CQ Assessment Discussion

[Emma Hodges]

One of my CQ capabilities that is a strength is CQ knowledge regarding cultural systems. I definitely see this as a strength in myself, as I always try to learn about others cultures so I can understand the way they work. I have found when I am in a situation with someone from another culture, I can always see and understand more clearly why they act certain ways in certain situations based on their cultural systems. The way that a persons culture is majorly impacts the way they interact with others.

A CQ capability I can grow in is CQ drive – Self efficacy. This capability specifically speaks to a certain level of confidence had when interacting with others of another culture. I would say this is something that I am growing in, and I think that improving this capability will come naturally as I head into a new culture full time. I find that I always doubt myself and don’t believe I have a good handle on culture so I will stay quiet and just listen when interacting with those from another culture. But, I would love to get more confident and feel that I can interact with others from another culture better.

[Taliya]

One of my CQ capabilities that is a strength is awareness. This means that I can sense the cultural perspectives of myself and others. I have seen this in my travels, in my relationship with my husbands family, and in my friendships with people in the LGBTQ+ community. I know that the values and beliefs I have that influence how I think and act come from my cultural background. Likewise, these people I interact with have different cultural backgrounds from myself, so I am aware that their perspectives will be different from mine. I like to understand those differences more and learn from those interactions.

A weak CQ area is speech acts. This means that I have a hard time modifying the manner and content of my communications. This one came as a shock to me because I thought I was more culturally sensitive in how I communicated than this test indicated I was. But thinking on it, I haven’t really had too much of an opportunity to learn the communication norms of other cultures. I’ve only ever visited other countries briefly, and in my interactions with people from different cultural backgrounds in Canada, I’ve always communicated in a way that is very Canadian. The only time I really noticed a change in how I communicated was in Nunavut, I would pick up the accent of how people spoke there to communicate better. But the majority of my experience has been communicating the way I was raised. I don’t understand certain nuances yet in non-verbal communication for other cultures, like if body language is really important or not. I will definitely need to know this for moving to and living in a new country. I don’t want to accidentally offend someone and ruin a relationship just because I didn’t realize how my communication affected the conversation! I plan to ask people I know well from that culture to teach me some unspoken rules about communication, and after the first few interactions with people, I would like to reflect on if/how I can improve my communication awareness for next time.