-
Make a World of Difference!
Author Archives: Jason D. Patent
What Is Intercultural Competence? Part 3
In the last post we looked at the “monocultural” side of the Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC). Today we look at the intercultural side. Once again here’s the IDC:
What Is Intercultural Competence? Part 2
In my first post on this topic I discussed the basics of intercultural competence. Here we dig a little deeper, using something called the Intercultural Development Continuum, or IDC. Here’s what the IDC looks like:
The Psychology of a Peach
In this post we’ll continue the theme from last week’s post, delving into the social psychology of U.S. American “peachiness” — the relative shallowness of many U.S. American social ties. In 1971, anthropologist Francis Hsu published the intimidatingly titled “Psychosocial … Continue reading
“Peachy” U.S. Americans, Part 2
In a recent post I introduced readers to the concept of “peach” cultures and “coconut” cultures. Then yesterday a colleague sent me a link to this article from the UC Davis student newspaper, which discusses the same issue. All this … Continue reading
Eye of the Beholder
In our CIL workshops we often begin with a short discussion of what we mean by “culture.” People are often surprised to find out how deeply culture affects our moment-to-moment existence. In fact, it turns out, culture affects even how … Continue reading
Who is in charge of our minds? The lizard or the poet?
We all know how fear feels. And most of us probably don’t have to think too far back to remember the last time we felt fear. Maybe the boss was acting funny that day and you felt in danger of … Continue reading
Welcome to the U.S.: Peaches and Coconuts
I often hear something like the following from first-time visitors to the U.S., including many who are I-House residents: “Americans are so friendly.” Sometimes after this comes a comment along the lines of, “…but they’re very superficial.” In the study … Continue reading
Welcome to the U.S.: Alcohol
Today we begin a new intermittent series on U.S. American culture, mostly for the benefit of our international students, but hopefully also enlightening for readers from the U.S. First a note on terminology. In the intercultural world, “U.S. American” is … Continue reading
Resilience and Leadership
[This is part of an occasional series about the characteristics of intercultural leaders.] In times of trial and uncertainty we turn to our leaders for calm. When leaders aren’t calm, how can the rest of us be? I once worked … Continue reading
What is intercultural competence? Part 1
Much of the work we do at the Center for Intercultural Leadership (CIL) revolves around developing something called “intercultural competence.” What is it? In simplest terms it means our ability to work well with people from different cultural backgrounds — … Continue reading
I-House: Where UC Berkeley Meets the World 