This course is designed to help you develop insights into other cultures and variations within your own. An essential part of this exercise will be your final project which will be worth 20% of your course grade.

Your final project should be in the form of a written paper.

You will be required in your paper to develop a framework for analyzing and understanding a specific culture or co-culture by examining these characteristics:

Language

Folktales

Values

Nonverbal communications styles

Government

Education

Healthcare

Business

Instructions

Choose a culture or co-culture that is unfamiliar to you, but one in which you can closely observe and research. Then describe these characteristics of that culture in detail.

After you have described the culture, answer these questions:

What stereotypes or prejudices do you have about this culture before you began the project?

How are the culture’s values similar and dissimilar to your own?

What preconceived ideas you had about the culture were wrong?

What steps would you take in the workplace to be effective in communicating with the people of this culture?

Answer these questions. Then, add any other questions or issues you would like to address.

Your paper must be 8 pages long. Be sure to use headings for each individual topic. Also, be sure to give the source for your research in the paper (when you use someone else’s material) and include a bibliography at the end of your paper.

You may not use any more than five sources; most of your information will come from your own observations. For example, you might observe and research a particular ethnic group, or religious group, or even the military (if you are not already a part of the military).

The key to this activity is to choose a culture or co-culture with which you are not familiar so that you can identify characteristics that may be similar or dissimilar.