TQE Listening Notes

T--Takeaways
Capture any interesting points made.
When writing a paper, writers with common ethnicities get less citations than papers from
people with different backgrounds. This is because collaboration from multiple backgrounds
produces multiple viewpoints and more creativity. The edge effect is where different ecosystems
meet and where the most new life forms are created. Christina realized that she didn’t have to
separate her two lives and that combining them could be a great advantage.The same action
can have very different meanings depending on your culture, so different that one can be seen
as polite and the other as offensive. Reflecting on past intercultural experiences boosts
creativity. The amount of time one spends working abroad has a greater effect on creativity than
the amount of places they have worked.

Q--Questions
Write down questions you have as they arise.
Why did Christina keep her bagpipe playing background a secret?
Can very different cultural knowledge actually cause confusion?
How can someone share their cultural background while still learning about other cultures?

E--Epiphanies
Insights you have or connections you can make to previous knowledge you have. Further
thoughts you could add to a discussion.
One of these connections that I have seen comes from the fact that my mom grew up in
Belgium. There they give a kiss on the cheek to greet friends so when she came here she
continued that greeting with her friends. I also noticed that here we leave our shoes outside, and
so now whenever I visit family and I take my shoes off and they think it's weird.

Group Discussion

Personal Discussion Goal(s):

What specific speaking/listening skill would you like to focus on?
My goal is to listen closely to what others are saying and to not be afraid to ask questions.

Observations about your discussion:

How did you feel your group discussion went? Successes? Areas of improvement?
I think our group discussion went ok, everyone shared a little bit of what they wrote and any
other questions they had. I think the main issue was that we were all hesitant to talk so we just
sat there quietly for a little while. We also had similar takeaways like how we take our shoes off
here which was nice to see how we all experience the culture here.

Reflections on your discussion skills:

How did you do in working toward your goal? Was there any instance where you wish you had
said something differently? How might you improve for next time?
I did my best to listen to others, my connection was a little bit off so I had a hard time
understanding some of the things that were said. I think the second group that I was in we had a
way better discussion and I actually shared about my experience which I was proud of. In
general it's really hard to have a conversation on zoom but it went pretty well.