The Presentation Experience

  

Intercultural Communication

     It was the start of the Fall 2022 college term, it had only been the second week of classes, we were assigned a group presentation in my speech class already. Our presentation was assigned to chapters 3, 9, and 10, and there were three groups. My group was group 1, we received chapter 3 as our presentation, the group was composed of twelve people, including me. I met my new classmates and we hit it off as we all collaborated well and we each were able to do our parts and assist one another whenever we were stuck on something. The chapter we were assigned was about intercultural communication, we decided to separate the subtopics and the main topics of each page to present the chapter. We each chose the topics we were interested in and did outside research on our chosen topics to further expand our knowledge about the subject and to be able to present it professionally. Since this was a speech class, we thoroughly searched information about our topics and how they would relate to effective communication to enhance our understanding of our topics. The topics I had chosen were: Femininity & Masculinity, Short term vs Long term orientation, and Indulgence vs Restraint. 

Masculinity vs Femininity

As it was my very first exposure in a course about communication, I became nervous about the project as I had no prior or background information about this class or the subject itself. I did my best in thoroughly researching about my three new topics. One of the first things I learned in this project is how significant it is to know about cultures, especially about cultures of who you are communicating with. Without knowing the background of your intended audience, it is so simple to accidentally offend somebody even if you had no malicious intentions. Knowing culture is essential when you are communicating a specific message, your ideas could be controversial to other countries and especially if you are hiring a potential client that can be beneficial to your business. You need to know how to approach people too, this is where my topics fall in. I learned that highly-masculine cultures and highly-feminine cultures are complete opposites and you need to beware of how to approach a person from either culture. For example, in highly-masculine cultures, men tend to be very assertive and are mainly concerned about financial welfare and less concerned about personal sentiment. Women from these cultures are very different, they tend to be more gentle and more concerned about service-related tasks that concern the family.  In highly feminine cultures, it was much different, both men and women performed service related tasks that also concerned their families and their welfare. Both sexes learned the same things and both could be assertive and ambitious people. You could approach both men and women the same way, rather you should, otherwise it would seem offensive and rude as you would be treating women inferior to men. 

Short vs Long term orientation

Furthermore, long-term orientation and short-term orientation were very significant to each kind of culture. A culture's orientation lets you know how they run their businesses and how they negotiate, disrespecting their orientations could lead to losing a potential client or business partner. Long-term oriented cultures tend to set their leisure time as a low priority as they work during their leisure time. For example, if they go out to dinner as a past time activity, it is likely that they are going out with a business partner to negotiate over dinner. Refusing to do so could be viewed as disrespectful in their eyes, however, short-term orientation is a polar opposite to long-term orientation. Short-term oriented cultures highly value their leisure time and is their main priority, they are unlikely to discuss work while on an outing. They might see discussing work during an outing as disrespectful in their perspective, it would be best to negotiate with them during work hours. Finally, my last topic is indulgence vs restraint. Indulgence and restraint are similar to long-term and short-orientation as they both have to deal with leisure time and its priority. Indulgent cultures prioritize leisure time, happiness, and well-being, in these cultures, people are allowed more freedom and enjoy their lives more than a restrained culture. In restraint cultures, leisure time is not a priority, they are not allowed freedom of speech and they are usually forced into gender roles. 

                

  Finally, it was time to present, the day before I had organized somewhat of an essay as my notes for my part of the presentation. To be quite honest, I did not sleep well that night as I get very anxious about presentations because I am afraid of forgetting things and staying stuck. I also had to be on campus that day, the people around me made me more anxious. Luckily, most people left and I had some time to revise my notes. I felt uneasy, I felt the suspense as the presentation got closer and closer to my part. I had my notes near me for reference, still, I was anxiously waiting on my part and still afraid of doing it wrong. Eventually, it got to my part and I took a deep breath before starting. Unfortunately, my computer camera was not working, it worsened my anxiousness at the moment. I told myself, "the show must go on", so I went ahead without my camera and I glanced at my notes and I felt a slight surge in my confidence. I was able to explain and present my parts thoroughly, though I struggled because I was stuttering, I was able to get my points across, I took pride in that. All was well until it came to my last point, there was a video attached to it to end off the presentation. The videos did not seem to work on any of my group's slides, I had to rush off the end as I thought the video would work and explain it thoroughly and I could rest easy. 

My thoughts on the other groups

 Now, it was time for groups two and three to present. I was feeling relieved of having present my group's project first, I do not have to worry about it again for a while. As I was watching group 2 present, I noticed how well the group leader, Kevin, was doing, although on the day of his group's presentation there were technical difficulties, they kept going no matter what. They ended their presentation very well and I loved their references they put on their slides, it made it easier to understand what their assigned chapter was about. They also kept their parts short and simple but elaborated as much as they could. Every member of group two seemed well informed on their parts, I believe the presentation flowed very smoothly despite their initial interruptions. About group 3, they did astonishing as well, the points they had made were short, nevertheless, they backed it up with plenty of information from their own research. It demonstrated that they knew what they were talking about. I noticed that the images they used connected very well with their points, they helped me visualize what they were speaking of. Every one spoke clearly and professionally which made their teamwork very obvious. Overall both groups did amazingly well, I would give both groups the highest points available.