Another Semester Ends

Yesterday, I took the final exam for SPEC 175, "Intercultural Communication." Only the computer-scored portion is graded so far, but if I somehow got a zero on all the teacher-scored (free response) questions, I would still pass the class with a 93%.

One of the course textbooks for Intercultural Communication says that there are four stages of intercultural competence.

1. Unconscious incompetence (blissful ignorance of cultural differences)
2. Conscious incompetence (troubling ignorance of how to communicate crossculturally)
3. Conscious competence (deliberate, careful, "walk-on-eggshells" consideration)
4. Unconscious competence (smooth, practiced, automatic integration of the other culture)

I would say that, before this course, I was at Stage 2, aware that there are differences between cultures but without any idea of how to navigate them or how they differ. I believe I am now entering Stage 3; I know many of the social dimensions on which cultures vary and I know how to navigate some of them.