Communication And Adapting To Others' Diversity
I am Ronaldo Mundo, I’m 18 years old Hispanic male and I was born and raised in Houston, Tx. In elementary school I was bullied for being perceived as gay this led to me not having any friends and becoming antisocial. It wasn’t until High School when I was certain about my sexual orientation as a homosexual. I would consider myself as a minority since I’m a Hispanic homosexual. Since elementary school I loved art and chose to peruse my passion for art in college. I’m excited about continuing my education at Texas State University since (from experience) racism is more common in San Marcos than in Houston. Some people from Texas State University come from small closed-minded towns and I want to be able to brake some perceptions some people have.
In my Communication 1310 class each one of my classmates had to write about a hurtful assumption that was said about them and present it to the class. “Art majors are useless” is what people tell me when I tell them I’m an art major. This is my misconception which I used to present in our in-class activity. I was shocked to see some assumptions, but I could also relate to them. After doing this activity I learned some things I could take outside of the class room and apply it to real life scenarios using the three notions to adapting to others. During my in-class activity one of my classmate’s positionality was “Being in choir doesn’t mean you’re gay. ” My positionality is l his because people assumed something hurtful about us since we affiliated with an organization. Your interest and the organization you involve yourself with shouldn’t give someone the privilege to assume your sexual orientation. Another positionality that is like mine is “My sexual orientation is not my personality or the base of my values. ” Often when my friends introduce me to their friends they say something along the lines of “Hey this is my friend Ronaldo, he’s gay. ” Sometimes I don’t want to highlight the fact that I’m gay, because I feel like I’m categorized as someone different than everyone else right of the bat. Therefore, I can relate to my classmate’s positionality because of that. Some different positionalities that aren’t like mine, but I can agree with is “I am Asian, not a computer” and “I am black but I’m not from the hood. ”
People often tend to assume hurtful things or stereotype other people because of their race. It is hurtful to make assumptions about someone over something they can’t change. There are three steps to adapting to others diverse culture. The first step is gaining knowledge of the other person’s background or culture. You can do this by studying their history, art, and geography. Maybe learning what they eat, listen to and their language. Once you start talking with this person, you should exchange information asking questions and listening helps you understand them better. This will eventually make you feel less uncertain and anxious. The second step to adapting to others is motivating yourself. You can practice motivating yourself by tolerating ambiguity. People become uncomfortable with ambiguity especially if they are from a low-context culture. You should remind yourself that other people don’t have the same attitudes about appreciating details or knowing the future. You can also practice motivation by developing mindfulness. You should remind yourself that other people aren’t like you. You can be more mindful through self-talk which consists of telling yourself to manage discomfort, or negative thoughts about situations. The last step to adapting to others diversity is developing skill.
You can develop skill when adapting to others by being other-oriented communicators. This means we consider the motives, goals, needs, and desires of the other person. We should consider the feelings and thoughts of others when selecting the time and place to deliver a message. We can also develop skill by decentering and responding emotionally. Decentering means thinking about other’s feelings and thoughts and how they might be perceiving issues or situations. We can practice responding emotionally to another’s feeling and actions by feeling the emotional reaction that the other person may be experiencing. Using these three strategies to adapting to others will avoid misconceptions about others. If you don’t have intercultural communication competence while communicating to other diverse cultures, you might have negative consequences. For example, not being mindful makes you oblivious to the world. If we focus on ourselves when talking to other people, it is very unlikely that we will be effective communicators.
People’s feelings are bound to get hurt and your opportunity to make a new friend might not be successful. Things could also perhaps lead to an argument or a disagreement and people would consider you as an ignorant person. This assignment showed me to be mindful about other everyone’s positionality. For example, one of my classmate’s positionality was “I am white and conservative, not racist/sexist/homophobic. ” Before the activity I wasn’t considerate about white people’s positionality because I considered them closed minded and privileged. But after this activity I realized everyone has their own different misconception about them. Everyone can somewhat relate to everyone else because we are all judged at some point. Throughout this activity I realized I shouldn’t assume differences. When Introducing myself to someone I should decentralize and put myself in the others person’s shoes. I could ask questions and listen which would help me understand them better. I should be considerate about their feelings and thoughts.
Lastly, I will respond emotionally to another person’s feelings and actions by feeling the emotional reaction that the other person may be experiencing. This activity successfully helped me understand the actions I should take regarding intercultural communication.
