Wendy Only

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

 – Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), American writer, poet, and cartoonist

In many ways, the quest for intercultural competence resembles a journey. When you first started this course, you may have already had some concepts of communication and culture to aid you in your travels in intercultural communication. As you progressed through the learning experiences of the last 4 weeks, you have hopefully added many additional understandings of communication and culture to improve your intercultural competence. Now, where will you journey with your newly developed intercultural competence knowledge and skills?

As you consider the knowledge and skills you have gained, consider the contexts in which you interact with other cultures every day. How might intercultural competence benefit you personally and professionally going forward? In this Final Reflection, you evaluate your experiences in this course and how you can apply this knowledge in the future.

Photo credit: Microsoft Corporation. (Producer). MP900438811 [Young girl looking down a road]. Retrieved January 17, 2014, from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=journey&ex=1#ai:MP900438811

 To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review your papers from Weeks 2–5. What are some of the key areas of learning that you gained from the course so far? After using the BASIC and D-I-E tools in the Week 2 Assignment, how have you changed your cultural perceptions and ways of communicating with other cultures?
• Consider what you have learned from this course. What have you learned about yourself? What do you consider as your strengths in communicating across cultures? What are the areas that you need to work on developing in order to become more interculturally competent?
• Bring to mind an experience in which you interacted with someone from another culture since beginning this course. What knowledge have you already been able to apply to your experiences with people from other cultures? How might you use your knowledge of intercultural communication and competency to improve upon your intercultural interactions in the future?
• Reflect on how you can apply your knowledge to other areas of your life. What do you see as some of the challenges you will face when you communicate with people of other cultures? How might you anticipate and overcome these challenges? What application does this course have to you personally and professionally? How can you benefit your community and society at large by implementing the methods and tools of intercultural communication and competency?

By Day 7

Submit a 3- to 4-page paper in which you:

• Describe the changes you have seen in your perceptions of and reactions to interactions with other cultures. Use your Week 2 Assignment paper and the BASIC and D-I-E tools as the basis of your response.
• Explain two or three key elements that you have learned about yourself and your culture. In addition to these elements, identify the strengths you have noticed about your communication with other cultures, as well as the areas in which you need to work to become more interculturally competent.
• Using the example you brought to mind in the “To prepare” section above, describe how you have already been able to apply knowledge gained from this course in a real-world experience.
• Considering your personal and professional life, articulate how you might use your knowledge of intercultural communication to be an effective communicator across cultures. Define the challenges that you may face when you interact with other cultures in the future, and anticipate how you might overcome these challenges.
• Conclude by summarizing how your learning from this course, your experiences interacting with other cultures, and the concept of how being interculturally competent will benefit your community and society in an increasingly globalized, multicultural context.