Cultural Self-Awareness and Cultural Intelligence

Running head: CULTURE
CULTURE
Name of Student
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Author note

CULTURE1
There exists an correlation between cultural self-awareness and cultural intelligence
as determined by connectivity, communication opportunities and the environment too
(Spencer-Oatey 2012). The artifacts and creations – such as the visual and audible
environment play a very important role in shaping of cultural intelligence as well. I learned
that art and artifacts that are native to one culture, plays a very important role in fostering an
individual awareness. Social patterns, contemporary technology and art help in increasing
one’s awareness about a culture and a society and better the communication in within the
culture, better is the broadening of one’s consciousness and awareness of the same. These
factors in turn transforms one’s value system and the basic assumptions of life such as –
human nature, nature of human daily activity like behaviors, social interactions, the
perception of reality, space and time and the relation to social environment.
Drawing on the experiences from one portion of my life, I had to move to Germany
with my parents as my father, who is an engineer in an IT company had to relocate for job.
Initially, I had different perceptions about the world, of other countries, the people living in
it, of their societies and how much different are they from us. After I was actually relocated
to Germany, I felt that people although have social diversity between them, there are certain
things that are similar amongst all culture – human emotions. To me, culture impacts one’s
system of individual values and one’s system of beliefs. This cultural self-awareness relates
to the need of social belongings and concoction of potential social relationships. Growing up
in a culture and a society largely affects the one’s perception of the world and immediate
surroundings. Self- awareness in a society and a culture refers to a feeling of security,
belongingness and self- identity to a broader degree. To me, the extent of self- awareness
while living in a culture – depends on the fact that how an individual feels attached to a
culture and the social system in it. It influenced my fluidity of one’s morals and beliefs about
one’s self and about others in the culture to a great extent. Whereas cultural self-awareness

CULTURE2
refers to one’s consciousness of his own culture and other culture and his own identity in it,
cultural intelligence refers to one’s competency about a human culture. . I can relate to the
article ‘Growing up a third culture kid – a sociological self-exploration’ by K.R – where
various perspectives of human culture across the world has been explained and the
experience of living in different other cultures which is not our own has been explored as
well. The article focusses on different ideas such as the importance of growing into a broader
perspective of social awareness and the necessity of widening one’s cultural self-
consciousness with experiences and empathizing with people of many other cultures.
Cultural intelligence is the measure of individual’s capability to perform efficiently in
many- cultured environment (Quappe & Cantatore, 2005). I have learned organizations and
employees apply the various facets of cultural quotient to understand and nurture individual
tolerance to others and improve levels or efficiency of cross-cultural communication. cultural
quotient recruit certain strategies that uses that uses one’s awareness of own existing culture
followed by planning of the diverse cultural encounter and how to interact with people
coming from other cultural backgrounds and then finally, when the encounter has happened –
the cultural quotient strategy adjusts the mental maps in order to conform the schemas
between the reality and expectations of other cultures. Cultural self-awareness is the basis for
cultural intelligence and one who respects his own religion finds a way to address the other
culture as well. As given in the article ‘Mobility of Cultures and Knowledge Management in
Contemporary Europe’ by Sakari Taipale, there is a clear elucidation of paradigm shift in
sociological dynamics and thinking. I understood that the study demonstrates the bridge
between established knowledge and new knowledge and how it affects the relationship
between cultural intelligence and cultural self-knowledge. The study demonstrates the utility
of cultural identity and intelligence by describing the distance education system in Europe.
The importance of established knowledge, to me, is reflected through the fact that the