Hello everyone and welcome to our intercultural communication presentation.

Throughout this course we have a chance to communicate and talk to some of our friends
from Spain and throughout those exchange today we will reflect and analyze the some
cultural values norm and tradition that we learned and heard from our friend. Also we're
going to interpret some interpersonal and intercultural communication between all two
groups. Next one is to talk about some change in preconception and stereotypes and how
this course has improved our intercultural competence and finally make some suggestion
on how to improve this course and what we would do if we can take this course again.

Now to the first part. Throughout this two exchange session, we meet four new amazing
friend. Uh first one we have Sarah and she while we was talking she introduced us to
multiculturalism in Dubai and I find this quite similarity that both Dubai and Vietnam are
multicultural society but the different in here is that in Dubai people from all around the
world like England Indian Philippines come to live and work so you can learn and get
contact with many many people and rarely have any preconceived notion or stereotype
and but in Vietnam is ethnic diversity different life and different language custom and
cultural life among the 54 ethnic group and here I think is the difference between cultural
assimilation and cultural pluralism. Uh, Vietnam indigenous group has been living and
sharing common land and history and it create a unified identity despite different
differences in races. uh despite whereas in Dubai the diversity is a result of globalizations
and migration many nationality coexist and work together under one nation without any
common history.

And our second topic is blessing from Vilma. She is from Puerto Rico. And we found out
that her tradition La Bendición is quite similar to the act of formal greeting in Vietnam
that both show respect, love and social hierarchy within family and society. Uh but the
different here is love is originated from Catholic. So you are asking to be blessed. They
believe it will bring protection from the god and it is often very intimate including kisses,
hugs but in Vietnam greeting elder is an act of beautiful and mandatory social grace and
it show that you are well mannered and both of this action I believe are high contact
communication in both cultural these actions have an underlying message where the
young acknowledge the elder age, wisdom and moral authority and respect the family and
social hierarchy. And in the first session, what surprised me the most is the similarity
between La Bendición and the act of formal greeting in Vietnam. Even though it's two
different country with two different cultural and thousands of kilometer apart of each
other in both case this action is not just a hello or like a bless normal blessing. Uh it's all
has a underlying message where both the Puerto Rican and Vietnamese younger person
uh stop and access the elder status and acknowledge their authority. And next one we will
move on to our second session.

Uh on the second section we meet Angelica and she does share some interesting fact
about smoking in Spain. Uh it in most Spain in Vietnam there are parts of the culture that
associate itself with smoking. uh and um quite similarly they all represent a way for
people to socialize and understand each other better. But there's a striking difference
between the art the people which usually smoke in both country because in Spain the
teenagers and the younger one are more likely to smoke or and often choose cigarettes
while Vietnamese people smoke less and the older one who actually smokes usually
choose thuoc lao pipe tobacco which is our own brand of our own brand of weed for
smoking. So uh we attribute this to the different in the material culture in both country
because Spain went through the industrial revolution relatively early and with cigars and
cigarettes coming out as definitive products for people to indulge and pairing with the
fact that it's often young people who are smoking give a sense of uh modern and give a
sense of them being more modern and have a quicker tempo to their life. While
Vietnamese tobacco is a result of local craft knowledge uh usually being paired with the
water pipe uh to smoke without much traces of industrialization uh being Vietnamese
tobacco being smoked by the older people uh represent um slight pause in um society
where the older values are still being continued and uh appreciated even in modern times.

Next up, we have the conversation we share about our hobby which turned out to be
coffee. So, there's also a similar liking for coffee between Spanish people and
Vietnamese people. Uh as uh as the conversation goes on, we found out that coffee is
often grabbed on the go as part of Spanish daily life while it's often a leisure drink for
Vietnamese to slowly indulge in. So uh we from this we concluded that this is due to a
different in social rhythm in both culture because Spanish culture is focused more on
punctuality and productivity. So coffee time there is generally considered a short pass to
boost efficiency for the day as they continue at the school or offices. Meanwhile,
Vietnamese temple is generally slower and more anchored down where coffee shop
usually specialized in offering multi-purpose space for all customer to use for their
studies and work while enjoying their drink all the same.

. So now we will analyze the interaction between the two groups by looking specifically
at the interpersonal communication and uh uh our intercultural communication. Uh
starting with interpersonal communication, we observe that the Marist exhibited a great
deal of openness and confidence. They took a proactive approach in taking turns and
show uh the new enthusiasm when discussing the Vietnamese cultural videos and post on
Padlet to break down online barrier. They flexibly uh use hand sections and facial
expression to signal agreement. Their tone were energetic and they naturally contributed
to the flow of the discussion itself needing to be mentioned by name. On the other hand,
we took turn changing idea and sharing stories because the Vietnamese students were
more numerous in the group. We naturally tend to lead the overall direction of the
conversation.

uh shifting toward cross-cultural communication without felt a distinct difference in how

the two groups approach cultural practice. Instead of uh viewing an action merely as a
traditional custom, the ULS Students tend to look at it through the lens of global Israel.
For example, when discussing the burning of incense and joss paper, they express a
specific concern regarding environmental impacts rather than just focusing on the
spiritual aspect. Furthermore, the Madris students shared very realistic and objective
views about their home countries like Dubai and various social is because some of these
students majored in politics and biology. They were particularly interested in the political
and social management aspect of culture. They created a much deeper chance moving
well beyond surface level information. uh in contrast uh we focus primary primarily on
uh uh introducing traditional beauty. We also steer the conversation toward more
personal matters such as uh our career orientation and academic measures. Uh so finally
we can clearly see the different background reflected in something as simple as a coffee
habits. The Marist students take away coffee culture reveal and background whereas life
is fastpaced and productivity is a priority. This foster a low contest communication style
which explains the preference for direct rapid questions and answers. In contrast, what
the Vietnamese student puted in a high concept of communication adopted a major point,
we tend to prioritize relational depth and the quality of the changed over temporal
efficiency. So bringing all together, we can see just how deeply cultural uh set our
interaction from the way we take turn speaking to how we interpret the tradition and
value our time.

Okay. So we will move on to the asses and analyze step. Oh yeah. There are many
stereotypes we initially had about the world both inside and outside of Vietnam. But after
cultural exchange sessions between Julius and SLU, some of our images of the world
have been made somewhat clearer, we think this experience is a rare opportunity to
enhance our intercultural communication skills. First, we talked Dubai was a playground
where ultra-rich billionaires and luxury lifestyles thrived. However, through the exchange
sessions, our conversation with Sarah completely changed this assumption. From her
insights, we learned that Dubai is in fact a global melting pot where people from diverse
backgrounds including India, the Philippines, the UK, and many more reside in this
cohesive community. And rather than being defined solely by wealth and prosperity,
Dubai reflects a complex form of global integration and characterized by multicultural
coexistence in support.

Secondly, we thought Venezuelans were unwelcoming or unfriendly. But after

communicating with Angelica, we realized that this was not true. She was really friendly
and hospitable and comfortable sharing her cultural values with us. In addition, she talked
about how misconceptions often downplay her country, such as Venezuelans being
unfriendly or the place having no notable attractions. She addressed these bias claims as
and invited us to visit her hometown and the Angel Falls, the world's highest
uninterrupted waterfall. Her expression and pride in her hometown's beauty made us
wonder about the world outside Vietnam and its never ending surprises. Third, we
initially believed that the US citizens were loud and arrogant, but our experience with
Ansley showed a stark contrast with that stereotype. She was really calm and gentle
throughout our conversation. And to add to that, she shared with us her bagpipe tradition
on her birthday. She said she was reminiscent of her father playing it every time he
celebrated her birthday and the memories of that grew larger each day. Although we
seldom have bagpipes on our birthday, we understand that this tradition is a sentimental
part of her, her father and her culture and we should be more open to people from
everywhere. Uh, last but not least, although we do not know much about Puerto Rico,
Vilma was really sweet and comfortable introducing us to her country and her cultural
values. She she said life in Puerto Rico was very calm and beautiful, peaceful, and
expressed her opinion about us, the Vietnamese. She said that our burning joss paper
practice and her work La Bendición both have respect for ancestor culture and history.
This made us wonder why stereotypes have become more common have become more
common in a world where every individual every culture is unique.

So to summarize, cultural exchange sessions such as this experience has enhanced our
intercultural communication skills. These sessions talked us to look beyond media
stereotypes to practice active listening and to engage with local perspectives. And as a
result, we have replaced our biased assumptions with a more authentic understanding of
beauty in this world. And we hope to embrace it with more love. Yeah, that's enough of
my part. Now let's moving on to please.

Uh okay. Uh moving to the reflections and suggestions. First one is about the reflections.
Uh one important things we would like to improve is our note taking. Instead of noting
things randomly, we should try to do it more systematically and in a more organized way.
For example, we should clearly write down local vocabulary, cultural terms, and proper
names in their original language such as the name of festival or traditional dishes. This
would help us remember better and make it easier to do further research. Another thing is
that we would like to prepare more carefully. We should bring physical cultural items
like li xi envelopes or banh chung. These item can help the sharing become more vivid
and engaging and help fans from other countries understand Vietnam culture in a more
direct and interesting way. In addition, we believe that we ought to communicate more
actively. We could ask people about our culture and whether they have any preconceived
notions or misconceptions before we begin the conversations. Then we could discuss it
and clarifies those ideas together. Instead of strictly exchanging basic information, this
would make the conversation more meaningful and honest. We would also pay more
attention to our tone of voice, uh, body language and facial expression. These component
are crucial for crosscultural communication because they can improve the flow and
effectiveness of the dialogue.

Next is the suggestion. Firstly, we think the platform would be more helpful if we could
share our screens. This way people can share photos of their lives and culture. Uh for
example, we once talk about friends with our friends from Dubai about our food culture.
We introduce bun dau and our friends share dishes from their country but uh we couldn't
show any pictures. So it was quite hard to describe and fully understand each other's
food. If we could share image, the conversation would be much clearer and more
engaging. Photos make it more interesting and help others understand better. Secondly,
there should be a short warm-up activity at the beginning before diving into groups. They
would help participants feel more comfortable to break the ice and create a more positive
atmosphere before the discussion. Last but not least, we think it would be a good idea to
create a group chat before the main session. This way, participants can say hello to each
other and get to know more about uh beforehand. They can introduce themselves in the
group chat which will help build familiarity. As a result, we can have a deeper discussion
about values and perspective during the 25 minutes Zoom session. Instead of just talking
about basics topics like food, weather or clothing, we can engage in more meaningful
conversations. And that will be the end for our intercultural communications
presentation. Thank you and goodbye.