Basics of Intercultural Communication: Telecollaboration through the Eyes of a Student
I have very positive impressions about this course structure and working with students from ULM. Most importantly, it enables us to put our theoretical knowledge to put in practice. It also enables us to challenge ourselves while gaining unique intercultural experiences.
Hello everyone! My name is Burcu Gökdağ and I am from Istanbul, Turkey. Currently I am doing my Master’s degree in Communication Management at Baltic Film, Media and Arts School. During the first semester, one of the compulsory subjects we had to take was called "Basics of Intercultural Communication". For this class our responsibility was to complete four group assignments with different topics by telecollaborating with our fellow US students from University of Louisiana at Monroe. Our group consisted of two US students from ULM, Bel & Stacy, and one German student, Kathi, from TLU besides me. We were the ‘Group 8’. This hands-on experience of intercultural communication was equally exciting and intimidating to me when I first heard about it. Before starting my studies at TLU, I had similar experiences. Unfortunately, they were not the most pleasant, especially because of the language barrier. This time, however, things were very different!
As a group, we first started to communicate through e-mail. After some nice-to-meet-you messages and expressions of our excitement working together, we finally moved to our WhatsApp group. Our first action was to look for a suitable time for all of us to meet on Zoom and talk about our assignment. This was the time when I realized the time difference between Tallinn and Monroe. I knew that these assignments would not be easy but we were determined. The process of completing our first assignment was challenging for my fellow German colleague and me since almost until the deadline our US teammates didn’t have the opportunity to put the same effort as we did because of the differences in their schedules but we were able to finish the assignment on time and got a very good grade. During this assignment, I learned that intercultural communication could be challenging from time to time but this is the nature of it and our differences make it more interesting. We should also be able to cope with such situations. During the other three assignments, our group worked in harmony thanks to our previous experiences.
We were able to overcome all the challenges we have faced as a group during all of our assignments. We showed understanding, respect and support. To be honest, the outcomes exceeded all my expectations. We received positive feedback and got amazing results!
Telecollaboration has given us the opportunity to manage our time: we have been able to work in harmony despite the differences in our working methods, schedules and time zones. All the assignments we had to complete gave me a very different perspective of my understanding of intercultural communication. In fact, the things that I perceive as challenges could be the different shades of intercultural communication, which makes it a unique experience. In the future, I will definitely take into account all learnings I have gained with the help of this class and try to put them into practice during any cases of communication. I must add that I am very grateful to our professors, Dr. Anastassia Zabrodskaja and Dr. Sara Kim!