For the most part, Tuesday classes will be lectures and discussions based on text material while Thursday classes will focus on exercises and cases that incorporate the previously covered material. Each of these papers will be due on the student s assigned dates. As part of the assignment students will be required to present their cultural sightings to the class. Most people in talking about cross-cultural experiences with others will blend description, interpretation and evaluation. Learning to distinguish among these three types of reactions is most helpful in learning to be nonjudgmental or draw wrong conclusions about cultures different from one s own.
Interpretation has to do with what one thinks about what one sees.
Interpretations are most often based on one s own perceptions, assumptions and values. Those perceptions, assumptions and values are in turn based in part on one s own cultural background. Evaluation has to do with what one feels about what one sees. First, evaluations make apparent one s own standards of behavior standards that are based in part on one s own culture and may be inappropriate in another culture. Second, evaluations give insight into how another culture may evaluate the same behavior.