Ragnar Schuett

16 Mar 04

COM 400-Intercultural Communications

Looking around the crowd as sit down. A few people are sitting at the same table. Conversations start up and wane after a bit. Body language shifts here and there show the level of interest in any one topic. Some people are engaging, others aloof...others just sit there saying nothing, watching conversation go back and forth.

I had to pay attention to who I was talking at all times. I tried to note the region as it would help create a certain amount of compatibility so that, as Wood mentions, it smoothed the process of starting communication. Different regions, even if they had been removed from them for generations, still expressed themselves through these people. Adapting to, or at least trying to, the situation was nessesary in order to minimize the feeling of discomfort for the people I dealt with. Some of them weren�t used to dealing with actual Germans or even bi-cultural German-Americans. With me adapting to their needs, it eased some of their security issues.

Being bi-cultural myself, I found it hard sometimes to relate to a third or fourth generation German who�s family had just dropped everything. Their German, if they could speak, more times than not was laced with an American accent which slowly grated on my nerves. It became a matter of face at times to maintain cordial conversation when all I really wanted to do was correct every word and every sentence. There was some stress relief due to us having similiar cultural value orientations (Kluckhorn and Strodtbeck, 1961). This was due to similiar upbringing and influenced how we dealt with each other as strangers. Although, conflict or stress due to our differences wasn�t seen as bad.

When I dealt with people that were bi-cultural, like myself, that aggravation and stress lifted 125%, life was good and conversation flowed. Likewise with many of the immigrants or older people that I dealt with. There were no real security issues as I was in my own area. Baxter and Montgomery�s mention of Identity Autonomy comes into play here as there was a definate balance of the feelings of �me-we� relationship. There was an understanding, particularly with other bi-cultural individuals, of the conflicts that we face.

�Man, that ain�t gonna ride,� was a comment that I heard down in the Edelweiss Club. Quite a number of the youth couldn�t understand or speak a lick of German. To be honest I kinda got burned out on dealing with them. My direct manner of communication at times offended them. And I was getting offended by them calling themselves German when it came out so many times that they had no concept of what being German was...much less ethnic German . I heard complaints from some of the older folks there that the youth didn�t have any work ethic what so ever. At the same time they really couldn�t answer why they didn�t ever teach them about anything German, culture, language or otherwise.

All sorts of issues came up dealing with identity and communication style. Our direct, person-oriented style of communication didn�t seem to go well with the younger German-Americans. There seemed to be a shift in how they prefer to communicate while they still retain their individualistic type of life. The mixture of forms were a bit difficult to adapt to at times. Several of the younger German-Americans seemed to have issues with aspects of culture being practiced. It may just have been how they were raised but they were definately outside of the community to a certain degree.

I enjoyed the experience as a whole. It was eye opening for me and a cause for concern as well for the youth in the German-American subculture. The future of this subculture is dependant on the communication of the parents, elders and inner community with the youth. Making sure that cultural transmission goes across smoothly becomes imperative in order to insure its viability for future generations. It should be interesting how things work out for this subculture.

The conversation slowly dies. Lights dim. �Sch�n Abend�, one man says as I begin to leave. �Ja, gleichwei�...Tch�ߔ, is my reply. I slowly walk into the darkness. Fade to black. This project was interesting and problematic in regards to communication styles and variations of cultural values and traits. The most interesting was just dealing with so many very different people...and all within the same subculture.