Brittany Saenz

Cultural Change Report

Shirene Mckay
Overview: Throughout this cultural change final report I will cover the various tactics I
used to cope with stress, in order to work well with others, become more open minded
and strengthen relationships around me. First I will be discussing the tactic and how it
was implemented in my day-to-day life. Then I will give advice on recommendations in
order to be successful at the tactic implemented.
Competency Area: Stress Management: This dimension evaluates the degree to which
you report actively utilizing stress reduction strategies and techniques when faced with
stressors in your daily life, as well as the degree to which you are willing to employ new
stress reduction techniques in the future (Mckay)
My weakness in this area would be finding comfort in a foreign place. Whenever I am in
an unfamiliar place where I dont know what the outcome would be, I become stressed
automatically. In order to control that stress when I first moved to Utah I figured out what
was valued by the culture as a whole and how I could adapt with staying true to my
identity. I never changed the way I dressed but when I noticed that people did not cuss
around here I changed the way I addressed people and the way I spoke.
Another weakness of mine is patience. Considering I do not have much patience I
become stressed out if something is taking to long, or I cant find the answer out right
away. Working at T-Mobile there are prejudices of what type of customers will demand
certain things according to age, and ethnicity. For me, when elder people came in, I
wasnt as willing to help when on the other hand, if a family came in I would be more
willing to help. Therefore, I began to actually jump to help every customer despite if they
seemed as though I would be successful from helping them or not; commission wise at
least. Once I adjusted who I approached I was actually able to prove all the prejudices
wrong, and made more money off of the older community then I ever would have
thought.
Goal: I wish to learn how to cope with my stress due to the fact I face it every day. I want
to be able to recognize when I am letting my stress get the best of me, and figure out what
I can do to enable me to go back to my normal state. I dont want stress to affect me at
work and connecting with the different people that I get to interact with. In which case I
must begin to recognize what stresses me out and face it.
Chapter 8 Understanding Intercultural Transitions
Tactic # 1: Finding comfort in a foreign place (Utah) and keeping my cultural values
alive while still being able to learn and adapt to the culture around me. This is done by
finding out the major values of the people in Utah and respecting it but still staying true
to myself. I did decide although if the Utah values where to better me as a person I would
adapt it. One goal is to limit my cussing, and every time I do want to cuss I turn it into an
alternative word (Martin and Nakayama 328).

Tactic Implementation: When I first moved here I cussed like a sailor. I did
not care where I cussed or who I was talking to, because I didnt realize
the culture around me. I didnt know the values of Mormons and was
able to catch on fairly quickly. When I got to know Mormons more and
more I began to ask questions on the religion and realize that cussing
is taken seriously by most Mormons who practice the religion. Which
lets face it, is the majority of Utah. I thought to myself, in my religion it
is a sin to cuss as well. Do all Christians follow this? No. But it has been
something I have been wanting to change and out of respect for
everyone around me I decided to do so. At first it was not easy, until I
realized how everyone got away with not cussing. They had alternative
words!! So, my alternative words have been frick, shiz, crud,
mother lover, and so on.
Tactic Recommendations: Cussing was actually a lot easier to give up and
with the pressure to make my environment more comfortable, it came
quicker than expected. The change from cussing to not cussing was
almost immediate when I came up with funny alternative words. This
was me adapting to my environment and putting aside my California
culture of relaxed talk. Relaxed In a sense of slang, and cussing up a
storm with complete strangers. I dont regret this change because it
has made me a better person and able to follow my own personal
religion the way I have always strived too.
It is not easy for everyone to give up cussing, but if this is
something that you have been trying to do. Finding an alternative word
may not be the only thing that helps you. But it will motivate you and
remind you that you want to stop cussing and is a highly effective
strategy in my opinion. Also what Ive noticed is when I told my friends
what I was doing the ones who were supportive of it controlled their
cussing around me. That encouraged me to continue this no cussing
with people who are familiar to me as well.
Chapter 9 Popular Culture and Intercultural Communication
Tactic #2: To keep an open mind to everyone and maintain the same
patience with absolutely everyone no matter what prejudice I may
unconsciously hold against their race, or cultural group as a whole.
Also to recognize what prejudice I do hold against them and not act on
it, I in fact would rather investigate on whether my assumptions are
true.
Where I work there is a wide variety of people who make up the
traffic of my customers, in which I have realized I have begun to
discriminate on races and assuming I already know why they would be
entering the store. In this case I want to approach absolutely everyone
despite my assumptions and try to investigate to either prove myself
wrong or right ((Martin and Nakayama 373).
Tactic Implementation: Since I have been working at T-Mobile I have
noticed that the elder community has to be the most frustrating of

group of people to work with. Since what I do for work has to do with
technology, and most of the time the older community is not caught up
with it, it has become frustrating working with them. I have noticed
that when an older person is walking in to our store my associates will
either completely leave to the back room, ignore them, or walk the
other direction. I am most definitely one of these people. So to
challenge my patience, I have decided to begin to approach every
older person that comes into our store. I finally did and came to find
out I was right. It is extremely frustrating.
Tactic Recommendations: If you work somewhere where helping certain people has an
expected outcome or they have expected necessities, try your best to ignore these
prejudices. Success has proven to come for me, considering I was open-minded and
approached everyone with the same desire to help. Sometimes those people will fit the
prejudices to the T, while others will surprise you.
Chapter 10 Culture, Communication, and Intercultural Relationships
Tactic #3:
Since I have met a lot of Mormons and constantly am meeting
Mormons, I decided my tactic is now to be to completely open up and
learn as much as I can about the religion. This will be in order to
become closer to the people around me, despite the stress from this
foreign environment and culture (Martin and Nakayama 391).
Tactic Implementation:
At work I had a business customer in which was a big deal considering
how many lines was being added. This took a few days to get
everything together so in that case I gave them my number. They were
a sweet Mormon family and we got along so well that they invited me
over for dinner. During the talk at dinner they had informed me a lot
about the Mormon religion. I expected that and actually had a
judgment of them trying to convert me. That wasnt the case at all .
They actually just asked me a lot of questions about my religion and
informed me on theirs. I felt no pressure to convert and actually
enjoyed the information.
Tactic Recommendations:
Although I went to this dinner because it would bring me one step
closer to fully understanding the people I interact with everyday. I was
not able to completely enjoy my time there since I was so preoccupied
with the prejudice of Mormons trying to convert people around them.
Although that is partly true, they werent as aggressive as I thought
they would be. If not knowing the outcome of the situation didnt stress
me out so much I could have enjoyed the meal more. But now that I

know the way it was approached it has eased my mind a lot. I am now
able to let more people in around me than I was able to before. My
advice would be, to do exactly that. Try out that uncomfortable
situation that stresses you out, it may be exactly the way you thought
it would go or it may just surprise you how easy going it could have
been without working yourself up.

Chapter 11 Culture, Communication, and Conflict

Tactic # 4 To protect the face of those I care about and to also protect
my own reputation. Keeping a good name is done by keeping to your
self and doing good things to lead to a reputation that is of moral
value. I do this by being honest at all cost and protecting another
persons face is simply out of kindness. This is just as important to me
as keeping my face. This is done by keeping to your self as well and
forgiving. Although it is stressful to keep someone elses face when
they have crossed you it is loyal and the right thing to do. In order to
not let the stress get the best of me talking to that person in private
would do the trick. (Martin and Nakayama 441).
Tactic Implementation:
At work, I had a girl lie and take credit for
my work. I confronted her in private in order to protect her face. She
stuck to the lie and forgiving her was the hardest thing to do especially
when she wont admit what she did was wrong. Deep down I knew
what she did was wrong and knew she was aware of the harm she had
did to my face. Instead of going around and telling everyone not to
trust her I knew not to trust her myself. She had caught on to my
distance and her actions prove that she is trying very hard to earn my
trust back. Once I forgave her for no body else but myself I decided
that I would give her opportunities to earn my trust back again. I did so
by giving her little tasks to do that would help me out at work. I do
trust her now and am able to see the good in her still after betraying
my trust. Whenever there is an issue she now pulls me aside too, in
order to return the favor of protecting each others face.
Tactic Recommendations: Although this situation stressed me out,
and gave me anxiety in the sense that she hurt my reputation I worked
so hard to build. But still being able to face it, and pull the person aside
speaks volumes. It helps save face in the future and build respect
between people.
Reflection:

My growth throughout this assignment has honestly been life

changing. I am now able to me more understanding of others through
my ability to put myself out there and understand other cultures,
rather than follow the prejudices that are instilled in our heads about
people. I now am able to adapt to my culture and truly understand the
people around me.
Stress goes a long way. I say this because I now experienced the
affects it has on those around me whether it is at work, school, or in
my household. All of my relationships with those close to me become
affected by the way I handle my stress. In order to avoid facing stress
at all I have been able to recognize what stresses me out and face it.
Now that I have faced everything that stresses me out and gives me
anxiety, I now know how to deal with it. I also have an entirely new
perspective on the people I am surrounded by here in Utah and am
educated on what is valued. With my ability to adapt but stay true to
myself I now know how I can live here comfortably. Also, if I ever do
travel, as I plan to do so, I can travel without my anxiety getting the
best of me.
Also I have a speech class in which I have succeeded in
tremendously. I have an A in that class and I have this class to thank.
The reason being is the topics we spoke on was up to us. The one
requirement was to speak on a subject in which everyone in the class
could relate to. Since I decided to truly know the people around me and
what makes up the culture of Utah I was able to find these subjects.
Every time I spoke I had to use my intercultural communication skills in
order to have my speech be effective and relatable.

Works Cited
Martin, Judith N. and Thomas K. Nakayama. Intercultural Communication
in Contexts. 6th Ed. Boston, MA: McGrawHill, 2013.
McKay, Shirene. Intercultural Communication Learning Packet. Salt Lake
City, UT: Salt Lake Community College, 2015.