Cross-Cultural Blog

Atira Richards and Paige Hollen
Stanford University
1. We learned about the different cultural aspects from the Aurora students and how they saw certain aspects of images that may easily be overlooked as we were trying to find a greater meaning to it. They also provided different perspectives and interpretations of the reviewed images that helped us strengthen our understanding of the image.
2. We enjoyed meeting the people and learning about their backgrounds. It was surprising to see how the Aurora students could carefully examine each corporation logo on the image and immediately apply it to their lives and which company they most use.
3. When writing a paper, have the intention of reaching all audiences and considering multiple interpretations rather than your own. Also, don’t be afraid to note aspects of an image that seem straightforward; a valuable conclusion can still be drawn.

We learned that the exchange, though awkward at first, could be an exciting experience and just plain FUN! Definitely the most memorable moments were when Matika from Ethiopia defended America and when we all thought there were 48 stars on the flag instead of 50. We tried to analyze that as a visual argument for a good 2 minutes before we realized there actually were 50 stars.
As far as new insights, we saw that we have to keep in mind different perspectives on any issue.

We are excited for these sort of domestic exchanges!

Irene Jor and Andrew Berberick
Stanford University

Through today’s Aurora/Stanford video conference, we learned that visual rhetoric is something that everyone is exposed to and can be processed and understood in many different ways. Through our interaction with Aurora students we found that cross-cultural communication is important in gaining new perspectives about the visual rhetoric that is presented to us on a daily basis. In addition to gaining a new perspective on the visual, we also gain new perspective on others’ life experiences. An example of this would be one of the most memorable moments of the video conference when Andrew inquired about Jason’s experience on coming from Detroit and going to school in Aurora. We were in that moment able to get a glimpse of Detroit’s social issues through Jason’s words. We were surprised to find out that students at Aurora were taking a different class than us for which they were participating in the CCR project. This allowed us to briefly explain to them and reinforce for ourselves what we have learned about rhetorical terms (doxa, kairos, and logos). This also gave us room to not just stiffly talk about the images in formal terms and imagine what responses the flag images would receive in our respective communities. We came away from this experience with the insight that intercultural communications is not easy because of cultural differences but they’re valuable experiences as teaching tools on communication and sharing knowledge. This experience justifies the need for a diversity of views to come through with rhetorical analysis and research.

We were surprised by the ages of the students in Colorado – two were 16 and one was 20. We were also surprised that they thought you had to go to private school to get into Stanford, and they thought Stanford was an Ivy League school.
Rhetoric was understood for the most part in similar lights. There wasn’t much disagreement.
One insight we had for future intercultural communication was that you have to ask questions to find out about people’s culture. Our conference didn’t really go well until the end when we started asking each other questions.
An insight for future work is that you have to explain the rhetoric terms and establish a groundwork before analyzing (the group from Colorado weren’t familiar with terms like pathos because they weren’t in a visual rhetoric class).

I am from cca in aurora colorado. Todays video conference was fun. We dicussed the ethos,pathos and logos of 3 different flags.Talking about our goal for the future was memorable. Most of us are going for healthcare careers. I was suprised by how much we all had in common, like faviorte cartoons. I learned how to look at every detail and analysis it. This experience was great!!

Kristin - Aurora

The video conference, though it started out to be sort of awkward, was a good experience. We discussed that visual rhetoric is something that everyone is exposed to everyday, but that there are different ways it can interpreted. The most memorable moment for me was when we looked up the makers of the A-Mer-i-Ka (Grande Reportagem) and were able to see flags that they made for other contries as well. It was able to give us more of an understanding of their interpretations of the world, and why they made the flag the way they did. I learned that there are many different ways rhetoric an be interpreted, and you have a better understanding if you look at it from more than one point of view.

for me, I thought that the video conference to be very helpful, as well insightful. with a wide range of back ground knowledge and race, I say many different points of view. the topic that was given to us was a flag. the first one was a flag with many different company logos. the other flag had a saying about where a country was and who might have made it. after all that was said, I did learn a lot from the Stanford students.

CCA - Rachel Z.

It was a very insightful experience getting to talk to the Standford students through this video conference. I learned that although people may be looking at the same image, article, or any other analytical object, we all see it and analyze it in different ways. I was surprised to know that even though my group and the two Stanford students, Irene and Andrew, came from separate areas of the country, we had some things in common. Andrew happened to be from Colorado as well and ran cross country just like I do. That was one thing I was really surprised about and it made me think that although people may appear to be entirely different from yourself, there are hidden similarities that you would never found out unless you asked that particularly person. While discussing the photos with the students, I realized that their analysis was far more in depth than anything my group and I were able to come up with. I learned that while observing something, you have to look at the broader picture of what's being shown to you, not just what's on the page. I've learned that there's a deeper meaning to everything you ever read or see and that it's important to take the time to analyze these pieces of information one at a time to create an effective analysis. Overall, this video conference really helped me in my quest to become a better writer by teaching me to look at everything closer and use that information to make your writing more interesting for the readers.

From this activity, I actually learned how to use the rhetorical terms more freely, it was interesting interacted wih students from Stanford. Since both groups were confotable with the american culture, we base our assumptions. I found it interesting to see that we still have the similar taught in that pictures.

Cross-cultural communication is an important tools in our everyday life. To saw how people from different background,gender,age,can have different opinion or interpretation on one piece of work. How each of us can used those words we learned prior to that video can be clearly understood now(LOgos, Doxa,and Kairos) and interpreted. Also to look at things from different prospective now. It was a nice experience

Allowing for a cross-cultutral communication it helped develop an understanding with each other.Being able to see one piece of work through different eyes is a very important tool. The most emorable moment was being able to listen to people from different backgrounds and different life paths to draw different conclusions from one image. The biggest surprise was that thoughts would be different but were very similar and fallowed the same elements.
• What new insights do you have that you can use for your rhetorical analysis work, your research project, or future intercultural communications?
I got to see how Logos, Ethos, and Pathos are tided to a piece or image in this case, but how it can give certain out looks and ways of getting a point across. I can put this in my writing when I do an analysis piece, over all the experience was fun.

hi, i am raj from C.C.A Aurora. Today we had a video conference with the stanford university. First of all we introduced each other and then we talked about the image given to us. we talked about two images. The first image was a flag containing different kinds of corperative, in place of the stars and another one was also a flag but it was about the war going on in iraq.Our thoughts were basically were same about both pictures. But after having a video conference we came to know how peole analyze the same image in diffrent manner. we also talked about the logos, ethos and pathos. how they are interlinked with each other. we were thinking that therethoughts will be diffrent as they are from diffren background,but not most of our thoughts were same as there. overall it was a great experience to know the people thoughts through live conference.

I learned that we all had different ideas that all combined while we were looking at the images. The most memorable moment was when we all thought we saw 48 stars on the flag, and all started counting them together. My new insight on this blog was that no matter what school, no matter what background we come from...we all have something important to say.

I learned that the Stranfords students perspective and our perspective of the image was very similar to one another.The most memorable moment was when Mitiku gave his opinion about the image And it surprised me that he actually had a lot to say. The new insight that I have that could be very useful in the future, is to pay closer attention to more detail.This is so that I or the reader can get a better understanding of what it is that i am trying to analyze.

By doing this activity, I realized that we can learn a lot of things from other people, around the US. At first, it was awkward beacause we really didn't know what to say. As time went on, we started analysing the pictures, and we found we had more to say. The most important moment for me, was the fact that we had the chance to interact with people from other places. We got to see what each of us had to say and therefore share our opinions.

I learnt how diversity works.We all have different ideas concerning the American flag. All these ideas come together to make America. When it comes to technology and other areas like health, America is far ahead. This video conference was a surprise to me.I was expecting to see the standford students in person. I really enjoyed my group. They were nice and helpfull. We even discussed other pictures as well. They wanted to know other things about Colorado. We had fun.

1. I learnt how communication has advanced and how one can just look at a picture and derive meaning from it.
2.What was memorable was the picture the Stadford students showed to us. It was children from other parts of the world holing the American flag with enthusiasm. They seemed to be saying "we are one people."
3.I now know most of the logo of the companies in the US. We discussed the services they provide. What was funny was the colour representing the portion of people who do not even know where Iraq is.There is always a section of ignorant people all over the world.

All these ideas come together to make America. When it comes to technology and other areas like health, America is far ahead. This video conference was a surprise to me.I was expecting to see the Standford students in person. I really enjoyed my group. They were nice and helpful. We even discussed other pictures as well. They wanted to know other things about Colorado. We had fun.