Week 16 Question 3

In chapter 5 Diversity in Groups: The Strength of Different Perspectives, I feel the intercultural communication is not emphasis enough under the topic of language use. Language use is the first thing we notice about intercultural differences, however, language is not the only differences within intercultural context. There are things like use of time, space, general communication context aren’t discuss enough in this chapter. Sometimes different cultures can be people from different country or people with different religion. These are the factors are going to effect us greatly in an organization because we are interaction with people constantly. I feel like since it is a chapter about diversity, intercultural communication in the organizational world should be included and to be explain in depth. More importantly, United States is a multi-cultural country and it is hard to find an organization with only one dominant culture. To learn about intercultural communication is the first step for us to be intercultural competent.

Week 16 Question 2

For the outside group project, I feel it is useful to observe and apply the concepts we learn in the book. Sometimes when we read about these concepts we only have ideas, it is helpful to create a situation and apply these concepts to real life. I like this project because being an observer gives me a better focus on the group itself. I chose a teenager church group in Santa Clara and every meeting is about a topic in the Bible. The leader will teach these teenagers the topic of the day with his personal experience and throw in a lot anecdote. He has a very creative teaching style and care for his students as well. He is very close with the group and it is very obvious from their interaction. I feel the project is useful to me because not only being an observer gives me a chance to apply the things I learn in life also I feel I learn from the bible teaching as well.

Week 16 Question 1

CMC is any communication that “takes place through a variety of media and provides distributed group member with video, audio, and text-based messaging capabilities (Harris & Sherbolm 2008, p. 296). CMC doesn’t include human contact so basically it is less interpersonal. “CMC group members tend to focus more on the task and instrumental aspects of the process than on the personal and social aspects of the group. Thus they tend to be more content oriented and less social-emotional in their communication style than face-to-face groups are” (Harris & Sherbolm, 2008, p. 296). Since, some of the CMC doesn’t involve images of the personal u are communicating, sometimes it is less intimidating. It was undeniable that f2f communication contains more information than CMC communication such as nonverbal cues, facial expression, eye behaviors…etc. I feel like we still need that human aspect in the communication process, therefore, I would prefer to have a face-to-fact relationship before starting a CMC communication relationship.