COM263: Cultures and Global Engagement

For my final multicultural competency, I chose to take COM263 which provided me on how cultures engage with each other and more importantly the different theories of intercultural communication and appreciate the diversity of culture and identity.  This course helped me reflect on my own cultural identity and find ways to comminicate the individuality of it compared to the common perspective one has. It made me a better engineer by continuing the focus on recognizing other perspectives and underststanding not only what they are trying to say but focusing on the way its said to emphasize key aspects.

The course experience for COM263 involved analyzing works on how culture is multifaceted in our lives and how it cannot be seperated from language. We also did translation activities which focused on how the meaning in one language cannot be cleanly converted to another because language itself has its own distinct story. I also wrote reflections on what culture meant to me and how it played a role in my life not just as an individual but also in my journey as an engineer in software. 

This relates to my theme of Joy of Living because it emphasized the focus of language and how its intertwined with culture. When it comes to solving global challenges in education (like with our library in Kenya) being able to communicate with stakeholders goes beyond simple translation. It requires a focus on making sure the meaning is able to be extracted and that cultural customs are respected. As a Joy of Living scholar, it is important to understand that language is culture and the closest window to a population's mindset. When engineering solutions to benefit a community it is important to keep in mind their culture and base my design decisions off that instead of shoehorning it to fit their own unique perspective.