CUC107 Report: Analyzing Cultural Capabilities in Social Contexts

This report analyzes a scenario depicting cultural misunderstandings and communication barriers between an Indian individual and Americans, drawing from the video "An Indian in America: Unscripted Reactions." The report examines the concepts of culture shock, intercultural communication, and cultural intelligence, highlighting how a lack of these can lead to unsafe social environments. It provides a detailed breakdown of the interactions, observing instances of exclusion and lack of cultural intelligence. The analysis incorporates academic sources to support its claims. The report concludes with recommendations for improving cultural capabilities to foster a safe and inclusive environment, emphasizing the importance of cultural self-awareness and understanding in cross-cultural interactions. It suggests practical steps for overcoming communication barriers and promoting cultural intelligence.

Running head: CULTURAL CAPABILITIES
Cultural capabilities
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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Background......................................................................................................................2
Aim..................................................................................................................................2
Scope................................................................................................................................2
Summary and Observations.................................................................................................2
Summary of the scenario.................................................................................................2
Observations....................................................................................................................3
Analysis...............................................................................................................................3
Culture shock...................................................................................................................4
Intercultural communication............................................................................................4
Cultural intelligence.........................................................................................................4
Recommendations................................................................................................................5
Summary and conclusion.................................................................................................5
Reference list.......................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Background
For creating a safe place, social capability, self-awareness and cultural intelligence are
required. The safe place is an essential element for effective operation in the workplace,
university and communities. Secure areas are generated when everyone present in the scenario
engages in a specific setting with a positive attitude. People with different cultures have different
language practice and body language, which might result in the creation of a barrier in
communication.
Aim
The report aims to analyze the situation, where cultural differences between individuals
create an unsafe environment. This report will also be recommending enhancements which can
be brought about to create a safe environment in a particular situation. Cultural and
communications barriers have led to the creation of an unsafe environment, which will be
broadly discussed in this report.
Scope
This report mainly emphases on the misunderstandings between an Indian with some
American individuals. Some of these problems have been shown in the video of An Indian in
America: Unscripted Reactions. In this video, Rahul asked various questions to random strangers
about America. The strangers tried to make Rahul understand about the misconceptions he is
making about the cultures of America. The difference in cultures shows an unsafe place between
Rahul and Americans.
Summary and Observations
Summary of the scenario
The name of the video is An Indian in America: Unscripted Reactions which has been
uploaded by Zain Sharif (Sharif,2016). This video has scenes which are set up in various social
places where Rahul has come to Australia for the first time, and he seems very confused about
the culture of Australia. The principal character in this video casually asks a person about
football to a random individual. It is seen that the individual judges Rahul about his physical
appearance and asks to gain a significant amount of weight to be able to play the sport in the
country. The person also states that they call football “soccer”. When Rahul asks two girls about

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how to join a sorority, the girls laugh on him, and they make him understand that sorority is for
girls and fraternity is for boys. In one scene, we see him asking a stranger about visiting a
building named cheetah for sorting out his visa and i-20 issues. Since there was a flag of
America on the building, so Rahul wanted to visit the building. The stranger tells him that the
building is a strip club and fails to explain to him what a strip club is.
Observations
Table 1 breakup of the different scenes
Scene number Physical factors Communication
aspects
Signs of
inclusion and
exclusion
Exhibition or
lack of cultural
intelligence
Scene 1 Big open space,
proximity is less
between the
American and
Rahul
The American
laughs when
Rahul asks about
football.
The American
shows signs of
exclusion when
Rahul uses the
term “football”
and uses the
term “soccer” in
place of it.
Lack of cultural
intelligence from
Rahul.
Scene 2 Open ground,
proximity is
moderate
between the
American and
Rahul.
The American
has a hard time
understanding
the accent of
Rahul.
The American
showed a sign of
exclusion when
he is unable to
explain to Rahul
what happens at
“CHEETAH”.
Lack of cultural
intelligence is
showed by
Rahul.
Scene 3 Open place,
maybe near a
sorority.
The girls
laughed when
Rahul wanted to
join a sorority.
The girls showed
a sign of
exclusion when
Rahul said he
wants to join a
sorority.
Lack of cultural
intelligence is
showed in
Rahul.
Analysis
The video shows the concept of “safe spaces” by encouraging risk-taking, imaginative
thinking, and this is obvious from the various physical and communicating factors which is
present throughout the video. Though the video depicts that there is a presence of a safe place,
yet in reality, racism and racial abuse is a common problem for the immigrants in the country
(Roskell,2013). It has been seen that Rahul has been deliberately asking arbitrary questions to the

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Americans which is making them laugh and have a hard time answering the questions. In the
second scene, when Rahul asks whether what activities take place at a strip club, the American
was very confused about how to provide an answer to this question.
Culture shock
Culture shock is a common thing among people who visit new countries. Understanding
their culture and adopting their lifestyle takes up much time (Wood,2016). From the different
scenes in this video, it is pretty clear that Rahul has to learn many things before he gets
accustomed to the American culture.
Intercultural communication
In the video, it can be seen in many scenes that there is a problem in communication with
Rahul and the Americans. When he asks two American guys about the absence of “hose” from a
toilet, they are unable to understand what he is talking about. This shows that the differences in
culture are creating communication problems (Thomas,2015).
Cultural intelligence
A person must instil cultural self-awareness before they can comprehend cultural intelligence.
Cultural intelligence may be described as the ability of an individual to thrive under diverse
cultures. In this case, Rahul is lacking cultural intelligence which is affecting his
communications with the Americans. Cultural intelligence becomes apparent in a different
situation where an individual is not familiar with the culture of the place (Holley& Steiner,2005).
In this video, it is seen that the questions which have been asked by Rahul show that he lacks the
knowledge of the culture of America. He is unable to differentiate a strip club and embassy, and
he is unable to understand the difference between a sorority and a fraternity. These are specific
instances which show why cultural intelligence is essential for getting accustomed to a new
culture and place. (Brislin,Worthley & Macnab,2006). For becoming culturally intelligent an
individual must be able to adapt the various cultural challenge which will be faced in the long
run (Gough,2014).
For understanding the concept of safe places, it is essential to be aware of cultural
intelligence and cultural awareness (Quappe & Cantatore,2005). In this video, we get a clear idea
about the absence of safe places for immigrants in America. The main aim of the video is to
depict how the lack of cultural intelligence can lead to various awkward moments while having

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cross-cultural communication. Culture shock is a widespread issue which is faced by immigrants
when they visit a new place for studying or work (Berry & Candis,2013). In-Depth knowledge of
the culture of a place and its people is essential for communicating with the people of that place.
For understanding the communication of a place, it is crucial to understand the various culture of
the place. There are some barriers which oppose the understanding of the communication of a
place, and these include the behaviours and stereotypes of a place (Flanja,2009). For overcoming
these barriers, there are specific steps which can be followed like listening actively to the
communication, following honest communication with the other person, opening and clearing
the questions used in the communication and avoid the various stereotyping which might have
been followed during the communication process (Ang & Van Dyne,2015).
In the video, when Rahul asks about the meaning of an eraser showed that Rahul has no
idea about the term which is used for rubber in Australia. In the country, rubber relates to
something completely different than an eraser. This shows the lack of cultural knowledge in
Rahul which created problems for him to communicate with the American citizens.
Recommendations
Throughout this video, the lack of safe place has been depicted, since the video shows the
problems which an Indian might face when they visit America for the first time. All of these
unsafe elements are the main elements of the video. However, the unsafe situations which have
been depicted in the video can be altered to create a safe place for the immigrants in the country.
Understanding the culture of a new place before communicating with the natives is an essential
step to avoid an awkward conversation. Understanding the various terms of the place which they
generally use that are different from the other parts of the world will be facilitating the
communication process. In the scene where Rahul asks a girl about rubber, and she laughs the
problem in communication. The physical behaviour of the American at the start of the video
shows that he thinks that Rahul is incapable of taking part in football with the American guys.
Summary and conclusion
This video mainly focused on the lack of safe places for immigrants in America. A very
casual approach has been taken to depict the lack of safe places in the video. The lack of cultural
knowledge and cultural intelligence of Rahul shows that the various problem which can be faced
by an immigrant in Australia. This report mainly depicts the various aspects which need to be

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followed for sustaining a safe place. Cultural self-awareness, cultural capabilities and cultural
intelligence are the various aspects which need to be followed to live in a different culture.
Reference list
Ang, S., & Van Dyne, L. (2015). Conceptualization of cultural intelligence: Definition,
distinctiveness, and nomological network. In Handbook of cultural intelligence (pp. 21-
33). Routledge.
Berry, T. R., & Candis, M. R. (2013). Cultural Identity and Education: A Critical Race
Perspective. Educational Foundations, 27, 43-64.
Brislin, R., Worthley, R., & Macnab, B. (2006). Cultural intelligence: Understanding behaviors
that serve people’s goals. Group & Organization Management, 31(1), 40-55.
Flanja, D. (2009). Culture shock in intercultural communication. Studia Universitatis Babes-
Bolyai-Studia Europaea, (4), 107-124.
Gough, I. (2014). Lists and thresholds: comparing the Doyal-Gough theory of human need with
Nussbaum’s capabilities approach. Capabilities, Gender, Equality, 357-381.
Holley, L. C., & Steiner, S. (2005). Safe space: Student perspectives on classroom
environment. Journal of Social Work Education, 41(1), 49-64.
Quappe, S., & Cantatore, G. (2005). What is Cultural Awareness, anyway? How do I build
it. Retrieved July, 17, 2008.
Roskell, D. (2013). Cross-cultural transition: International teachers’ experience of ‘culture
shock’. Journal of Research in International Education, 12(2), 155-172.
Sharif, Z. (2016). An Indian in America: Unscripted Reactions retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ99500nXTY
Thomas, D. C. (2015). Cultural intelligence. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-3.
Van Dyne, L., Ang, S., & Tan, M. L. (2016). Cultural intelligence. (Van Dyne,Ang & Tan,2016)
Wood, G. (2016). The shock of the real: romanticism and visual culture, 1760-1860. Springer.