Our Last Days? We'll be in Frankfurt!

~written by Nick Bowman

Erfurt, Thueringia, Deutschland -- Looking ahead to our return trip home to the US (I know ... I know ... I don't want to think about it either ... *sob*), we're going to try something a bit different this year. Given that many students never really get the chance to see Frankfurt, and given that our flights home on Tuesday August 9 are sort of all over the place, we've decided as a group to spend our last night in Germany (Monday, August 8) in one of the coolest areas of Frankfurt: Kaiserstrasse.

The entire WVU SPICE group is booked at the Mercure Hotel Kaiserhof Frankfurt City Center for a final night of Germany. The hotel is incredibly easy to access from the train station, as you can see on the map below:



I'll be staying at the same hotel, but I'll have a larger, private room. I promise, it's not to laud my extravagance over you but rather, European hotel rooms can be rather small and you're all going to have your bags to carry around; thus, if you need to stash an extra bag in my room then you're welcome to do so.

As for our plans for Frankfurt, I would like to get everyone checked into the hotel by 15:00 (3pm) on Monday, August 8. For this reason, if you're coming from Erfurt than I would suggest taking ICE1650, which also happens to be an incredibly inexpensive ICE for those who will need to purchase a ticket:

Once we're checked in, I'm more than happy to lead the group on a short walk to Altstadt Frankfurt, to sample some of the local "apfelwein" and possibly even try the infamous "Eisbock 24%" - there is plenty to to and see in the area, including a museum of comic book history. =)

For the next day, all students will be responsible for getting back to Frankfurt Flughafen (the airport) in time for their flights. My suggestion would be for us to check out of the hotel by 9am on Tuesday (August 9) and we can go as a group back to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and then, on to the airport. Expect to pay between 13 euro for a transfer ticket back to the airport via the ICE, but I'll do some investigating and see if we can get the price down (i.e, by using a group ticket or something similar). There are regional trains that are cheaper, but you might not want to lug all of your bags on them! It's only a 15-minute journey back to the airport, but this will give everyone time to get settled in, get through security and otherwise do some final shopping at the airport - also, given security tensions and any potentials with international flight changes or delays, it's always suggested that we get to airport as early as possible.

We can talk more on specific plans later on, but for now ... it looks like we've got a group date in Frankfurt! 

Guest Post: Buchenwald Concentration Camp

~ written by Emily Lamb

Weimar, Germany -- Weimar is a small city made up of 60,000 people which is located in-between Erfurt and Jena, Germany. It takes roughly fifteen minutes by train to get from Erfurt to Weimar. Once you get to the Weimar train station there is a bus stop directly outside the front doors where you can catch bus number 9 and endure a short twenty-minute ride through the middle of nowhere until you wind up at the very last stop, the Buchenwald concentration camp.

It was difficult to comprehend that only eight kilometers away from Weimar’s peaceful city center was a concentration camp where an estimated 56,545 people were murdered. There are just over 60,000 people living in Weimar today, that is just barely over the number of 56,545 deaths accumulated at the concentration camp located within that same city.

A small zoo was constructed so that the families of the SS officers were able to happily play with the animals, meanwhile a few feet away stood the barbed wired fence holding the camp prisoners.

I have been learning about World War II since I was young. I have watched all the documentaries, I have read all the textbooks, and I have seen all the photos. I was always very aware of the terrible events which took place during that time, so I was quite surprised by how different it felt to actually be standing where the documentaries had been taped, where the textbooks had been written about, and where the photos had come from.

A flower left in the barbed wire fence in honor of the prisoners who were once held at Buchenwald.

“It’s a lot bigger than I imagined.” I heard my friend’s voices say, perfectly aligning with my thoughts when we first entered the camp. I always knew these prison camps housed more than just individuals of the Jewish religion but it didn’t really sink in until I saw a photo of all the different patches that the different “criminals” had to wear. If you wore a red triangle you were imprisoned for political reasons, green meant you were a criminal, black meaning you were asocial, purple you were Catholic clergy, pink you were homosexual, yellow was Jewish, and violet meant you were Jehovah Witness.

Rudolf Barzada is thought to be the last known pink badge concentration camp survivor.
He was held at Buchenwald camp and he survived thanks to the help of two SS guards,
one of which who was more than likely gay himself and infatuated with Rudolf.

On April 16th, 1945 one thousand citizens of Weimar city were ordered by the liberating American commander to tour the Buchenwald camp, where the evidence of the mass murders and tortures were still painfully evident.

The above is a drawing which was completed by a Buchenwald 

camp prisoner, the title is “We did not know that!”

Guest Post: Face Negotiation Theory

~written by Eva Radcliffe

The following post was written by SPICE student Eva Radcliffe, as part of her German Culture and Communication course. In this course, students are asked to keep a diary of their experiences in Germany. Faculty members Dr. Nick Bowman and Dr. Jaime Banks select a few passages of these dairies (with the student's permission) and share those here. 

The Face Negotiation Theory was created by Stella Ting-Toomey and is explained as the way different people respond to conflict and how others view their actions. The “face” part of the theory refers to being humiliated or embarrassed. There are three different parts of the Face Negotiation Theory: self-face concern, other-face concern, and mutual-face concern. Self-face concern is to be protective about your own image when your face is threatened. Other-face concern is to be accommodating to the other party so they don’t get embarrassed or lose face. Finally mutual-face concern is when both parties accommodate each other so they both save face.

One experience I can think of is when I went to the Norma grocery store the other day. I went through the aisles picking up what I needed for the next few days. It was only after I had all of my items rung up I realized that the grocery store only accepted cash, and I only had brought along my credit card. The woman who rung me up spoke very little English so we had to communicate mostly through hand motions and facial expressions. At the end of the day, she did not have any other-face concern for me having my card declined and to make matters worse forced me to put all of my groceries back where I found them.

In this interaction I think there was a lack of other-face concern from the woman working at Norma’s because she did not try to accommodate me when she realized that I spoke no German, and she did not care that I was embarrassed to have to walk around the grocery store putting back my cart full of items. I also think there was self-face concern in this interaction because even though I was upset, embarrassed, and a little annoyed (even though it was my fault I didn’t bring Euros) I didn’t want to be an American stereotype by acting privileged or throwing a temper-tantrum when something didn’t go exactly how I wanted it to.

Intercultural Adaptation Theory

A simplified model of Intercultural Adaptation, which shows the inverse parabolic arc (i.e., the "U-shaped" curve) that we often go through when adjusting to new cultures. Cai & Rodriguez (1996) give an overview of the communication role in this process across nine propositions.

As we've now been leben in Deutschland fur sieben Wochen, we should start thinking reflectively as to how we are adapting to our new surroundings. No doubt each of us is experiencing some different level of German culture as we continue to try new foods, speak new languages, and adapt to new customs. Perhaps the easiest part of international trtavel is recognizing that you are quickly in a culture not your own - it's usually a pretty exciting experience in the beginning (the "Honeymoon Stage") until the glitz and glamour wear off and you find yourself outside the comfort zone - for me, it was (of all things) drinking seltzer water (wasser mit gas) when I was expecting table water (still-wasser). This is an incredibly small thing to "shock" over, but even these small events have you questioning future interactions - trepidation over a drink order leads to scruntiny of a foreign food menus and drives many tourists to the local McDonald's over their local Gasthaus, as they experience a "Culture Shock" and look to regain control of their environment.

Two new ways that we might take a communication science (communiciology?) approach to this would be a focus on "intercultural adaptation" and "intercultural competence." The former focuses on Let's break them down seperately, and then I'll ask you guys to put them together in your weekly post.

Intercultural Adaptation

The following blog offers recommendations on how to
overcome these awkward new moments; I would not
recommend any of their suggestions.

When thinking of intercultural adaptation, Cai & Rodriguez (1996) talk about how communication patterns might aid or hinder persons understanding their "new" cultural environment. Defined as "as the process through which persons in cross-cultural interactions change their communicative behavior to facilitate understanding" (pp. 34, which seems to have a lot of elements in common with Communication Accomodation Theory, yes?).

IA looks at how we might try to continually alter our communication patterns to reduce misunderstandings - a common example of this is using exaggerated hand gestures when trying to convey meaning to someone who speaks a different language. Why would this play into culture? The notion here is that cross-cultural encounters are the result of individuals from different backgrounds relying on their social norms in an encounter. Example: In the US it is acceptable to hug an old friend whereas in many parts of Europe you may see friends kissing each on both cheeks. In the US, a kiss might be construed as having much more intimacy or meaning, which can lead to a rather awkward pause and silence.

Of course, with experience we hope to get better at avoiding these misunderstandings - the same "American" from above migth travel abroad in the future armed with this slight cultural knowledge and be better-prepared when old friends kiss him or her on the cheek. because their past experiences were rather positive (a kiss on the cheek represents a friendship, and this is a good thing). At the same time, not all experiences are positive and we can reinforce negative as well as positive interactions. Indeed, a common stereotype among US travelers can be how poorly they are treated when visiting France - often a result of miscommuniations from a lack of language skills and Francophile culture. Said negative interactions with one cultural group can drive individuals away from future intercultural interactions or at least, cause them to be more guarded when meeting "foreigners" in the future.

What does this mean for intercultural communication? It suggests that many cultural interactions can be understood in terms of how we communicate ourselves. Moreover, it suggests that much of our communicative behaviors are best understood as a function of the culture from which we stem - understanding communication is understanding culture, and vice versa.

Intercultural Competence

Another way of thinking about how we are "working" interculturally is to focus on our competence, defined by Fantini (2005) as "the complex of abilities needed to perform effectively and appropriately
when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from oneself." An interesting distinction here is found between "effective" (how well we think we are doing) compared to "appropriate" (how well our hosts think we are doing). It is likely no secret that these perceptions can differ widely from each other, yet the better we are at detecting how our hosts are responding to our communication is the better we are at adapting ourselves to our new culture. Example: You might speak slowly and wave your arms while yelling at a barista to prepare you a michekaffe (which you're probably still calling a coffee with milk, if you're taking this approach) and you'll likely get your coffee (effective communication) - yet this behavior is hardly going to endear you to your hosts (inappropriate communication). Thus, to truly be interculturally competent we much struggle to balance out effectiveness with appropriateness, which is not so easy of a task.

Your assignment? For this week, I'd like you to make an honest reflection as to where you feel that you're fitting on both of these dimensions. Have you started to adapt to your surroundings? In the figure posted here, which "number" do you think you'd be? How would you honestly assess your own intercultural competence? Give me 300 to 400 words on this, and use the theory language. This post will serve as the basis for the end-portion of your final project, go give it a good effort!

Read more:

• Cai, D. A., & Rodriguez, J. I. (1996). Adjusting to Cultural Differences: The Intercultural Adaptation Model. Intercultural Communication Studies, 1(2).
• Fantini, A. E. (2005). About Intercultural Communicative Competence:  A Construct. Brattleboro, VT: School for International Training.

Schedule Change: Monday's course (18 July)

~written by Nick Bowman

Erfurt, Thueringia, Germany -- We're back from Berlin now, preparing for the second-half of the #SPICE16 program, back here in Erfurt. This means of course that we're getting back into the flow of the second-half courses, but it also means that we'll need to get back into our blogs and writings for the International Culture and Communication course.

As we move forward, a few updates and reminders for this class:

• First, a slight schedule change. Due to an inconvenient train schedule, I have to leave Erfurt at 08:00 on Monday, July 18. For this reason, I'm asking that students instead meet for our regularly-scheduled class sessions on the evening of Sunday, July 17. I had hoped to take everyone to Cafe Altstadtneie Noah, but they are "geschlossen" on Sundays (we'll go another day, this I promise). However, instead we'll meet up for dinner at 18:00 (6pm) on Sunday at the Engelsberg Steinhaus - a map to the location is included below, and a menu for those interested.
  

• At this Sunday meeting, we'll (a) disburse weekly meal funds, (b) talk about your progress on the Berlin Reflections blog  assignment (due July 18), and (c) talk about Cultural Convergence Theory (the post due on July 25). I don't expect us to take more than 90 minutes, total. 
• As a reminder, you'll need to have a minimum of two of your travel and culture blogs written by the end of July (similar to what you did in June). 

We'll go over all of this on Sunday - so, I'll see you there! =) 

Cultural Convergence Theory

~written by Nick Bowman

Comparing the salad bowl to the melting pot metaphor of US 

culture, one distinguishes the uniqueness of each culture

more evidently in the left image than the right. 

The term convergence is defined by Kincaid (2009) as "movement toward one point, toward another communicator, toward a common interest, and toward greater uniformity, never quite reaching that point." This last point - never quite reaching that point - is what distinguishes convergence from a singularity. As a popular corollary to US culture, you might consider convergence to be more like the salad bowl metaphor (separate parts, all in an US culture) as compared to the melting pot metaphor (separate peoples all blended together as one US culture).

Why converge at all? Converging to one point helps us create mutual understanding of who were are as a nation and a people - making sense of our borders as less geo-political and more socio-emotional. Kincaid's convergence model was initially meant to address shortcomings of transmission-based models of communication, but we can expand it to look at cultural convergence (a topic address thoroughly by MIT scientist Henry Jenkins, specifically in reference to new media). From the reading, we see two tenants of CCT at the aggregate (re: cultural) level:

Theorem 1: In a relatively closed social system in which communication among members isunrestricted, the system as a whole will tend to converge over time toward a state of greater cultural uniformity.

Theorem 2: In a relatively closed social system in which communication among members is restricted, the system as a whole will tend to diverge over time toward a state of greater cultural diversity.

So, when you think about communication so far - in particular, your interactions in Erfurt compared to other cities that we've visited(or that you've visited on your own) while in Europe? How might you define the cultural diversity of each location? Can you look at the cultural 'openness' and 'closedness' of each system and explain your thoughts about the diversity in each system (or lack thereof)? I'll look forward to your thoughts on this one. 

Kincaid, D. L. (2009). Convergence Theory. Encyclopedia of Communication Theory. (pp. 189-192). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

SPICE in Berlin!

~written by Nick Bowman

Erfurt, Thueringia, Germany -- This week, we're heading out to Berlin - courtesy of our hosts at the University of Erfurt and most notably, SPICE organizer Afifa Al-Bayed (be sure to thank her for organizing the trip, the next time that you see her). The trip itinerary is embedded below: 

As we're in Berlin this week, we won't have a communication culture or theory post, and likewise, we won't have an official class meting (don't worry, you'll still receive your meal monies!). However, there is an assignment for this week's Berlin trip, and it's detailed below (also posted in the course syllabus):

• Berlin reflections (30 points). As part of SPICE ’16, we will take a week-long excursion to Berlin – this year, from Monday July 11 to Thursday July 14. Students will be asked to complete a number of tasks in their journal reflections, see below (the total post should be between 600-800 words in length). This assignment is due by Monday, 18 July.
• Compare and contrast the communication styles of eastern and western Germany, using a framework similar to what will be provided for the “Interpersonal interactions” assignment. This divide might be a noticed by comparing Erfurt to Berlin as well as eastern and western Berlin (as well as a combination of these two comparisons).
• Understand the international significance of Berlin, and how this has influenced the people living in the city and the culture of Berlin as unique from that of greater Germany.
• Reflect on the increased diversity of Berlin from a historical and contemporary standpoint, and discussion how this diversity is similar to and different from representative areas in the United States. 

Note that this post does not count towards your travel and culture posts - it is a separate assignment, and a rather large one (30% of your course grade). Let me know if you have questions, but as you engage the SPICE tours this week as well as your own Berlin experience, take some mental notes as to how this "small city on the swamp" compares to Erfurt. I'm eager to read what you come up with, and we'll talk about it next week. =)