SPICE 2018: West Virginia University @ Universität Erfurt

As we've now been  leben in Deutschland fur sieben Wochen , we should start thinking reflectively as to how we are adapting to our new surroundings. No doubt each of us is experiencing some different level of German culture as we continue to try new foods, speak new languages, and adapt to new customs. Perhaps the easiest part of international trtavel is recognizing that you are quickly in a culture not your own - it's usually a pretty exciting experience in the beginning (the "Honeymoon Stage") until the glitz and glamour wear off and you find yourself outside the comfort zone - for me, it was (of all things) drinking seltzer water ( wasser mit gas ) when I was expecting table water ( still-wasser ). This is an incredibly small thing to "shock" over, but even these small events have you questioning future interactions - trepidation over a drink order leads to scruntiny of a foreign food menus and drives many tourists to the local McDonald's over th...

The term convergence is defined by Kincaid (2009) as "movement toward one point, toward another communicator, toward a common interest, and toward greater uniformity, never quite reaching that point." This last point - never quite reaching that point - is what distinguishes convergence from a singularity. As a popular corollary to US culture, you might consider convergence to be more like the salad bowl metaphor (separate parts, all in an US culture) as compared to the melting pot metaphor (separate peoples all blended together as one US culture). Why converge at all? Converging to one point helps us create mutual understanding of who were are as a nation and a people - making sense of our borders as less geo-political and more socio-emotional. Kincaid's convergence model was initially meant to address shortcomings of transmission-based models of communication, but we can expand it to look at cultural convergence (a topic address thoroughly by  MIT scientist H...

"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." The initial Bellamy salute (right hand extended forward, not  pictured) might remind many readers of another (in)famous  way to salute one's flag -- a difference  that   likely  sits at the  root cause for US and German perspectives on nationalism. In August 1892, Baptist minister Francis Bellamy pinned this short passage in preparation for the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival to the Americas. Quickly reciting this passage to most US citizens will almost instantaneously result in a group recital, hands placed over the heart and eyes darting around the room for the nearest American flag. Over the last 100+ years, the Pledge of Allegiance has become a staple of the American classroom and likewise, a staple of how many Americans treat and respond to their flag. Becker et al (2012) rev...

Hello, Bruges gang. As we get ready, I wanted to set up a few more details about our first day in town. The previous blog post outlines our travel to Bruges , but below is our itinerary for the first day as well as the details of our scavenger hunt . Monday 25 June 7:30am  – Meet at Erfurt Hauptbahnhof Our train leaves at 7:50, but it'll be a potentially busy train so I'd encourage folks to get there as early as possible (I'll likely be there a bit earlier, and the Starbucks opens as early as 6:30am). Monday - ~3:00pm – Arrival at Bruges train station We’ll walk to your hotel and ensure that everyone gets checked in. You’ll have a few hours to yourself to get settled. Monday - 6:00 pm – Meet Jaime/Nick at the Palace de Bruges … There is a large statue in the center with all of the EU flags around the outer edge … look for us underneath the German flag. We’ll be taking you from there to a place we think you’ll love, and we’ll have class there. Great drinks, but...

Whenever one encounters a new culture, one of the things that they will notice rather quickly is the emergence of conflict. Commonly when traveling for example, foreigners will unknowingly violate social norms of behavior that might lead to embarrassing situations (such as using one's right hand to eat and greet in Islamic cultures, as the left hand is considered "unclean) while their hosts are left in a quandary - upholding their own cultural norms while still attempting to help the naive traveler save face so they are comfortable in the new environment. This is a coarse example, but it is the core of Face Negotiation Theory.  Developed by Stella Ting-Toomey, the theory "explains the culture-based and situational factors that shape communicators' tendencies in approaching and managing conflicts." When we say we are negotiating face, we mean to suggest that we are trying to balance the way in which others see us as well as the manner in which we behave ...

UPDATE 2 July 2018: We're going to go ahead and cancel this year's event, due to many of our US students being away from Erfurt this week. Enjoy your travels, folks!