Journal of Intercultural Discussions

My name: Bingling Cai

Date: 2010-07-22 - 29

Journal entry number: 1

Topic of the online discussion: Cultural excursion

Discussion partners: Ji Hae Park and Danielle Nicklaus

From the discussion, I learned the noon means 12 o'clock in America, which is the same in China. But 12 o'clock at noon should be 12:00 p.m., which I made a mistake for 12:00 a.m. Because in China, 12 o'clock at noon actually counts in the forenoon, a.m., which is different in America. Honestly, when I saw Danielle told me that 12 o'clock at noon is actually 12:00 p.m. but not 12:00 a.m. in the email, I laughed in front of my computer. And every time when I thought I asked Danielle, "Shall we meet at 12:00 a.m.?" in my email, I felt funny for myself and cannot help laughing. (Imagine we will meet at the mid-night to visit a museum.) But after that, I felt a little embarrassed that I had been in America for almost one year, but still did not have no idea about what time the noon is. I think Danielle would feel surprised and interesting for my question first, and then a little funny. But I believe she would definitely enjoyed the interesting experience about exchanging the different senses of time between American and Chinese culture. So I would like to find out more about the differences about the meal time, working time, schooling time and relaxing time in America and China.

And I also learned that both Asian and American people like to get together with many friends. And I think the other group members were all very excited about planning the cultural excursion. But when Danielle asked our opinions about the cultural excursion, I felt a little hesitated to express my willing, because I was afraid that if I gave some opinion conflicting with other group members', it would be not polite. And I think Danielle was also very ambivalent to give her decision. On one side, she might want to tell us her ideas; on the other side, she might be afraid that her suggestion would interfere with our thinking. So I wonder how to avoid or overcome this unnecessary worry in the cross-cultural communication. Anyway, Danielle did a great job in deciding the destination of the cultural excursion. On one hand, she clearly expressed her ideas; on the other hand, she asked for and adopted our opinions. 
 

Sharing Stories in Conversation

Ji Hae said before, she lived with another three Korean girls. But because they felt the rent was very expensive, they moved out. So now she lives in the dorm by herself. And I asked her, "Do you feel lonely?" She said, fortunately, she is always super busy with many courses and assignments, so she does not have time to think about whether lonely or not. I told her I welcome her to visit my house and hang out together often, because we live very near.

I heard many stories from Danielle. She told us, her sister has a baby, but she got a car accident before and broke her arms, so her sister cannot look after the baby for a while. So she has to help her sister to take care the baby these days, which made her very tired, because the baby cried a lot in the night.

And when we had the hot pot together in Nan's house, she told us her uncle is a pastry chef, who is very good at baking cakes. And once her family said they wanted to have the delicious cake again, her uncle had to bake the cake for another five hours. And usually, her family asked her uncle to cook, her uncle always said he already cooked all day long and did not want to cook at home any more. And I said my cousin's boyfriend is also a chef, and he also often complaint that he already cooked in the restaurant, why he still needed to cook at home. But anyway, it is great to have a chef in the family.

And I asked Danielle how she met her boyfriend. She told us they were the classmates in the high school, but they did not talk a lot at that time. After graduating, they went to the same community college, and often get together. Gradually, they knew more about each other, and then got the feelings of love. I felt so romantic about their love story.