Chapter 11 Response

Chapter 11 dealt with Intercultural Encounters and the conflicts that arise during these encounters, as well as the best ways to resolve them. I was interested in the different types of culture shock and acculturation that were noted, especially in the different stages that people go through after moving to a foreign country. I also thought it was interesting to learn that a notable amount of expats commit suicide because they are unable to understand and integrate themselves into the country to which they have been assigned. It was also interesting to learn about ethnocentrism and xenophobia, because I think a lot of people exhibit signs of these thought processes without realizing that they are doing so. I also usually combined the two terms into one, so it was interesting to see the differences. The other part of this chapter that I really enjoyed was the part about humor and language and how humor is so important to culture. It was really eyeopening to see how much humor can be lost when languages are translated.