Cross Cultural Reflection Essay

Up until now, I have had very little cross-cultural experience in the course of my life. Beginning with the fact that both of my parents are Dutch and the fact that I grew up here, made me a fully Dutch citizen, both in terms of origin and education. I am born and raised in a small village in the Netherlands, called Bodegraven. My parents have not provided me with a cross-cultural background as they both grew up on Dutch farms. However, they took me on holidays to several countries in Europe and to Canada and America once. While living in such a small village, not many cultures were presented to me. However, I had several classmates from other origins and especially during high school, I became close friends with a girl from Afghanistan. The

Now I know this may have a large impact on how people think and behave. If I would re-do that portfolio assignment, I would definitely focus on that aspect since that results in a more in-depth view. By reading through the course material and attending the lectures, I became more cultural relativistic as before I compared everything to my own culture. I have learned how to observe every culture on its own. Furthermore, I have acquired knowledge and gained emic, which importance besides etic constructs has been exposed to me (Helfrich 1999). As before the course, I would view cultures from a scientific point of view, I am determined to take the insights of native members of a culture into account in the future. I am specifically more interested in the way how people see and describe their own culture as to what the internet or books might describe.

Group processes in Living Diversity Team For the Living Diversity Assignment, my team members and I chose to study Mexico as we all thought and still think this is an interesting country with its own unique culture. My team was very diverse as Joël and I are both fully Dutch, Elena is Chinese but lived in France