Inky_IC_ CP #2

Cultural iceberg.

We talked about invisible and visible attributes of culture. This time we worked with the same group on both activities. This was really helpful, because we warmed up by discussing separate attributes like clothing, religious beliefs, non-verbal communication etc. We used the picture to attribute it above the water surface or below it, depending on how we perceived it. Some of the items like degree of eye contact we placed closer to the water surface, because it is something that is not obvious at the beginning of communication with representative from different culture. However, once you start talking or interacting daily you will notice that in some cultures people don’t look into each other’s eyes that often. Maybe I missed the instruction part, so when we started I did not know that we had to use picture of the iceberg to place the cultural attributes. However, students were very helpful and explained that they had similar activity before and we will need to place the objects on the picture.

For the second activity, student came up with their own examples. For instance, student gave example how “rules of politeness” could be expressed through “degree of eye contact”, “time management” or “personal distance”. Religious beliefs influence clothing in some cases like hers.

With some categories we had difficulty. Something that is not obvious at the beginning but will be right after you experience it we placed under the water, but still close to the surface. Because we don’t know what is the right distance, but once people back up from us we can immediately understand that we got to close.