Cultural Self-Awareness and Intelligence: A Critical Reflection Essay

This essay explores the importance of cultural self-awareness and intelligence in interacting with people of different cultures and adapting to different cultural settings. It provides personal experiences and insights on how understanding our own cultural background can increase our ability to interact with people of different cultures.

Running head: Critical reflection essay
Critical reflection essay
Cultural self-awareness is the awareness of how culture has influenced oneself (Lu &
Wan, 2018). It is the ability to stand back and become aware of our own cultures, believes and
perceptions. Where we ask ourselves questions like: how do we view the world? Why do we
view it that way? Why do we react in this certain kind of way? More so, cultural self-awareness
is the ability to notice the traits we that are the product of our culture so as to avoid cultural
biases. On the other hand, cultural intelligence is the capability of people to successfully adapt to
new cultural settings that are unfamiliar to them (Earley, Ang & Tan, 2010). In our world today
people of different ethnicities and backgrounds interact often; online, at the workplace, in
schools; this makes cultural intelligence important for them to communicate efficiently and
without cultural misunderstandings. This essay will describe how and why understanding how
our cultures influence our behavior increases our ability to interact with people of different
cultures and easily adapt to different cultural settings, I will also provide my own experience in
interacting with people of other cultures.
Understanding our own cultural background is a step in transforming our cultural
intelligence (Livermore, 2009). We should take a moment and appreciate how our culture has
affected our perception of the world and how it has affected our general behavior. Understanding
this will enable us to see how different people perceive us. Cultural self-awareness will enable us
to be empathetic. More so, we are able to tell the impacts our behavior will have on others the
more culturally self-aware we are (Adler, 2008). Becoming culturally self-aware is difficult
since our culture influences us subconsciously. Therefore, one may have to ask foreign
colleagues on how they perceive them. Additionally, to avoid cultural bias or naturalization,
moving ourselves outside our cultural frame and learning about our culture; food, language,
1

Running head: Critical reflection essay
religion; and comparing it to our own behavior so as to identify the pattern can also help in
becoming self-aware (“LibGuides: Rubric: Intercultural Competence - Global Citizenship
Program: Cultural Self-awareness”, 2018). For example, I came to realize that when eating I
savor the moment and also utilize the time bonding with family and friends, people from other
cultures such as Americans may perceive this as being lazy whereas in our culture it is a norm.
To Americans, time is money and they may hold business meetings over lunch, this may be rude
in our culture. Understanding this helps me cope whenever I visit America.
When I first visited rural Vietnam, I noticed people had black teeth. At first, I thought
they had poor hygiene practice only to find out that they believed blackened teeth enhances sex
appeal and also maintains healthy teeth. I imagine if it was not for knowing this I might have
recommended use of toothpaste or getting their teeth whitened. This may be described as the
Iceberg analogy. This analogy of culture helps us to realize that most of the observable behavior,
clothing, in people are just a fraction of what they believe in and the cultures they were brought
up in, the larger fraction is unobservable (McGreal, 2017). Just like the iceberg, not
understanding the unobservable fraction is what brings about problems in multicultural settings.
One needs to understand the norms and values that govern the people of a certain culture for
successful multicultural interactions.
Cultural self-awareness leads to a high cultural intelligence. When you are comfortable
with your own culture and understand it and how it has shaped your behavior, you are more open
to learn new cultures and adapt in different cultural settings. More so, cultural self-awareness
enables us to respect the views of people from different cultures and thus avoid
misunderstanding (Quappe & Cantatore, 2018). Norms and what is considered moral behavior
are defined differently in each culture. Cultural self-awareness enables us not to expect people
2

Running head: Critical reflection essay
from other cultures to behave the same way as us and also to respect that. For example, my
friend who works in Kenya told me he was warned against homosexual behavior during his
induction and if one was found to be engaging in it, their contract would be terminated
immediately and deported. This seemed backward and a bit off, same sex relations have been
accepted in most western countries. However, in most African countries same sex relations are a
taboo and in Kenya one could face a lifelong jail sentence. Therefore, expatriates have to respect
the cultures of these countries for a successful work environment.
We have to understand the four factors of cultural intelligence; drive, knowledge, strategy
and action; for us to be able to improve our cultural intelligence (“Cultural Intelligence: Working
Successfully With Diverse Groups”, 2018). People with high cultural intelligence are able to
notice the differences in cultures and will change their character in order to fit in. Being self-
aware enables us to understand how our culture shaped us and we will be able to project that to
people of different cultures. In addition to this, we will want to seek knowledge about new
cultures and in a way fulfill the factors of cultural intelligence. For example, I found it difficult
to interact with Japanese people, should I just shake their hands or should I bow when greeting
them? Should I refer to them with their first name? Will I seem rude if I do? Such questions
always came to me when interacting with people from Japan. I now understand that bowing and
formal greetings are deeply ingrained in Japanese people the same way that Australians have
casual greetings. I came to learn that Japanese people do not expect tourist foreigners who visit
Japan to bow; however, when you live in Japan, you should absolutely learn to do. You simply
have to take into account where you are.
In conclusion, our cultures affect our behaviors, morality, norm subconsciously. Taking a
step to learn how our own cultures have affected us without having cultural biases is important in
3

Running head: Critical reflection essay
becoming cultural self-aware. Cultural self-awareness is important in helping us relate how
people from different cultures behave the way they do. This will ultimately help us strategize on
how to successfully adapt in cultural environments different from our own. It can thus be said
that cultural self-awareness and intelligence are important for people to have peaceful global
interactions and effective communications. This is because people around the globe are from
different cultures, cultural misunderstandings can thus be avoided by each one of us becoming
culturally self-aware and gaining cultural intelligence. We should embrace our diverse cultures
instead of letting it hinder communication and relations especially in work places.
4

Running head: Critical reflection essay
References
Adler, N. J., & Gundersen, A. (2008). International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior: 5th
ed. Florence: Thomson South-Western.
Cultural Intelligence: Working Successfully With Diverse Groups. (2018). Mindtools.com.
Retrieved 19 April 2018, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/cultural-
intelligence.htm
Earley, P., Ang, S., & Tan, J. (2010). CQ. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Business Books.
LibGuides: Rubric: Intercultural Competence - Global Citizenship Program: Cultural Self-
awareness. (2018). Libguides.webster.edu. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from
http://libguides.webster.edu/c.php?g=98100&p=
Livermore, D. A. (2009). Cultural intelligence: Improving your CQ to engage our multicultural
world. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic.
Lu, C., & Wan, C. (2018). Cultural Self-Awareness as Awareness of Culture’s Influence on
the Self: Implications for Cultural Identification and Well-Being. Personality And Social
Psychology Bulletin, 014616721775211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167217752117
McGreal, D. (2017). The Cultural Iceberg Analogy | TMCorp. Tmcorp.com. Retrieved 19 April
2018, from http://www.tmcorp.com/Perspectives/Global-Advice/Global-Advice/80/
vobid--187/
Quappe, S., & Cantatore, G. (2018). Culturosity Article: What is Cultural Awareness?.
Culturosity.com. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from
http://www.culturosity.com/articles/whatisculturalawareness.htm
5

Running head: Critical reflection essay
6