Chapter 5 Communication and Culture 127NAME: Vanessa Gonzalez
OCCUPATION: Marketing and Admissions DirectorIf you had asked me
who “I” am and what
groups I belong to at
the beginning of my
college career, I could have answered you with-
out a second thought: I’m Latina, I’m an Ameri-
can, I’m a first-generation college student, I’m
studious, and I love to travel. But my experiences
with intercultural communication—in college, and
now in my job—really shook up these categories
for me and taught me a great deal about commu-
nication with others.
My current job is with a college-preparatory
high school in the United States that sponsors
an International Academy. The position requires
a combination of marketing and intercultural
skills. I work to attract students from many differ-
ent countries to the Academy, which is, as one
might expect, culturally diverse. The on-campus
housing provides a secure living environment
for international students while giving them the
opportunity to interact with others from all over
the world. But not only international students
benefit from this experience. The school also
offers enriching classes and extracurricular activ-
ities for domestic students to help them to widen
their cultural experiences. One program pairs
international students with domestic students so
that international students can become oriented
to the school, and domestic students can learn
more about another culture.
One of the most exciting parts of my job is
the opportunity to travel internationally. Recently I
visited schools in South Korea, Vietnam, and Thai-
land, where I participated in recruiting fairs and
met with students and their families. As you might
guess, I encountered several cultural variations.
One that stood out to me was the different ways
that students interact with their parents. In South
Korea, students are expected to have a strong
sense of independence at a relatively young age
(compared to U.S. students). By their early teens,
students often have their own flat or a private area
of the family home. In this living situation, they are
expected to take responsibility for their studies
with little parental oversight. In Vietnam, on the
other hand, students are more closely watched
over by their parents, who are concerned with
guiding not only their academic success but also
their overall happiness. When meeting students
of both these cultures, I kept this information in
mind so that I knew whether to bring the parents
fully into the recruitment discussions or if I should
interact more directly with the student.
Other international experiences have shown
me how to navigate cultural variations that I may
not expect. For example, while studying abroad
in India in college, I found myself at a hotel where
the hot water for the showers wasn’t working.
When I called down to the front desk, the hotel
manager assured me that he would address the
issue. Still, several trips down to the front desk
later, the water remained cold! It finally dawned
on me that his quiet gestures indicating “yes”
actually meant “no”: “No, there will not be any
hot water today.” It was up to me—the listener—
to decode all of the contextual cues that pointed
to this response, despite my own upbringing in
a low-context culture (where the manager would
likely have said: “Our hot water heater is broken
but will be fixed by 6 A.M. tomorrow”).
At the International Academy, I similarly need
to be sensitive and help students from high- and
low-context cultures adapt (especially high-
context cultural students, who are not always
used to responding to blunt questions). Our
teachers also need to adapt their methods to be
sure their students understand them. It’s incred-
ible to watch such a diverse group grow comfort-
able with their surrounding and with their fellow
students, picking up new ways to communicate
and learn.real communicator