Cross-cultural Experience

Cross-cultural Experience Peace Corps Volunteers must be open to ideas and cultures different from their own and may need to modify their appearance or behavior appropriately. Give an example (between 250-500 words) of a significant experience that illustrates your ability to adapt in an unfamiliar environment. Please highlight the skills you used and the perspectives you gained. You may draw from experiences in your work, school, or community in the U.S. or abroad. Please list the date(s) of your experience. Whether it is in a dark alley, a new school or a foreign country, being in unfamiliar surroundings can be debilitating if you do not have the correct tools to help you. When faced with an unfamiliar surrounding I execute three steps: observe, accept and respond. First, I observe my surroundings as if I am watching a scene in a movie—people, furniture, language, dress-code, and even emergency exits. Then, I accept the inputs collectively as if putting together pieces of a puzzle. Last, I respond to my surrounding in an appropriate manner. This approach has helped me in numerous situations. I had an opportunity to put this process into practice during my study abroad for the spring semester in Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham UK in 1997. The British have a reputation as cold and aloof people. I found this furthest from the truth. Admittedly, some of my classmates from the United States did not share my view that the British are warm and caring individuals. However, my classmates did not adopt my strategy of observe, accept, and respond. When I first arrived at school, I looked, acted and dressed differently from my British classmates. I was immediately singled out as the American or the "Yank." Observing that none of them wore running shoes, or trainers as they called them, outside of gym class was at the top of my list. It was customary for me to wear my running shoes everywhere here at home. Second, I accepted that my accent was going to be different from theirs. Last, I responded to a few of the most obvious ways in which I was outwardly American by buying a pair of black shoes. Also, I adopted a bit of British vernacular into my vocabulary. As a result, I learned that as I changed a few things that were inconsequential to me as a person, my British classmates were more willing to accept me as a person. In the end, none of those things changed who I was, but my British friends could see that I was accepting their ways instead of remaining stuck in my old habits as, I suppose, some of the other American students had.