Project 1: Intercultural Communication: a contrastive analysis of cultures (15% of overall grade)

Goal of the project:

To reflect on aspects of culture and cultural theory in order to gain a deeper insight into the world
outside of Colombia.

What’s it all about?

Over the course of the next 7 weeks, you’re going to be asked to keep a blog as part of your first
project work. In this blog, you will be reflecting on themes spoken about in the classroom and
discussing how they relate to a specific culture different from your own. At the bottom of this
document, you will see a weekly breakdown of the tasks you will be asked to do in class related to
the project, and the blog posts will be set as homework. Each blog post is going to be assessed by
your teacher and in week 8, you will give a 5-7 minute formal presentation on what you learned
about the other culture through doing this project. It is vital that all posts are completed in order
to be able to give your presentation.

Creating Your Blog Page.

You will now create your blog page during class. Your
teacher will have reserved a computer lab or asked
you to bring in laptops. They will help you and the rest
of your classmates design a blog page, but below are
the steps to guide yourself through the process. You
must create a new blog page, even if you already have
a private one. Note: you can use other blog providers.
Wix has worked well for students in the past as is user
friendly 

Instructions for Wordpress:

Step 1: Go to wordpress.com, not .org as it costs

money.

Step 2: Scroll down until you see a green window and press ‘start a blog.’

Step 3: Choose the first blog page design called ‘Libretto,’ as it is the easiest to set-up.

Step 4: Now, you have to create your URL. Follow this structure: LevelVIIIGROUP(NUMBER)_Your
Name. For example, LevelVIIIGROUP13_GEERTHOFSTEDE *Please notice that your URL does not
have any spaces.

Step 5: You will be asked to choose a plan. Please choose the plan that is free. You will be asked
to do this two times. THIS IS IMPORTANT. ENSURE YOU CLICK FREE PLAN.

Step 7: You will be asked to enter in an email to register your account. Please choose an email you
actually use and add a password that you will not forget.

Step 8: Go to the email address you chose and activate your account. Otherwise, you will not be
able to add any posts to your blog.

Step 9: You are almost done! Now you can

customize you blog page and make it look
however you want. Please follow this tutorial now
in order to set up your blog’s image, title and to
learn more about the blog page:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mta6Y0o7yJk

Task 1: Now create your first blog post. Introduce yourself to the online community! Your name,
where you’re from, field of study here at UniNorte and something interesting about yourself. Don’t
forget to share the link to your blog page with your teacher. You can do this via email.

*Teachers: create a class list on a word document with a link to each student’s blog page.

Your schedule: what do I need to do each week?

Below is a detailed description of the project. Please ensure that if you miss class, you keep up to
date with the blog – project 1 is worth 15% of your overall grade for Level VIII. If you miss any blog
posts, your teacher may not allow you to do the presentation.

Steps Deadline Description

Project 1: Blog and informative presentation

1 2.4 2. You will be given a culture to study. Brainstorm ideas related to the iceberg. What do
you think the people and place look like?

3. Think about stereotypes. Draw a person from the chosen culture. What do they do?
How do they look?
 4. Homework: Upload your drawing as your first blog post. Write a paragraph
explaining the stereotypes mentioned in the drawing. What are they? Where did
these ideas come from?

(post 1)

2 3.4 1. Based on what is learned in class, brainstorm what you think you know about gender
roles in the other culture? Write 3 questions with information you want to find out
about gender roles in that culture.

2. Read some articles (can be blogs) about gender stereotypes in that culture.

3. Homework: Write comparative paragraph of your culture and theirs in terms of

gender stereotypes.

(post 2)

3 4.4 1. Hofstede: Brainstorm – what scores do you imagine your chosen country is likely to
get for each dimension? Write then discuss reasons.

2. Research using https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/ -

were you correct?

3. Homework: Upload blog/vlog post about scores and any similarities/major

differences with Colombia and why they think that is.

(post 3)

4. 5.4 1. Brainstorm – what type of culture do you think your chosen country is likely to be
regarding the Lewis Model? Why do you think so?

2. Homework: research which culture type your chosen country is, then explain what
problems a person from that culture might come across if they were to do a study abroad
here in Barranquilla and why in relation to the model. To be done as blog or vlog post.

(post 4)

5. 6.4 1. Subcultures in your chosen culture. Find out about and present 2 different pop
cultures and one tribe from your chosen culture.

2. Homework: Present a paragraph and photo of each one in the blog/vlog.

(post 5)

6. 7.4 1. Practice presentations

7. 8 Final presentation of findings (10%)