LL250: Intercultural Communication                    Name _______________
 Prof. Bauer-Ramazani                                                                  

Cross-cultural Discussion Groups / Learning Log
Week1: Problems in Intercultural Communication / Solutions

Date: _________________

Names of participants (Please sign your name.)         

___________________________________  ___________________________________

___________________________________
___________________________________

Discussion Topics:

A.  Cultural Analysis: Becoming aware of biases

  1. Give an example of 2-3 stereotypes/prejudice that find others (other cultures) have about your culture.  Explain the reasons for the stereotyped behavior/activity/feeling/event to your classmates.  Give examples of exceptions that prove this as a stereotype/assumption about the culture by other cultures.

  2. Give an example of a cultural behavior (American/other culture) that you do not understand.  Have someone explain it to you.

  3. Give an example from your own culture that someone from another culture might have difficulty understanding.

  4. State specifically what you need/hope/request from members of another/other culture(s) to help you communicate better with them.

B.  Communication

  1. Discuss the types of communication problems that have occurred when you have interacted with people from cultures different than your own.  Describe what happened and explain how these difficulties made you feel.
  2. Discuss the statements: “We are alike and we are different.”  Produce lists for both concepts.
  3. Discuss the various ways in which the dominant culture influences and controls the values, attitudes and behavior of co-cultures.

Cross-cultural Learning Log:

  1. Designate one group member to summarize your findings for the questions above.  

  2. That group member needs to upload the summary to the Cross-Cultural Discussion forum in our eCollege course site at www.smcvtonline.org.

Format for log:

  • Paragraphs; introduction (scenario—members of group present, location, length of meeting—purpose of assignment, thesis), body, conclusion

  • The log should be written in Word and can then be copied and pasted into the X-Cultural Discussion forum or it can be uploaded as an attachment. 

Note: If you copy and paste into the discussion forum, all font formatting will be lost.