1) Did you ever travel abroad or participate in a different culture’s day-to-day operations and feel like there was miscommunication or that you felt awkward because of the contrast—whether it be in a different country, different school, different county, your friend’s home, a sporting event, etc.? Please elaborate on your experience.

2) The book mentions La Forme De la Politesse in the example with Tom on page 115. Every culture has their own customs and traditions, as well as the way they communicate. Even though both men were being polite within their cultures, there was intercultural miscommunication. Do you think that there should be a universal code of how to communicate in order to minimize miscommunication or misperceived impoliteness? Do you think it would be an effective strategy? Why or why not?

3) The meaning of culture is defined, according to the textbook, as learned patterns of group-related perceptions, conceptual symbolic patterns of meaning, involving emotions, or heterogeneous, dynamic, and a site of contestation” (Martin & Nakayama, 2018, p. 116). Before coming into this class, did you have the perception that the definition of culture was specifically limited to ethnic groups or that they included all forms of groups of different interests whether it be a group that is interested in hip-hop music or even scrapbooking? “Please elaborate on your thoughts before and after the first few weeks of the semester.”