Cultural Reporter Video

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Summary Blog

Summary Blog- Cultural Reporter Project

Greetings and welcome to the final blog of my cultural reporter project. I will be discussing a summary of all the previous blogs, interviews and data I have collected over this period. There will also be a reflection about this project as well as what I have learned overall in terms of intercultural communication, and how to use this information in the future to improve our communication competence. My topic of the cultural reporter project is related to the lower class, more specifically the homelessness culture. In my first blog, I explain the concept of class identity and how it is a very important issue in the U.S. because it translates through nonverbal and verbal communication. Class identity is defined as a sense of belonging to a group that shares similar economic, occupational, or social status (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). I discussed about how you can easily depict people’s class just by their appearance, life style, preference in products, which is a nonverbal way of communicating. A verbal way of communicating would be the way a person who lives in a trailer park would speak versus a man walking down Wall Street. I also pointed out that they come from a wide variety of backgrounds and become homeless for variety of reasons.

Due to the various backgrounds that homeless people come from, trying to communicate between them is not the easiest. In my second blog I explain the concept of minority identity, a sense of belonging to a nondominant group and it develops in stages such as; unexamined identity, conformity, resistance, and separatism (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). The lower class, mostly the homeless, are more aware of their class identity being different from the majority and tend to develop a sense of class identity earlier than the other class. Another concept I explored was the concept of code switching, which refers to the phenomenon of changing languages, dialects, or even accents (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). Language is essential when it comes to communications, therefore, people code switch to accommodate the other individuals. It is important to change languages, dialects, or even accents to accommodate this culture.

Overall, I learned that engaging in intercultural communication is important and vital in today’s society because we are globalizing more and more each day. There is some great knowledge that can be gained when you communicate with people from different cultures. It also makes you more likely to interact with other different cultures more based on the understanding and the knowledge gained. My advice on improving our communication competence is to stay motivated when engaging in intercultural communication. Other components of intercultural competence discussed in chapter 12 were knowledge, attitude, and empathy (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). I was feeling a little hesitant and felt a little uncomfortable when I had to move out of my “communication comfort zone,” however, after I had gained some motivation it lead me to insights into other individuals, groups, and cultures. Another important component was attitudes, which is an individual’s disposition or mental sets. As a component of intercultural communication competence, attitudes include tolerance for ambiguity, empathy and nonjudmentalism (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). I will be focusing on empathy because I believe without empathy the ability to communicate with other cultures can be difficult. For my second blog, I had to empathize with everyone I communicated with because I learned about the people’s experiences and their life. It made it easier for me to understand from their point of view because I felt what it was like to “walk in another person’s shoes.” To be competent communicators, it only takes motivation to communicate, having positive attitudes, and the willingness to gain some knowledge about the other cultures. I have gained significantly about the low class, homeless, culture because of the cultural reporter project. I have already started to utilize this information to life and it will help me later on in the future when I travel to other countries.

The video I posted in my second blog was meant to be posted on this final blog.

References:

"Homelessness." Home. People's City Mission. Web. 7 Feb. 2012. <http://www.peoplescitymission.org/index.php/about/16-homelessness>.

“Homelessness In Lincoln.” Lincoln Homeless Coalition. Web. 7 Feb 2012.

<http://www.lincolnhomelesscoalition.org/homelessness-awareness/>.

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5^th Edition ed). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill.

Concept Application Blog

My expectations of researching and observing the culture that I had chosen turned out to be not what I had actually expected. The homeless people of Lincoln can be considered the working class or the impoverished. There’s a wide range of people in the lower class who stay at People’s City Mission. I have learned that some people are living at the Mission because they were court ordered, have mental health problems, alcoholics, drug addicts, or some have ended up in there because it just happened to them. As I walking down the streets of West O Street, across the bridge, I stumbled upon many people without homes. One of them was a very reserved gentleman named Gary.

My experience with talking to homeless people is close to zero, so I was clueless on how to communicate with them. Luckily, I got a little help from a near by gas station clerk in the beginnings of my research. Helen said she sees hundreds of people without homes walking past her as they walk to People’s City Mission. She was the one who introduced me to Gary, who seemed a little off putting at first as he saw me holding my video camera in one hand and a note pad in the other. I respected his choice to not be filmed on camera and I went on with my interview. As he warmed up to me, he asked me why the cops will ticket the pitched tents where it’s the people’s homes but not the pitched tents of the protestors in front of the Capitol. Even though the tents are set in a public place, the cops will ticket the homeless people because of social economic issues, the difference in class.

This is a video I have created containing interviews I have conducted with a variety of people. It will explore the communication between this culture and how it affects the people around them.

Along with class identity, minority identity is clearly developed in this culture. It is a sense of belonging to a nondominant group and it develops in these following stages; unexamined identity, conformity, resistance and separatism, and integration (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). The upper class and the middle class tend to not think about their wealth or where they are going to sleep at night often; where as the lower class, mostly the homeless, are often aware of their class identity being different from the majority and develop a sense of class identity earlier than people who have homes and a job (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). A year ago, Gary had a job, was happily married and had his beautiful daughter. Then he got a divorce and his wife took everything from him, even his rights to see his daughter; on top of that Gary lost his job and ended up at People’s City Mission. He told me his ex wife and his daughter have no idea he is currently living at the Mission because he says it’s embarrassing. Gary’s minority identity is in the beginning stages of developing where it’s characterized by the lack of exploration of identity.

From the other side of the People’s City Mission, the staff and the volunteers, the concept of code switching was explored. It’s a technical term in communication that refers to the phenomenon of changing languages, dialects, or even accents (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). People code switch to accommodate the other speakers, to avoid accommodating others, or to express another aspect of their cultural identity (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). A.J., a staff of People’s City Mission, explained how this one woman went through difficult times and doesn’t like it when the staff asks her how she is doing. She will get offended and react negatively, so the staff avoids that question to accommodate her. Another woman sees things that seem only real to her. For example, she’ll claim she’s been sprayed by acid and the staff can’t deny what she says or else she’ll get very upset. However, they can’t encourage her either so they adjust to her or ask how did it happen, do you need medical help? It is important to change languages to accommodate this culture because they will react negatively.

From my experience as a middle class college student, I had to apply the code switching concept to accommodate this culture. Helen, the gas station clerk, observed me and said “No offense honey but you’ve got too much pride. Just be yourself.” I was not holding any pride; I was simply just being myself. However, to their eyes I will always be the middle class college student who has no idea what it’s like to be living in their culture. The homeless people are considered to be part of the lower class, however they are not any different from the rest of us. They just want to be heard and be treated equally as the people with homes, jobs, family, and friends.

References:

"Homelessness." Home. Web. 09 Mar. 2012. <http://www.peoplescitymission.org/index.php/about/16-homelessness>. 

"Homelessness In Lincoln." Lincoln Homeless Coalition. Web. 7 Feb. 2012. <http://www.lincolnhomelesscoalition.org/homelessness-awareness/>.

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5^th Edition ed). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill.

Cultural Reporter Introduction Blog

Cultural Introduction Blog

            From the day I moved to the U.S. I have witnessed homeless people lying on the streets ever since I can remember. Back then I was only at the age of 10, so it was indifferent to me when I saw a withered man dressed in clothes filled with holes and dirt, holding a cardboard sign asking for help. To this day, I will never forget the first homeless guy I saw. It’s difficult to do so if you had to walk past him everyday to and from school. My curiosity was just growing and growing as I saw more homeless people on the streets of Chicago. I was taught not to speak to that one particular helpless man and just to walk to my destination, minding my own business. Many questions were brewing in my head. Why is he living on the streets? What happened to him? Where is his family? Doesn’t he get cold at night? Where does he get food if he has no money? Why is there barely any money in what is suppose to be his money jar? Why isn’t anybody helping him? Is it legal to sit on the sidewalks where people have to walk in? I had no inclination to find the answers to my questions until I had gotten older and my knowledge of the U.S. economy, society, politics, class and culture had increased.

            Class identity is defined as a sense of belonging to a group that shares similar economic, occupational, or social status (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). Class is a very important issue in the U.S. because it translates through nonverbal and verbal communication. A man walking down Wall Street in Manhattan, dressed in a tailored designer suit, talking on his Blackberry would not be considered the working class. Just by looking at his attire is a sign of nonverbal communication. A verbal communication would be the way a person who lives in a trailer park would speak versus the man walking down Wall Street. Homeless people are not just in big cities in the U.S., but they are also here, in our very own city of Lincoln. They come from a wide variety of backgrounds and become homeless for a variety of reasons. There are the economic factors such as unemployment, poverty, unaffordable hosing; and social and medical factors like domestic violence, mental/drug issues, lack of health care just to name a few. The most recent Point In Time count was designed to measure the extent of homelessness in the community on a single day. The face of homelessness in Lincoln was 834 people in 621 households, nearly 1/3 were children under the age of 19, 8% were U.S. Military Veterans, 22% of the households were chronically homeless (Homelessness In Lincoln).

This video is the personal stories of the people that were affected by the homeless people in Lincoln. It was made by the Human Services Federation: Religious Affinity Group.

            My objective is to research further into the culture of homelessness by participating at People’s City Mission right here in downtown Lincoln. I will conduct my research by interviewing the volunteers of People’s City Mission and the homeless people, discovering further on the theories and concepts on this certain class identity, and the effect on the culture shock among many others.

References:

"Homelessness In Lincoln." Lincoln Homeless Coalition. Web. 7 Feb. 2012. <http://www.lincolnhomelesscoalition.org/homelessness-awareness/>.

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5^th Edition ed). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill.

Cultural Identity Video

The first video will not play on blogger.com so I uploaded it on youtube and here is the link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxGfnFGjYJA