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IE 3 ICC Seminar: Lesson 1

4/7/2015

12 Comments

 

Hi everyone,

It was really great to meet everyone this morning.  I'm looking forward to our lessons together this semester.

Course Introduction:
We definitely had a busy 90 minutes! We went through the course syllabus and schedule and then had a lecture/discussion on the definition of culture.

We didn't have time to discuss the "elements of culture." We'll look at this in next week's lesson, as well as learn how communication is part of culture.

If you would like to review our lectures, you can use the slide presentation from class. You can find them in the
IE 3 ICC Seminar --> lectures section.

Remember to do the assigned readings each week. This will help you understand the lecture and give you ideas for our discussions. Unfortunately, we don't have enough time to cover all the material from the textbook in our lessons.  

Homework:
1.  Reflection Topic #1
2.  Blog Posting #1
3. Reading, chapter 2, pp. 37-57

Reflection Topic #1:

Write about a time when you experienced a "cultural misunderstanding" in another culture or with a person from a different culture. Why do you think there was a misunderstanding? (e.g. look at the
Iceberg diagram from class to help you think about the reasons for the misunderstanding)

  • Remember to write 2-3 pages for this entry in a B5 notebook and bring it to our lesson next week. You will have about 10 minutes to discuss your experience with your group. 
  • The Iceberg Diagram is uploaded after the blog question.


Blog Question #1:

What was something interesting that you learned about culture in today's lesson?

*Write 8-10 sentences.
*Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly.
*Submit by Monday, April 13 by 6:00pm.

Iceberg Diagram
File Size: 67 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

12 Comments
IE3S-Yumi
4/8/2015 07:34:09 pm

It taught me that in the area of culture, the aspects we easily can't see is much more important that the aspects we can see. I think it's very interesting how cultures are still being around us in our everyday life because they must have been build many many years ago. It must be strong enough to sustain and also it must be understood as something reasonable for us. In the last class, Junpei said that culture did not necessarily mean the defferences between countries it can be those between religions or black and white . He made me think that new culture can be created anytime we think it's needed. Any kinds of group must have their own culture because their need are different from other groups. I had thought that "culture" was a word that had a huge scale of meaning. But it is more close to our life.

Reply
IE3S-Jumpei
4/12/2015 11:26:05 am

Overall, all of the contents were very interesting. Especially when Nicole asked us to explain our own culture, I had no clue how to express because I thought the definition of "culture" was very abstract and complicated. However after knowing that culture is formed from an accumulation of fashion, tradition, food, buildings, law, religion and so on, and is completely personal, I was able to gain an idea of "culture" more clearly.
In addition to this, I was surprised to the massive amount of essence culture is made out of. And what's more, the structure of culture is like a shape of an iceberg, which is very interesting because this means that the majority of the aspects are invisible, which makes those essences that we cannot see, to be almost unconsciously formed. To sum up this idea, the majority of the essence that makes our culture, is formed unconsciously. Then how would it be formed if its unconscious? I think it is the surroundings, including parents, education, atmosphere, friends and so on that will help form our invisible part of culture. So to conclude my whole idea, I learned that culture has many essence and it differs to one another. Although each person have their own original culture, it is created by the help of other people.
Sorry for the messy sentences.

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IE3S-Kotomi
4/12/2015 01:25:53 pm

Before the class, I didn't often think about culture. But from "The Iceberg Concept of Culture", I learned culture is formed by various elements. I surprised that there are visible culture and invisible one. It was more difficult for me to specify invisible culture: politics, customs, beliefs and superstition, than visible culture. Especially It's interesting that superstition or gesture is one of the elements of culture because I didn't think them which I use or think naturally in my daily life as culture. I understand that culture makes our life and country. At the last part of the class, I learned the definition of culture. I know we didn't have enough time, but I wanted to learn more about that.

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IE3S-Yuma
4/12/2015 01:31:49 pm

I have studied intercultural communication last year in another lecture.However the definition of culture is difficult for me to understand.In general,people think the things between some countries if they hear the word,"culture ".But I realized that it is not always true when one of my classmates told me.The most difficult thing I learned last lesson was the iceberg concept of culture.The difference between visible one and invisible one is also difficult to understand .I have thought learning about culture was so interesting than before.I would like to study it more deeply.

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IE3S-Saya
4/12/2015 03:36:42 pm

In the lesson, we completed the chart of the iceberg concept of culture. It was interesting to know that there are so many factors of culture that is not seen. I really taught me that there are more of what we dont see than what we easily feel as a cultural difference. By studying the chart, I thought that the word culture has a big meaning. It’s much more than the country's unique tradition and customs. It's something that describes the country. Moreover, we can't say that one culture is better than others because every one is unique and that's what makes the society intercultural. At the same time, I thought knowing your own culture is a difficult thing.

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IE3S-Takahiro
4/12/2015 03:41:52 pm

In the last lesson, what made me most interested in is seeing the bottom of the iceberg, what we cannot see directly through our eyes. I think all our cultures have something invisible but important much more than we expect. Therefore, to understand them more exactly, we have to see the internal parts of them. It seems to me that it might be widely applicable to other cases. For example, it would be interpersonal relationships.
"Anything essential is invisible to the eyes."
This is a famous sentence in a novel. I feel this way of thinking may be the essential qualities of our life, and something invisible but precious have made our life and culture more interesting and warm-hearted.

Reply
IE3S-Kohei
4/12/2015 03:56:06 pm

When Nicole asked us something in the last class, we couldn't say any ideas so we were silent and then Jumpei said this is our culture. Japanese people often keep silent when we were asked something. I thought it really interesting because most of us didn't find it was our culture. We don't know very much even though it was our own culture. The culture which we can see is the tip of the iceberg. This shows that most part of the culture are invisible. We tend to think that the visible part of culture is everything. However, we learned that invisible part is more important. I'm really looking forward to studying more deeply about intercultural communication in this class.

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IE3S-Sayaka
4/12/2015 04:25:30 pm

When I came into the class room, there were many faces which I don’t know, and was nervous about that. But Nicole gave us an easy warming up exercise to know about each other, and that helped me to get to know about them. The most difficult and interesting part for me in the class was thinking about “what is culture.”

Reply
IE3S-Sayaka
4/12/2015 04:26:50 pm

When I went into the classroom, there were many faces which I didn’t know, and was nervous about it. But Nicole gave us an easy warming up exercise to know about each other at first, and that helped me to get to know about them. The most difficult but interesting part for me in the class was thinking about “what is culture.” I often try to think about culture in daily life, but the question was so abstract and difficult for me to explain. But I realized that it was a very basic and important question before learning specific information about culture. I'm sure it is going to be very helpful lectures for us to understand "culture." I'm really looking forward to seeing you. Thank you.

Reply
IE3S-Misato
4/12/2015 06:21:10 pm

In the last lesson, there were two aspects of culture which especially made me interested in. Firstly, that culture changes overtime. Since I had not thought much about what culture means before, I didn’t think it as an important point. However, when I look back into the times when I was in high school or ten years ago, or even much long time ago, culture is much different. I think what changed so much were the things mostly in the tip of The Iceberg Concept of Culture, such as fashion, music, and food. Also there are things didn’t change much. It is the another aspect culture which I found it interesting; that in order to culture to survive, beliefs and behaviors has to be strong enough to resist others. I remember Nicole said it is impossible to know other culture unless we know our own. I am interested in to know how Japanese culture built up by both changing over time by the influences of other culture and also resisting them. Also I am looking forward to learn deeply about culture and intercultural communication.

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IE3S-Manami
4/12/2015 06:55:46 pm

Before the class, I thought I knew what the word culture means but in our class I had no idea what it really means. The ice barge diagram helped me to understand culture better. Also the ice barge diagram was interesting. I didn't know that culture has two aspects and formed by many elements. I still do not know how to explain the culture exactly. However I'm looking forward to learning more and finding my own definition of the word culture. I am also excited about getting to know more about my classmates and hope to have a good time with all of you.

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IE3S-Kentaro
4/15/2015 02:55:27 am

I was a bit upset when I was asked what "culture" was, even though it was always close to me. Before, I though culture was something relating to nations or things like that, but I realized how poor my view was when Ms. Nicole explained it to me. I was a bit surprised to notice that anything can be a culture as long as it is unique. Through this class, I learned how important it was to see a thing from a lot of point of view so I can find something new. I'm going to think about culture much more in detail and try to comprehend it more deeply. Thank you for reading :)

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