Life in a Campus with Friends - Essay Example

Campus Friend Report Campus Friend Report My campus is a joyous and light-hearted lady who was born in Spokane, WA. She was brought up and educated in Washington DC and enjoyed a close relationship with her family. She has enrolled in a public relations degree program in a communication college. She narrated to me how she developed interest in the program because she intends to lead a socially diverse life with people of assorted backgrounds. In her childhood, her preferred career was electrical and electronics engineering. However, she did not do very well in mathematics and sciences. She also discovered her good mastery of the English language in elementary school and high school that influenced her to take a major in public relations. My campus friend settled on public relations after weighing many other courses that deal with effective communication. She had at some point opted for journalism but did not like the idea of appearing on the television screen every day. She is always shy and felt that she would have difficulties interacting with her television audience. The other reason that made her not to major in journalism is that she did not want to be feared in the social environment as a celebrity. She prefers leading a simple life with little recognition. As I have come to learn her, she likes helping others even when there is no guarantee of other people helping her back. This justified to me her claim that she never wants to be publicly recognized for things she has done. One of the career goals for my campus friend is working in a reputable organization that recognizes and respects social and cultural diversity. She hopes that the major qualifies her to serve as a public relations manager and ascend to the senior managerial position. At the same time, she claims to have a passion for being a Chief Executive Officer for a popular organization. She does not like being employed but prefers to use employment as an avenue to rise to self-employment. Another career goal that my campus friend reported having is establishing her own company in the future and being her own boss. She believed that a public relation major was important to enable her deal with her employees efficiently and incorporate cultural diversity in the organization. She narrated to me how globalization has turned the world into a small village where everyone needs to learn to cope with people of different ideological and cultural backgrounds. For the duration that I stayed with her, the major interest that she demonstrated is socialization and sharing stories about different countries. She also has an interest in football and goes swimming during the weekends. Based on her interest in cultural diversity, she has unceasing interest to learn foreign languages. She is especially interested in learning Chinese, German, and Russia. She claimed that one must learn to be culturally diverse, especially in line with countries that have a notable economic impact on the world. Although the interests are based on my own observation of her character, she once told me that her major interest is communication and sharing what she has with those who are less fortunate, especially the poor and the disabled. Throughout the semester, I engaged with my campus friend in numerous activities. I accompanied her to the swimming pool one of the weekends where she taught me swimming skills that I had not learned before. I also admired her company at the swimming pool because she explained to me many things to do with water safety and how to rescue people in drowning situations. The lesson that she taught me reminded me of my childhood friend who drowned and died in the water because none of us was able to save her. It also made me feel that she is a good friend I can count on in many other activities of self-interest. Another significant activity that I have participated with my friend is taking a nature walk. I enjoyed taking errands with her because she has a great mastery of the natural environment. We shared our knowledge about the natural ecosystems and the difference between our countries of origin as far as the biological and geographical distribution of the ecosystems is concerned. I always enjoyed her company because we never missed something to share and have fun. At some point, we shared our high school experiences where we challenged one another with important concepts that we learned in high school. Although she could challenge me in many aspects to do with language and literature, she was also amazed by my great mastery of sciences. While we do not take the same major, we held discussion sessions where we discussed important life issues such as football, religion, politics, and cultural interactions in different parts of the world. Her discussions made me think critically and creatively because we made it appear like a contest where we challenged one another with our mastery of knowledge. From the activities that we shared, one of the things that I learned about intercultural communication is that everyone believes that his or her culture is the best and other beliefs are vague. Each one of us developed an interest to learn the native language of one another. She claimed that my English had an interference of the native ascent. This gave me an understanding of how people in other cultural and social beliefs perceive my own culture and language. The other thing that I learned about intercultural communication is that there is more than just understanding the language of communication (Piller, 2011). Although both of us could understand the words and expressions we used because we used a common language of communication, I learned that other aspects of cultural practices such as modes of greetings differ between cultures. I learned that it is through intercultural communication that one gets to learn about the world. Initially, I only thought about the region of the world where I come from as the most important. My friend made me develop a look of the world from a different angle. I came to understand that one understands the actual meaning of globalization only after interacting with people of diverse cultural backgrounds. To begin with, I had only interacted with people of my own culture and wondered how it would be like to interact with diverse cultures. The experience made me learn that cultural diversity is not a one-day journey. It involves daily experiences with people of other cultures and the ability to understand and listen to people of other cultures without showing some form of discontent with their beliefs and practices. Intercultural communication, as I came to learn from my campus friend, requires surplus time to understand one another, including the likes and dislikes of the people of the other culture (Novinger, 2001). For instance, on our first day of our meeting, communication was minimal as we took some time to study one another and the things that each one of us must avoid to ensure that our relationship remained healthy. Our level of socialization and openness in communication increased as we continued meeting and interacting with one another. For this reason, I learned that it is easier to initiate a communication with people who share common cultural practices than those with different cultural ideologies. Nevertheless, although our ability to interact took some time, we were able to understand and open up to one another after learning the basics of the other culture. I learned that one has to be patient with people of a different culture before expecting much openness and shared experiences. My friend has been born and brought up in the American culture. This is the culture that many people across the world associate with westernization and modernity. Even before I met her, I have previously come across many people in my home country, especially the youths, who try to emulate the American culture as a way of expressing modernity and westernization. The American culture recognizes English as the official and formal language. This clarified to me the reason why my friend is so fluent in the English language. As she narrated to me, she has been speaking in the language since her childhood. The American culture is characterized by numerous aspects that shape the modern world. Among them include the emphasis on fine arts. Americans respect and appreciate works of art ranging from painting to sculpture. After the industrial revolution, many artists emerged and the art of painting and sculpture became part of the popular culture. The Americans admire works or arts and buy them to decorate their houses, their cars, and offices (Halliwell, 2007). This was also evident in my interaction with my friend since I realized that she has preserved works of art in her house and in the car. She also likes discussion paintings and other works of art in the museum galleries and other public exhibitions. The American culture recognizes painting that has been done in a wide range of styles. Particularly, works of art that depict the aspects of the natural world are greatly appreciated by Americans. Most of them keep works of art that emulate wildlife and the other natural ecosystems. The other important aspect of the American culture is its emphasis and association with architecture. The culture has a wide range of architectural designs that appear to have been shaped by numerous external forces both in the United States and the outside world. Some researchers have described the American architecture as eclectic because it features a multicultural society (Halliwell, 2007). The architectural aspect of the American culture is believed to have emanated from the influence of the Americans by Mexicans and people of the Peru origin. Since the United States is the world Super power, its architecture attempts to feature all parts of the world. This is the reason that some researchers have described the American culture as a mix of many cultures since elite individuals from across the world aim the US as the global capital. The American architecture focuses on the theme of modernity. Unlike other cultures in the world that base their architecture on conservative ideologies of the need to preserve the traditional cultural systems, the American culture develops architecture that moves with times and circumstances in history. For instance, buildings that were erected in the 18th century are architecturally different from those erected in the 21st century. Theater is another significant aspect of the American culture. Americans emphasize on the need for entertainment through theatrical works. The American culture has led to the development of the Pop style of life and Hollywood that have influenced the development of the theatrical aspects of the culture (Halliwell, 2007). Over the years, the American culture has had a theatrical style and perspective that moves with time. At the same time, some theatrical works were developed in the ancient times but remain of significant to the culture to date. Of worth to note is that my understanding of the American culture has particularly been facilitated by the campus friends program. The campus friends program has made me interact with people of diverse cultural and social background. It gave me a precious opportunity to make friends with a Native American, a factor that enabled me to learn about the American culture. The campus friends program has also proofed to be of importance because it has enabled me to develop a multi-cultural communication strategy that makes me a globalized individual. In the future workplace, I will have no choice of the employees and managers to work with. The program has opened my perception and understanding of other cultures that will keep me in the frontline as far as socialization and cultural interaction in the workplace is concerned. I appreciate the campus friends program as a significant step to make students culturally diverse. However, I would suggest that the program tries to increase the diversity of the multi-cultural interactions by assigning one student to at least three other students of a different culture. If this was implemented, I would have interacted with more than just the American culture. References Halliwell, M. (2007). American culture in the 1950s. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press. Novinger, T. (2001). Intercultural communication: A practical guide. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Piller, I. (2011). Intercultural communication: A critical introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Read More

 

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