Cultural Entry Model - H.

Jones MSOD 619

Revised Cultural Entry Model

“It is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the
stories of that place and that person. The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of
dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are
different rather than how we are similar.” - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

My presenting story of China is most often one of a people that are inconsiderate,
aggressive, and individualistic. The woman who steps on the bus and puts her hands on my side,
physically pushing me farther in, yelling at me in Chinese. The two men arguing over who
touched the pear first at the farmers market. The hundreds of men and women moving through
the city with their bags of groceries bulging, heads down, never looking up to apologize for
whamming you with their goods. Getting pushed from behind by the woman who wants to see
the same shelf at the grocery store. The yelling, the constant yelling.

This story has been shaped mainly by my experiences in urban San Francisco, but outside
of San Francisco, it has been admittedly more of the same. Standing on the edge of an
astounding canyon waterfall in Iceland, alone in nature, when a bus of Chinese tourists shows up
and pollutes the whole scene with yelling, and incessant photo snapping. Walking through an
almost silent Austrian town, when a hundred Chinese woman descend on the scene, glued to
their phones, obsessively posing. Studying in the Berkeley library when a tour group of Chinese
parade through the room, and someone leans close to my note taking to snap a picture, as if I
were in a zoo.

All of these experiences have served to create a very strong stereotype in my mind not of
China as a country, but of Chinese people. It is the group of people I have a the strongest
reaction to, one of frustration and distaste. The behaviors I have experienced of Chinese at home
and around the world, trigger my personal value of respecting others by respecting shared spaces
and communities. There is something about being crowded into a bus by a woman who acts like
you are not even a human, just something in her way, that really, really triggers me.

Because of that trigger, my story of China is pushy and loud. Its inconsiderate, and
oblivious, self-absorbed and offensive. I have focused on those elements of my experiences with
Chinese people, both because they stand out to me, and because I have not had enough variation
in my experience to present a different story. I know that China is beautiful, and diverse as a
country both physically and culturally. I understand their immense value to the global economy,
and the extraordinary things they have done as a people in the last 20 years. I know all of this,
but at the end of the day, the story I hear the loudest is the one I have had reinforced through my
past experiences. I hope that my travel to China this year will begin to erode that story, and that
through our work and my travels after the practicum, I can begin to learn more deeply, the other
stories China has to offer.

After our experience in France I created my first draft of this model. Returning to it after
Costa Rica, I realized that it lacked key thinking how I evaluated the perspectives and
assumptions I was brining to the situation. Given the reflection I shared above on my presenting
view of China, I also now see that my past versions of this model did not include thinking about
what to do when things go wrong, or I am triggered by a cultural experience. Both of those
 Cultural Entry Model - H.Jones MSOD 619
modifications are included in this updated version of my cultural entry model. I have also revised

Preparation Participation Post-Reflection

What do I need to What strengths can I What did I learn

know? leverage? about the culture?

What What happens when What did I learn

assumptions/expectat things go wrong? about myself?
ions do I have?
How do I integrate
Where can I find the this experience?
information I need?

Specific Cultural Context

the writing, framing everything as a question to make the model more of a usable tool for myself.
Preparation
• What do I need to know?
Participation • Cultural Basics - What are essential cultural dynamics I should be
aware of? Are there important customs I should know?
What strengths can I • Relevant History - What is currently occurring, or has occurred in
leverage? the past (economically, politically, religiously, socially, etc.) that is
relevant to my work/travel?
What behaviors should I focus • Language Basics - What are the key words or phrases I can learn to
on? better facilitate relationship building during my time in the culture?
• My Own Environment - Where will I be physically? What will my
What role will I assume? schedule be like? What preparation is necessary to ensure that I am
able to meet my own self-care needs?
• Planning - Do I have a plan for the experience? Do I understand the different
possibilities? Do I understand the logistics of the trip?

• What assumptions/expectations do I have

• My Views - What experiences have I had with this culture previously? Do I have a
view or belief about this culture already?
• My Expectations - What am I looking forward to about entering this culture? What
am I apprehensive about?
• What Shapes Me - What past experiences may be brought to mind as I enter this
culture? How might those influence the way I interact with this culture?

• Where can I find the information I need?

Cultural Entry Model - H.Jones MSOD 619

• Contacts/Hosts - Who will be hosting me during my trip? How can/should I contact

them beforehand? What do I need to ask them about my accommodations and
schedule?
• Government/Business Resources - Based on the work I am doing, what are the most
relevant resources to learn about cultural and business practices that will be
important?
• Tourist/Cultural Resources - Based on where I am going, what are the most relevant
resources to learn about the experience of bringing a foreigner in this culture and
what I can expect when traveling?

Participation
• What strengths can I leverage?
• Adaptability - How am I adapting to meet my own needs in this new environment? Is
there anything unexpected that I need to attend to?
• Observation and Awareness - What am I observing as the experience is unfolding?
What dynamics, patterns, trends, have I become aware of thus far?
• High CQ Drive - Am I getting what I want out of this experience? Are there areas I
could lean into or direct more in order to improve the experience and my learning?
• Confidence - Am I moving through this experience confidently? If not, what is
keeping me from doing so? How can I change that?

• What happens when things go “wrong”?

• Plan Tight, Hang Loose - How is my planning and preparation serving me? What
unexpected things have come up? What new experiences are appearing? How can I
respond to them openly and calmly?
• Managing Negative Views - What has been challenging for me so far? How did I get
here? Was there something specific that triggered me? How is my current internal
experience impacting others around me?
• Practice Gratitude - As this unfolds, what am I most grateful for? Where do I see
beauty in this experience?

Post-Reflection
• What did I learn about the culture?
• Key Experiences - What happened? What was most significant to me? Have I
captured the details of the experience, the emotions I felt, and the behaviors I engaged
in?
• Observations - What did I observe? What was consistent in my experience? What
was inconsistent?
• Expectations - How did my experience meet my expectations? How was it different?
What was most surprising? What does that tell me?

• What did I learn about myself?

• Helpful Behaviors - What behaviors helped me most in this experience? What did
they look like and when did they occur? What strengths did this experience uncover
in me as an individual?
• Limiting Behaviors -What behaviors did I engage in that limited my effectiveness in
this experience? Where and when were these behaviors observed? Are there any
patterns in why these emerged?
Cultural Entry Model - H.Jones MSOD 619

• New Views - What do I see differently than I did before this experience? How has my
perspective shifted?

• How do I integrate this experience?

• Important Practices - Based on my reflections, are there practices that I can continue
that will make me more effective in new or diverse settings?
• Key Behaviors - Based on my reflections, what behaviors should I focus on to help
me be more effective in new or diverse settings?

Specific Cultural Context - Finally, this entry model acknowledges that my experiences,
learnings and reflections will be unique depending on what culture I am in, and that learnings
from one culture may not be applicable in another. While I want to carry my learnings with me
across cultural experiences, I cannot expect that things will serve me equally well across
cultures. For this reason I must use this model with an eye toward the unique aspects of each
culture I enter, and always be open to new ways of seeing and doing things.