Posted: September 17th, 2017

Intercultural Communication: Cultural Ethnography Paper

Intercultural Communication: Cultural Ethnography Paper

Order Description

The purpose of this paper is for you to experience a culture of personal interest you have never experienced and to apply concepts and issues from the intercultural communication course to your experience.

This assignment is to encourage you to gain personal experience in the performance of a culture, to learn specific information about a culture of personal interest (not one you currently belong to), to gain personal experience in the performance of the culture, and to apply concepts and issues from your experience and class discussion to the intercultural situation. The outcome of this project is an ethnography (cultural description) that summarizes your experience with the culture chosen. Make sure that “communication” is a primary focus of your paper.

Instructions for the Final Project

Select a culture that you wish to experience with members of the culture. You should find a culture, different from your own with which you can spend a significant amount of time participating or observing. The culture doesn’t need to be a global culture. It just needs to be a group that fits the definition of culture we have used throughout class. For example, if you have not experienced “skater” culture, you could take time interacting with this group at a skate park or other place where you might find members of this culture and then report your findings.

Your personal experiences with the culture are the focus of this assignment. Experience is constituted by spending time in the given culture. Starting in the second week of the class, you should begin spending time in the culture. The expectation is that you will have multiple experiences, spending several hours in the culture. The more time you spend, the better the experience and paper will be.

Find a confederate. In other words, find someone with experience with the culture so they can helpyou contextualize and understand what you are experiencing in the culture. Using the example above, find someone who regularly skateboards to help you understand your cultural experiences.

As part of this paper, use the theories, concepts and approaches we have discussed in class to make sense of and describe your cultural experiences.Make sure communication is a focus of your paper.

The paper should be five to seven pages, double spaced, and typed. It should begin with an introduction that identifies the culture you have chosen and why you think it is important to study the given group. This introduction should be no more than 1 page in length. The rest of the document should contain a logically organized and detailed description of your experiences with the culture.

If you struggle trying to figure out a culture to study, I suggest that you interact with me for help in completing this project. Likewise, if you have any questions, please email me.

On a final note, I not only want you to learn a lot from this final project; I also want you to have fun. This is your opportunity to learn about communication and culture and to be creative in doing so. Go all out!