INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION, fall, 1998
Professor Calabrese
Of. 708-524-6919; Hm. 630-466-4248; Fax. 366-5360
Email: Calabres@Email.Dom.Edu
PURPOSE: This course is designed for anyone whose professional or private life is likely to include encounters with people from cultures or co-cultures different from his or her own. The course will include both communication between international cultures and communication between co-cultures within the United States. The methodology of this course will involve students not only in the study of intercultural communication but also in the actual practice of it.
Text: Foundations of Intercultural Communication, Chen/Starosta, 1998.There will
be a short true/false quiz at the beginning of each class period in which a chapter
from the text is to be discussed.
Each week come prepared with typed short answers to the "Questions for
Discussion" section of the chapter. These will be graded not only on content but
form. Grammar and punctuation do count! Only typed answers will be accepted.
9/1: Pass out syllabus--get acquainted
9/3: Chapter One:
9/8: Joseph Campbell, Video 1
9/10: Chapters Two
9/15: Joseph Campbell, Video 2
9/17: Chapter three
9/22: Joseph Campbell, Video 3
9/24: Chapter four
9/27: Joseph Campbell, Video 4
10/1: Chapter five--Assignment one due: Be prepared to discuss your paper briefly
10/6: Joseph Campbell, Video 5
10/8: Chapter six
10/13: Video 6
10/15: Chapter seven
10/20: Joseph Campbell--guest facilitator
10/22: Chapter eight--Assignment two due: Be prepared to discuss your paper briefly
10/27: Video--interracial
10/29: Chapter nine
11/5: Video
11/10: Chapter ten. Assignment three due. Be prepared briefly to discuss your paper.
11/12: Assignment four due. Be prepared briefly to discuss your paper in class.
11/17: Chapter eleven
11/19: Guest speaker--Assignment five due.
11/24: Chapter twelve
11/26--Thanksgiving
12/1: Chapter 13
12/3: Lecture: Making Presentation
12/8: Student Presentations--Include Power point slides
12/10: Student Presentations--Include Power point slides
ASSIGNMENTS WHICH REQUIRE PROACTIVE ATTENTION BY STUDENTS : Type a
one page response to each of the assignments below. These are due on the week for
which it has been assigned.
It will be necessary in this course to seek out friends or acquaintances from other
cultures; these will need to be a variety of people willing to answer questions about
their culture.
1. Ask your new friends to relate a folktale, or a song, a work of art, or something else
appropriate from their culture. What cultural values does it convey? If you can, attempt
to compare your friends' example to one from your culture. Does it stand in opposition
to yours, or are there similarities? Due October 1st.
2. Find out as much as you can about the history of your friend's culture/nation. Try to
isolate specific examples of how your friend's cultural values have been determined by
historical events. Due October 22nd..
3. This exercise illustrates how different generations perceive the world of members of their family or two acquaintances who are from different generations. Interviews should be conducted with these individuals using questions that concentrate on perceptions of the world, values, beliefs, aspirations, and opinions of other generations and cultures.
Due November 10th.
a. What is important to you? What is valuable in your life?
b. How would you define success? What are the characteristics of a successful person?
c. What is your opinions of U.S. society today? Of young people today?
d. How do you see the United States in relation to the rest of the world?
e. Have changes taken place in the United States and around the world that you are satisfied with? Changes that frustrate or anger you?
f. What changes would you like to see take place int he next decade?
g. What is your perception of the status and treatment of women, the disabled, homosexuals, people of color, and the dominant while culture in the U.S.?
h. How would you describe relations between culturally different groups (including
such co-cultures as women, the disabled, and homosexuals) in the U.S.? Increased or
decreased ? Improved or worsened.
After reports class will attempt to draw conclusions from the answers: Are there any differences
between the two generations? How are they different? What might account for those
differences? That is, what changes or events in U.S. society might explain these
different generational perceptions? How do you account for any differences between
the two generations with regard to perceptions about intercultural relations? What
might account for any frustration that might be felt regarding changes in U.S. and world
society?
4. There are numerous international films available in Dominican's Media Center. Included below are several selected specifically for this course. Write a one page reaction to any two films, commenting specifically on what you learned about the culture from the way the story was told and the behavior of the various characters. Other foreign films may be substituted.
Be prepared to discuss your written reactions in class November 12th.
1. Zorba the Greek--Greece
2. 28 Up--Britain
3. Home and the World--India
4. Ju Doc--China
5. Tokyo Story--Japan
6. Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears--Russia
7. Cinema Paradiso--Italy
8. My Father's Glory--France
9. Chocolat--Africa
.
5. Discuss the differences, if any, in approaches to health care between your friend's
culture and your own. Present him or her with a list of typical North American ailments
and discuss the way in which they would be treated in both cultures. Possible
conditions to discuss include depression, obesity, anemia, cosmetic surgery, cancer
(and particular kinds of cancer, such as breast or uterine), and allergies. Try to find
cultural values that explain the differences in treatment, if any. Did you mention any
diseases that your friend could not even find an equivalent for in his or her culture?
How do you account for this? Due November 19th.
6. Oral presentation. This assignment allows students to focus on how one country
has changed over the past three decades and understand how such change has
affected other nations. Each student will prepare an oral presentation on the changes
that have developed in one country over the past three decades. Possible areas of
focus could include political, social, environmental, demographic, and economic
changes. Students should include some information on how such changes have
affected other countries and relations with the rest of the world community. Time
duration will depend on the number of students enrolled in the course. Due last week
of class
7. Each student has purchased a map of the world. Quizzes will be given to provide
students the opportunity to learn the names and locations of all countries existing in
1998. Dates: TBA
Possible questions for class discussion:
a. How have certain areas of the world changed in the past few decades.
b. Why have certain changes (such as technological changes) taken place in some nations and not in others? For example, why are many African countries described as "developing" and Western European countries as "developed"?
c. In what ways are specific nations interconnected? How are people in the United
States affected by events such as political elections, natural disasters, and economic
shifts in the Europe, China, Mexico, and the Middle East?. What affects on the daily
lives of people in the U.S. might take place. Due last week of class.
This will probably be a terrific course; however, it may not be for you. Doing well in this
course requires that you have the motivation to tolerate the anxiety that sometimes
accompanies being with someone from another culture who does not speak or
understand your language well. In order to internalize the problems and synergy
possible through intercultural communication, the course is designed to force the
student to reach out to others who are different. This course is much more than
reading a text book and watching a few films and video tapes.. A large part of it will
require actual interaction with people from other cultures. If you are not prepared for
that experience, please drop the course. The LIFE staff are aware of this course and
syllabus and have promised their full cooperation in providing international students for
interaction. These students, however, may need to be pursued. Remember it is they
who "feel foreign" and are often shy or hesitant to initiate. To complete assignments
you may need to be assertive in helping your friend to feel comfortable enough to
"open up" to you, risking the embarrassment of sounding foolish because of an
inadequate vocabulary. You may, of course, interact with people from other cultures
who are not in the LIFE program at Dominican University.
GRADES:
Quizzes-------------------------------------------------------40%
Proactive assignment papers----------40%
Oral Presentation----------------------------------20%