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Partner: Alexis

Question 2: In what ways do you see this multi-literacies approach useful (or challenging?) in developing and adopting more effective communication strategies in the real context of workplaces that you are familiar with or that you imagine working for.

Having a multi-literacy approach is useful when being culturally engaging and sensitive to others, however, this can be challenging since there is not one selected and understood source literary causing confusion or miscommunication. The benefits of having a multi-literary approach as demonstrated in the readings this week allow for business/organizations to engage globally and reach different audiences. Some examples include social media platforms, international business, call centers, housing or rental spaces, and tourism. Some of the challenges of a multiliteracies approach include miscommunication, misinterpretation due to cultural differences, and culturally neutral understandings. 

Places that inherit these skills of multi-literacy include tech companies and globalized businesses, this allows for more diverse company culture and the reaching of a larger audience. Having a diverse company such as Apple or Google allows for a more skillful and technical employee base that allows them to reach global audiences. It enhances a company’s ability to know how to cater to other culture’s wants and needs to be based on internal input. For employees, it allows for cultural diversity and learning by empowering one another to learn and teach through cultural differences and similarities. 

Hedda, Cole, Christine, and Mahima 

Campaign – Apple’s Shot on iPhone campaign 

Goal – It is a User Generated Content campaign to boost brand awareness and sales. Convey their phone’s versatility and caliber by shooting all of their campaigns on iPhones.

Call-to-Action – Users were asked to upload their best shots on Instagram or Twitter with the #ShotOniPhone

Effectiveness – Generated 15 million posts on Instagram alone, 62 million increase in sales in a year. Took home multiple awards from Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2015. Posts were shared as posters/billboards across 85 countries, which means that the campaign had a global impact.

Did it create change? The campaign helped change the perceptions of consumers and helped make lasting impressions in the media that is still active in 2021.

 

In what ways do you feel challenged or privileged as a communicator across cultures and languages?

Both Alden, Hedda and Marty come from different backgrounds. During our discussion we used Aldens native language, that being English. From the reading, Jane Hayman states that he then owns the discourse. We’re all from educational systems where we have the opportunity to learn a second language, but the emphasis on diving deeper into the cultural background of that specific language and culture is missing from both American and Norwegian schools. We all feel challenged in that way, that we know the language, but not so much the culture. Coming from western countries, we all have access to apps and the internet, where if we wanted to, would be able to learn another language from apps such as Duolingo. We are all very privileged to be able to travel abroad and experience the cultures we meet first hand.

Having grown up in today’s society, we all feel privileged to be able to express ourselves both through language and other social media platforms without judgement. However, we acknowledge that other races and ethnicities within our communities are not so fortunate. We can read and hear about their struggles, but will never be fully able to understand or comprehend what they are going through. Although we come from very open-minded cultures, there is still a lot of taboo surrounding hot topics such as abortion and same sex marrige. If you express opinions about disliking them in Norway, you will not be met with understanding and an entertainment of that discourse.

In Norway the childrens TV channels used to display characters who only spoke in the dialect that is used in the capital. Friends of ours who spoke a different dialect would then use the capitals dialect when they played with dolls or were roleplaying as children. This issue was brought up within society, and has now changed so that they display a range of dialects so everyone feels inclusive. Alden also expressed experiences with feeling judgement from the Chinese community when he tells them he doesn’t know the language.

Thank you!

By Orestis, Julia and Hedda

The article by Macdonald and Sundararajan showed how there isn’t a disconnect between the expectations of domestic and international students. The disconnect is not cultural, it is generational. Younger generations are growing up in a more globalized world and are therefore more open to cross-cultural experiences in the classroom. 

From an international perspective, it would be helpful if universities incorporated stronger advising in professional English language writing. Also, with the fully online environment, it’s challenging to have connections with professors to ask for additional help — such as stopping by office hours or staying a few minutes after class. 

One thing that is different about the international education and American education experience is the emphasis on personal experience. Especially in the MAPC program, students are encouraged to share their personal stories and relate the class material to their personal lives. For instance, in Norway the writing process is more strict — you might be able to add your personal opinion in the conclusion but otherwise it is very fact-based. 

A major benefit of having a class full of international and domestic students is the diversity of people and information shared. The sharing of different perspectives makes the education experience more effective. If we stay in our own groups of similar people, it’s hard to open up to other cultures. Multicultural classrooms benefit everyone involved.

Thank you!

 

Hey everyone, my name is Hedda Grambo Flattum and I’m 22 years old. I’m originally from a small town in Norway called Vikersund, but I currently live in San Francisco with Marty which is also in our class. This is my second semester and I’m pursuing the strategic concentration in our program. Something interesting about Vikersund… it is an extremely small town with approximately 3.000 people living there so San Francisco is a big adjustment for me. 

A fun fact about Norway is that we live by an unwritten law called “janteloven”, which is all about that people should not think that they are better than others. Other than that I’m a big movie nerd, and I’m currently having a marvel marathon with Marty. The time we have spent on this might be a bit crazy for some, but in my opinion it is time well spent.