First Presentation Experience (Fabienne Cadet )

Whenever someone hears the term “group work”, immediately there are feelings, emotions, and thoughts that bubble up. Personally, working with others is not one of my strong suits and I try to stay away from that as much as I can. Working on your own feels easier. It can be efficient, you can work on the project in your own time, and you can control the whole process. Letting go of control is what I struggle with.

 However, at times it’s inevitable and regardless of personal feelings you have to do the work. To me working in a group enables you to examine topics from the perspectives of others. When you are required to discuss a topic and negotiate how to address it, you are forced to listen to other people’s ideas. Their ideas will then influence your own thinking and broaden your horizons.

Being social significantly enhances learning. Not only do you have to hear others' perspectives, but you also have to compare, contrast and integrate their perspectives into your own thinking. Perhaps someone else's perspective will change your mind or show weaknesses in your own ideas.  Thats why Intercultural communication is vital in today’s environment because more and more diversity and inclusion lead to better projects. We live in this increasingly globalized age where we frequently interact with people from different cultures. Hence, intercultural communication is quite inevitable.

Communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds is necessary for business, learning, and the community. Globalization has somehow made the world seem smaller, as people from all corners of the world come together due to some common motivations. 

The first assignment of the semester was group presentations based on chapters. The class was divided within three groups and each group had a chapter. My group was 1 and we had to present chapter 3 which had to deal with intercultural communication. Intercultural communication refers to the effective communication between people, workers and people of different cultural backgrounds. To communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems re distinct enough to alter the communication event. An academic field of study which seeks to understand how people from different countries and culture behave and communicate and perceive the world around them.  We began by the project my splitting up the chapter and giving everyone an individual section to work on. My group members exceeded my expectations for this project. Everyone was involved and working on their sections. We finished the project ahead of time and in great spirit. Getting to meet these new people and exploring their mind was an experience I wasn’t quite ready for but fully enjoyed. We were first to present and as nervous as we were we excelled and presented beautifully.  In my portion of the presentation I defined Dominant culture, Co culture and cultural identity as a whole and explained how it related to intercultural communication. Dominant culture is a culture within society whose attitudes, values, beliefs, and customs reflect the majority lifestyle. While 

1. Co-cultures are groups of people living within a dominant culture who are clearly different from the dominant culture. two examples of that would be race and ethnicity which we will get into later in the presentation. 

2. Cultural identity is the sense of self that people form based on the cultural groups with whom they most closely align themselves

The second group presented chapter 9 which dealt with communicating in groups. A group is a collection of more than two people who share some kind of relationship, communicate in an interdependent fashion and collaborate toward some share purpose. In this life we define ourselves by the group we’re in and have a tendency towards favoring the people they are in “ingroup” and comparing ourselves to our “outgroup” members. As group sizes increases problems sometimes arises and cliques are forms within that group and small sub-groups are than formed. There are many challenges that occur in groups, and it is a good communicator that can handle difficult situations well. Groups as a whole make it easier for us to complete a wide variety of tasks; help us establish meaningful social bonds; and help us create, maintain, and change our sense of self. They presented with poise and sophistication. The amount of preparation they must have had for the presentation was evident. They came in and did their best as a whole and individually. 

The third group presented chapter 10 which talked about group leadership and problem solving. The goal of the presentation was for everyone to understand the dynamics of group problem-solving. They examined the steps in problem-solving, leader and member roles, and communication of solutions. Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. When we think of leadership, we usually think of a person who is in charge? However now we understand leadership as a set of communication functions performed by any group member at various times based on each one’s unique strength. When groups need to get a job done it’s mandatory to have a method in place for making decisions. The decision-making process is a norm that may be decided by a group leader or by the group members as a whole. 

Working in groups and teams has many advantages to learning. An essential part of group work is time. Sometimes you are on a tight schedule while in other times you’re not. Working collectively as a whole will save the group many frustrations and time. With this group project i know a lot of us had to factor in obstacles like meeting times when taking into account people’s busy lives of work, school, family, and other personal commitments. But we overcame those obstacles. 

 As might be expected from this assignment the sole purpose of this class is presumed to be effective communication. Throughout the process of working with a group, it is important that you and your group members communicate with each other clearly. If you have a problem, discuss it. Let members know. Establishing rules and expectations for our group is what I believe that kept us strong.

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