made me more sensitive to people who are new to the American culture of conversations and how they work. In the future I will understand that they are not being disrespectful or trying to complain about their day.