CCDES Activity #1

Activity #1: Perceptions

Objectives:
To illustrate how most initial reactions to something strange are negative or neutral at best. To illustrate how easy it is to make assumptions about what others are experiencing or feeling upon initial contact. To show how our feelings and ideas change after we spend more time examining a situation. To have participants explore the biases inherent in our common way of describing things. To illustrate how cultural and linguistic assumptions may distort and affect one's ability to communicate about objective events. To stimulate exploration and discussion about how one's biases may our perceptions.

Playing Time:
A minimum of to 1 hour depending upon how many pictures are presented.

Number of Players:
Optimal is 10 groups, or fewer, of 4 or 5 each when using paper copies of the stimulus pictures. Can also be done with very large groups (100-200) using a very good projector and large screen.

Materials Required:
The Perception activity requires clear line of sight to the stimulus pictures so either you have enough pictures for each person to look at one or see one in pairs or a very large screen upon which you can project clear images of the pictures. Select pictures from the National Geographic magazine or from books. The pictures must be emotionally ambiguous and of people and/or activities unknown to the participant group. I have attached examples of the pictures I use most often at the back of this activity. I learned this general activity from Milton & Janet Bennett who use actual objects rather than pictures. They use strange cultural objects from around the world in the activity.

Preparation:
If using small groups, they need to be directed to sit facing one another around a table with the stimulus pictures face down in the middle of the table. If using objects, have the stimulus object, one to each table, in a paper bag in the center of the table. If using a screen and projection of the pictures to a large group, have the participants turn to the response sheet prior to displaying the first stimulus picture.

Activity Procedure:
Instruct participants that no one is to speak during the initial part of the exercise and that only after recording their personal gut response to the picture or object are they allowed to speak and compare notes with one another. Additionally ask that anyone who absolutely knows what the picture or object is, refrain from sharing this with their group until after the exercise. Some of the National Geographic images have been broadcast on television. Step 1 Tell participants you are going to display a photograph of a real event for a few seconds and they are to record their initial gut response to the picture on the response sheet. They are to write down three words, feelings, thoughts that flashed through their mind on first seeing the Adapted from M. & J. Bennett, Intercultural Communications Institute 2002 Dr. Catherine Collier All Rights Reserved

CCDES Activity #1

picture (or object). If using actual copies of the pictures face down on the tables, tell them to not look until you tell them, then count to 3 and have them turn all the pictures over simultaneously. And no speaking during the initial look. Step 2 Tell them to put their pictures back down, face down, on the table after only 30 seconds. If using a projector, switch to a blank slide or turn it off after 30 seconds. Every one is to record their gut response to the picture or object. After every one has recorded their gut response on the response form, go on to step 3. Step 3 Tell them that you will go over the gut responses later, but right now will give them a chance to examine the pictures/objects in more depth. Have everyone turn their pictures back over or project the picture on the screen. This time leave it up there. Have each person write down their interpretation of what they are seeing. Interpretation is whatever they think or feel about what they see. Then ask them to write an objective description of what they see, containing no value words or assumptions. Step 4 Now have everyone compare notes. Each group is to come up with a one sentence interpretation and a one sentence description of what they saw using the Response form. If the group cannot reach a consensus, put the minority opinion in the box indicated on the response form.

Debriefing
Gut Response:
You can debrief on the gut response right after they finish writing down their three words or after the whole activity. Hold up one of the pictures or objects or project the picture on the screen. Ask for examples of the words written down in gut response. Either write them on the board or say them aloud after each person. Collect at least 21 words randomly. Ask the group to examine the list of words or think about the words presented and ask them what strikes them about everyones responses, are they generally negative or positive. These will clearly be more than 75-85% negative, some neutral, almost no positive responses. Explain that this is a common human reaction to an image of something strange to them, especially for education professionals and others in service or care giving roles. That it is natural for them to be concerned about the people in the picture. That it is not what you feel initially that they should pay attention to but what they thought and did after they had a chance to spend more time familiarizing themselves with the picture or object.

Interpretations:
Everyone will have different interpretations of what they see, some of which may even be fairly accurate. Project or hold up each picture one by one and have groups tell their interpretation of what they saw, making them stick to the one sentence length. Do not tell them whether they are right or wrong until after discussing the Descriptions.

Descriptions:
Begin with the picture of titled Looking Up or titled Pouring if possible. Hold up or project the picture and ask for one sentence descriptions of the image. If anyone used an assumption or value word (usually men rather than people, water, rain or blood rather than something or liquid), repeat the sentence and ask the audience what words are assumptions or value laden. Ask the group to correct the description to the bare objective terms necessary. Adapted from M. & J. Bennett, Intercultural Communications Institute 2002 Dr. Catherine Collier All Rights Reserved

CCDES Activity #1

This usually means something like A group of people are xxxxx something. Discuss the gender assumptions in English and other Indo-European languages and cultures. Discuss the assumptions we have about what is proper or appropriate and what is desperate or needy. Now return to the interpretations. Either read the actual captions of the pictures from the National Geographic or tell the audience what they really are.

Adapted from M. & J. Bennett, Intercultural Communications Institute 2002 Dr. Catherine Collier All Rights Reserved

CCDES Activity #1

Perception Response Sheet The 3 words that came to my #1 mind when first seeing the picture/object:

1. 2. 3.

#2

My personal interpretation of what I see when looking at/holding the picture/object:

#3

My personal description of what I see when looking at/holding the picture/object:

#4

We all agree that this might be an accurate one sentence description of this:

Minority opinion: We all think this might be an accurate one sentence interpretation of this:

#5

Minority opinion:

Adapted from M. & J. Bennett, Intercultural Communications Institute 2002 Dr. Catherine Collier All Rights Reserved

CCDES Activity #1

Age
Father Kozak introduces himself to an elderly parishioner. I mostly meet people at baptisms and funerals, says Father Kozak, and these days there are a lot of both.

Bison
You have given your life so the people will get strength, intones Arval Looking Horse, a Lakota spiritual leader, praying by the Missouri River in South Dakota for a ritually slaughtered bison. He purifies the animal with sage and cedar burned in an abalone shell. Butchered on the spot, it fed families on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.

Boat
Its unreliable and often dangerous. Still the Colonel Ebeya always draws a crowd. On the Zaire River (once called the Congo), thousands pack the pusher and six barges where a fully stocked mobile market includes a live crocodile. To this town-in-tow comes a cross section of the river and nation named Zaire.

Bushmen
Look fierce and dont smile for the camera: Those were the instructions given by this French television crew to Dzu Bushmen living in the Tsodilo Hills. Today few Bushmen, if any, live as hunters in the manner of old. Paid to shed their Western clothes and to pretend to stalk the crews helicopter they are being used to perpetuate a commercial fantasy.

Children
Hopping together in a long, snaking line, Surma children sing a song. Games are usually played late in the day when the youngsters chores in the fields and cattle compounds are finished. Cowboy In the footsteps of Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild West showman T.C. Thorstenson greets the crowd at a racetrack near Buffalo, New York. He tours with sidekick Harvey Wallbanger, riding the six year old bull jockey style and challenging horses to sprint races.

Crutches
They look sick and handicapped, but everything in this picture is fake except the pregnancy, says photographer Tomasz Tomaszewski. He watched as a group of young Gypsies in Bucharest transformed themselves into a soiled, sorry band of street urchins to elicit sympathy and spare change from passersby. Its a strange theater with a sad story, says Tomaszewski. Dogs Counting sheep keeps two shepherds awake as they work in the pastures of Fanal on the Madeira Islands. Muzzles prevent the dogs from biting the flock and the wildlife; burlap bags neutralize the nip in the air.

Adapted from M. & J. Bennett, Intercultural Communications Institute 2002 Dr. Catherine Collier All Rights Reserved

CCDES Activity #1

Family
At a restaurant in Tashigang, a woman rolls cigarettes for her husband, who wears a hat made from yak hair. Its horns carry rainwater away. Looking Up Its raining honey, shout villagers gathered at the base of the cliff. They thrust out pots and pans to catch the sticky liquid as it runs freely from the comb. Mani Lal fills the first basket with 15 liters of honeycomb. Later, he examines the color of the honey and pours a small amount into the palm of his hand to see if it tingles. If it does, it may not be safe to eat, for the bees are known to visit plants that produce toxic substances. Pouring Blood-sport initiation done in jest celebrates Pilar Hernndez Rincns first big kill, a deer. For generations her family has hunted on the vast preserves that draw sportsmen from all over Europe. Skulls You can tell by the width of his head, the set of his horns, that he was tatanka, the big bull, says Lakota teacher Harry Charger, picking through skulls at the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. This skull he will place at the entrance to his sweat lodge, a place of ceremony and prayer. Slaughter Recalling the time when bison fed the Plains Indians, instructor Dickie Moss demonstrates the use of traditional butchering tools at an elementary school on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Today we go to the grocery store to buy food, explains Moss. This animal was our store. Stomp With mighty stamping and rousing chants members of the Zion Christian Church worship on the outskirts of Gaborone, South Africa.

Town
Hiding from the hordes of summer tourists, painter Jamie Wyeth, son of Andrew, escapes to his quiet, portable, plywood studio on Maines Monhegan Island. Tourists cant get behind me while Im painting and click their cameras, he explains. Monhegan Mayor Boynston says, Some people make fun of the box, but most of us understand that it protects his privacy. Women At the World Series of Bocce in New York City, a team plans strategy in the Italian game, which resembles an amalgam of bowling and horseshoes.

Adapted from M. & J. Bennett, Intercultural Communications Institute 2002 Dr. Catherine Collier All Rights Reserved