Bianca De Leon - Blog Post #1

 Communicating with the Group

Having a presentation due at the end of the week during the first week seemed like an annoying assignment. When it comes to class presentations, I'm not very fond of them as group members tend to have a hard time communicating or choose not to communicate at all. But seeing how this presentation is on communication, it would be strange if we didn't talk. The result turned out as good as expected and even led me to research it a bit more on my own time after we presented. Working with a group can show the communication challenges people experience but, we thankfully didn't have those issues, and worked perfectly fine. While we did go into different topics, certain slides like generational differences, disability inclusion, and the metaphor of America as a melting pot or salad stood out to me. This presentation showed how communication can go beyond language and into non-verbal behaviors and cultural influences.

Generational Differences

The slide that I ended up doing was the slide about generations. Before working on the presentation, I already had a couple of ideas on how age can shape the way people communicate. People normally assume opinions can only be personal but they can also be affected generationally. Going over the main generations of Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha, groups are all shaped differently by historical events, technologies, cultural values, and economies, making them have their own communication style and priorities. As a person falling into the Gen Z category, these differences are quite apparent, especially when I'm with older family members. Gen Z is labeled as tech-savvy but less personal, as everything seems to be online, while other generations prefer to be face-to-face with each other and don't use technology as much. With this in mind, misunderstandings are bound to occur when it comes to speaking, different words, tones, and actions can be interpreted as something completely different, which can shown as disrespectful. Becoming aware of these generational norms shows how we (including myself) need to be more open-minded when it comes to communication and new language. You can take it as learning a new language but, instead of just words, it's more social cues, new slang, and expectations.

Disabilities and Social Inclusion

Another topic that caught my eye was about disabilities and what was considered 'normal' in society. Before this, the idea I would have of a disability is what it would mean medically, the definition being someone with a physical or cognitive impairment. The thing is the slide talks about the social model of disabilities, which talks about fixing the environment rather than fixing the person, which caught my attention. Society is not designed for everyone, from buildings without ramps to classrooms without any other teaching styles. The world is going to accommodate everyone, no matter how hard we try. Even when we communicate, we expect people to talk in a certain way or a certain language that we can understand, without considering the other person's way of speaking can be affected when it comes to disabilities. We should want people to reflect on our communication include everyone and be respectful towards them. I'm also involving myself in this conversation since I don't meet people with disabilities so I'm not sure what would be respectful of but I hope I can make them feel included in trying to talk to them. Speaking of language and accessibility, would this blog fall into that category? Is this blog too wordy or is it easy to understand and engage with, even with some pictures and gifs? Asking those questions is what we need to do more often to bring more respect and love into the world.

Melting Pot vs Salad Bowl

I had never heard of this metaphor of America being a melting pot or salad bowl until this project. I feel that other people believe that since America is the 'Land of the Free' and can allow pretty much anybody here, that would be a melting pot, where cultures would blend into one. But I think that it is just like a salad bowl, where culture retain their identities. The salad bowl concept seems more of a modern and inclusive idea, compared to mixing and blending them all into one. I'm Dominican and my cultural traditions are essential to who we are so the idea of 'melting' my culture into either other cultures or a dominant culture feels like I'm losing something important to me and my family. Most of my friends and family agree with me since they all come from very similar or the same background. Out cultures shouldn't be mixed or blended with others that can lose our heritage, language, or customs. They should left to be respected by other cultures and celebrated. It would also be hard to envision a blended-out version of my own culture since everyone I've grown up around has the same culture as me, so nobody is different from each other. We understand, and respect each other, and talk about how we couldn't imagine it any other way since talking about being a Hispanic person has become the norm over in Hialeah. Talking about this reminds me of the topic of immigration, with different policies, border enforcement, and illegal immigrants can be related to this. But I won't go in-depth with that topic since I'm not well-versed in it. Just remember, we should be in harmony, not in one uniform voice.

Conclusion/Final Thoughts

Looking back on this presentation gave me a better in-depth review of the presentation and the topic we ended up talking about. Intercultural communication was not just about words or different languages but about talking to others while going through differences in age, background, values/beliefs, religion, and abilities. It shows how we should be open, adaptable, and willing to listen to others and give other viewpoints a chance so we can try to see from another perspective. This project was something that made me realize how I can connect this to my personal life and it wasn't just a presentation about a topic I would never see again in my life. I would also like to show my congratulations on the other two presentations on chapters 9 and 17. They did a really good job but I don't remember what was on the presentations themselves. It's very hard to concentrate after doing your presentation first and then trying to pay attention to other ones after. I remember the visuals for both groups and they did a great job of talking about the topic. It's nice to see groups that all know what they need to do and not do the bare minimum.