SPICE 2018: West Virginia University @ Universität Erfurt

Morning, group! We've still got a few more weeks in Germany of course (and you've got a major course deadline for COM416, as the final draft of all of your blogs is due on Monday 30 July). For our departure, you need to make plans with SPICE (by emailing the organization at spice@uni-erfurt.de) so that they know when you're planning to turn in your keys and (hopefully) receive your deposit back. You should plan to do this on Monday 6 August, and you will need to be at the Erfurt Hauptbahnhof no later than 11:30 am to make our train to Frankfurt. Our train details: ICE 1650, leaving Erfurt at 12:17 and arriving at Frankfurt(Main)Hbf at 14:36. We have seat reservations in Car 23, seats 51-55, 57-58 (where Dr. Banks and I will be sitting), and 61-68.  Once we get to Frankfurt, we'll make our way over to Ibis Styles Frankfurt City, where I have reserved six rooms, already paid for by WVU. The names on those keys are Baldus, Dutka, Lafitaga, Reel, Skidmore, and Wag...

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! 

Erfurt, DE --  Our first week discussion will have us talking  Communication Accommodation Theory , first introduced to the field of human communication by noted scholar  Dr. Howard "Howie" Giles  of the University of California - Santa Barbara. In general, the theory attempts to explain how individuals come to adapt their communicative styles to one another as they spend more time with each other. While the theory is not specifically or uniquely restricted to the study of intercultural communication, it is not hard to see how the theory might help explain variance in both our initial and continued interactions with folks from another culture; after all, one way we can understand cultural differences is in terms of communicative behavioral differences (both at the verbal and  non-verbal  level). A particularly interesting phenomenon associated with this is that of  code-switching , which tends to really get at folks who are bi- o...

Morgantown, WV -- Below, Dr. Jaime Banks has organized some really cool recommended travel destinations throughout Germany. During your stay for SPICE 2018, consider visiting a few of these sites ... and remember that they're all eligible sites for your Culture Blog entries! Want to add your own? E-mail your suggestions to Dr. Banks at jabanks@mail.wvu.edu . Happy travels. =)

Prague, Czech Republic -- As we get closer to the start of SPICE 2018, a few students were curious about the details of their weekly per diem that is bundled into their SPICE summer fees. So, details are below, in the form of a "pay schedule" of sorts. Broadly, the per diem disbursements will follow the same schedule that we'll be using for the International Culture and Communication course (detailed in another blog post, here ). To clarify however, we'll distribute per diem funds on the following dates: 12 June (although this distribution might take place on arrival at Frankfurt) 18 June 25 June 2 July 9 July 16 July 23 July 30 July We will do these disbursements at the conclusion of our International Culture and Communication course, and all students will be asked to sign for any cash they receive. Note that this signature is a requirement for receiving per diem (per WVU policy), and also note that the only time that I will disburse per diem cash is d...

Morgantown, WV --   With about one month to go before we leave for SPICE 2018, we've got some fantastic news: the accommodations for our annual trip to Bruges, Belgium, have been finalized. We've arranged for two nights' accommodations (breakfast, included) for all of our WVU SPICE students at the " Hotel Koffieboontje ." There, you'll be staying right in the heart of Bruges for two nights of intercultural experience in the Flanders (re: Dutch-speaking) region of Belgium. Below, an interactive map that shows the route to the hotel from Stationsplein--the Bruges main train station. We'll plan on leaving Erfurt rather early on the morning of Monday June 25, likely on ICE1638 leaving at 07:50. Indeed, our proposed travel plan is below, and it would get us into town (into Bruges) around 15:00 (3:00 pm); disregard the pricing however (as we'll use your flex pass for this one): What are we in for when we get there? I'm keeping most of it a se...

Morgantown, WV  -- As we prepare for this Summer 2018, a quick note that the complete syllabus for COM416 is available below. The document can also be viewed (and downloaded) using this link [ Syllabus ]:

Morgantown, WV -- In about two months, we'll all be making our arrival in Erfurt, our home for Summer 2018. As a way to help folks get acclimated to their new hometown, we've been preparing this map of places that former and current SPICErs tend to frequent. The map also includes places that will be critical to SPICE 2018, as well as a few spots that you might just enjoy checking out. Enjoy, and please email Nick Bowman (Nicholas.Bowman@mail.wvu.edu) if you have any questions ... or if you'd like to help curate the map! NOTE: Keep an eye on this map, because we'll be continuing to update this map throughout the summer!

Morgantown, WV -- We've got our flights booked now, and by now students attending SPICE 2018 should have received emails with their flights. If you didn't, let me know and I'll get that over to you right away. Arriving in Germany As you can from the flight schedules, you'll be arriving in two waves of students between 7:20 am and 9:20 am (Dr. Dillow and I will be arriving with the 9:20am flight) — so long as there's no delays. For your information, the two incoming flights are: For IAD, we’re taking UA989, which departs at 5:20pm on Sunday 10 June and arrives in Frankfurt (FRA) at 7:20am on Monday, 11 June.  For EWR, we’re taking UA960 which departs at 7:40pm on Sunday 10 June and arrives in Frankfurt (FRA) at 9:20am on Monday, 11 June. Everyone will leave the US on Sunday 10 June and arrive in Germany (Frankfurt) on Monday 11 June. When you get to the airport (a .pdf of the airport, here ), your main tasks will be: Claim your bags (all signs are in ...

Morgantown, WV  -- Good morning, SPICErs! As we prepare for the seventh annual trip from Morgantown to Erfurt, we've got some early details on our academic calendar during our (nearly) 10-week stay in Germany. Below, the latest schedule of courses from our colleagues at Universität Erfurt, embedded as a .pdf (you can also download this file directly here ). In addition to to the details below, we'll be adding a few social events between now and our June departure, so stay tuned for details!