Intercultural Observation Paper

Picture a beautiful campus and being able to hear music that was coming from the center of it from the street. As you walk closer the music gets louder. The Quad had been transformed into a huge festival. The festival was not just at the Quad, it expanded to the engineering building and on to the end of the campus. An event such as this brings people of all kinds of cultural backgrounds together. With all these cultures in one place makes for interesting observations from an emic perspective.
The event started at the Student Union. Families and friends were sitting everywhere in the sun while the their children ran around with each other and in the shade listening to the Matriarch playing on stage after would be more performances including two special Disney stars and country singer Chris Young . The music flooded
Hispanics are usually close-knit and aren’t afraid to spark up a conversation with someone they don’t know. When we speak to others we tend to step very close and touching someone on the arm or shoulder while having a conversation is completely normal. Those who were from different ethnic groups kept to their own and only conversed with who they were with. There was not much branching out on their part. When someone from outside their group tried to have a conversation and stepped too close they responded with nonverbal communication like having surprise facial expression and taking a couple of steps back . Nor would they try to keep the conversation up instead they tried to give simple answers and move away. One can argue that discrimination might be playing a role because of the lack of friendly communication. Discrimination cannot escape a society especially one with many ethnic groups smiliar to the RGV. Nonetheless along with differences in how people interacted to each other because of ethnic norms there were various reactions to the music that was being played and who reacted to