Dialing from Tallinn to Monroe

Three months ago, I made one of the biggest decisions in my life – I moved away from Georgia and started my life over in Tallinn, Estonia. This not only changed my everyday life, social group, and environment, but also challenged my intercultural communication skills and perceptions. My previous job experience of being a tour guide prepared me for what was about to come. However, a lot of unexpected events were about to come my way.

I am studying Communication Management at Tallinn University. Our group consists of people with diverse backgrounds, which helps us put our studies of intercultural interactions into practice. For the course about understanding intercultural communications with Professor Anastassia Zabrodskaja, we needed to have telecollaboration with students studying across the ocean - at the University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM). Throughout the studies, we had four assignments, which consisted of four stages of understanding each other and the world around us. While the first few assignments were about getting to know each other, sharing our values, and understanding our cultural similarities and differences, by the end, we were solving complex intercultural conflicts.

Our group consisted of four people – two from the USA, one from Japan, and me – from Georgia. I went into the experience without prejudice; this could be attributed to the fact that I spent nearly four years communicating with people all around the world – so this alone washed away all the stereotypes about different cultures. During our first meeting, we introduced each other, and I created a presentation about me and Georgia  – highlighting interesting facts about my country, the languages I know, and how this knowledge shaped my worldview. We shared our values and expectations about this collaborative project. It was very relieving to know that all of us were on the same page when it came to human rights and that we were all open to new and different ideas. Surprisingly, we talked a lot about food! I introduced the team to the Khinkali (Georgian meat dumplings), Aaron and Arielle showed us Crawfish Boil and Erina taught us useful tricks on how to identify good sushi!

Even though online communications come with a lot of benefits, it still isn't the same as an in-person meeting. It has its limitations, whether it's running into occasional technical issues or not feeling like the people you talk to – exist. One issue that stood between us at all times was an 8-hour-long difference between Estonia and Louisiana. However, I believe that every problem can be turned into an opportunity, so I looked at it as a challenge for my time management skills. Eventually, subconsciously we came up with a system that worked for all of us – we met at the times that were comfortable for all of us, during meetings, we avoided “all work and no play”, we only met when we had to share ideas and have discussions and during meetings, we made sure that everyone´s point was gotten across.

Although I thought we got it all together by the end of the first meeting, we still had some problems along the way. They were mostly caused by having different expectations and personalities. Usually, during group projects I find myself to be the “organizer” and a “moderator” – these roles almost always come with some problems which, as I found from this experience, are easily manageable in real life and at the same time zone. The most important thing to keep in mind was to stay respectful and accepting of each other’s differences. All of us had a different point of view which made the experience more enjoyable. It was wonderful to see how many angles one idea could be viewed from.

I feel like all of us tried our best to get over these boundaries and find better paths without any obstacles. I believe that the latter is a long journey for all of us, but once you´re on the right track, you will definitely know it.