Soliya Reflection

Even though I did not attend all of the soliya sessions I actually enjoyed it a lot and I learned a lot. First of all cross cultural communication is a complex process. In soliya we have learned that all cultures interpret things differently. Whether it is how to react when someone is late to a meeting or in how people perceive the influence of history on culture. 

That is one of the privileges of being a part of this program because we experience cross cultural communication first hand. With the program being so diverse it really adds to the experience. Communication between people of different cultures does not have to be difficult but it is also not always easy. An example of this is during the discussions when people from two different cultures disagree about something because of their cultures. Their options are to talk through their disagreement and explain themselves or to get defensive and argue. Luckily people in our section were willing to take the time to explain themselves but that is not always the case.
So far I believe we have learned the most about cross cultural communication by practicing with each other, which in my opinion is the best way to learn anything because of globalization. The importance of learning to communicate with different cultures is extremely relevant. I think this program and the exercises that we did during it helped everyone learn to communicate better not only cross culturally but within their own cultures as well.

I also attended the well being conversation and I liked how diverse the group was and it was actually uplifting to see that everyone is trying really hard to overcome the obstacles that they have even though the times are hard and everyone is struggling with the pandemic.