Stop talking and Listen for a Second!

During our last class we had a book discussion based on Serving with Eyes Wide Open. The premise of the book was to widen our perspective of the world around us in using that information practice cultural intelligence to best adapt to a new culture. The book talked about 4 types which are

Knowledge CQ

Behavioural CQ

Interpretive CQ

Perspective CQ

As I was going through the book something that I found really interesting was behavioural CQ; learning how to act in a certain culture. As I was reading this I automatically thought about non verbal communication also known as paralanguage. Watching how people act and trying to determine what there actions mean is something that I naturally do. I think that this will be my strongest suit in the cultural intelligence realm of picking up and trying to learn. I know that while I am there it is going to be key to understand how to there non verbal communication works. I think that my weakest element will be perseverance. As the date of leaving is approaching I am realizing how much of a challenge it will be to try to learn how to eat and do many of the basic tasks with my right hand rather then my left. I need to realize that perseverance CQ is learned so I have to be willing to learn how to do this and realize that it will take some time. I am trying to remember even before we get over there though, is to make sure that I am using my right hand. It’s really hard when you remember as you eat the last few bites but I think that more I think about it the more I will remember.

Reading about cultural intelligence overall has really helped me better understand how to prepare myself to go over and has given me some great ideas of what to do when cultural clashes happen and how best use my knowledge to make sure that I function best as I possibly can in that new culture.