Reading Between the Lines

There are less challenges arising from miscommunication at my host site than most of my abroad-traveling peers are most likely experiencing.

I have only noticed subtle situations that have caused miscommunication.  One major example was the way in which you act in new situations in the south.  Most southerners are accustomed to being very outgoing and friendly from the very beginning-- by smiling and waving and introducing yourself to everyone without any shyness.  However, as a naturally introverted and shy person, I did not act this way.  Furthermore, as my "northern culture" does not stress this outgoing nature as much as the south,  I did not realize there was as much of an emphasis on being so outward the first day.  Therefore, some of my southern friends let me know weeks later that I came off as stand-off-ish due to my withdrawn nature.  I found this interesting because I actually thought I was being more outgoing than I normally would -- as I typically do in new situations, like in the beginning of my freshman year in college, in order to make friends more quickly.  This situation, which is frequent in the south because people are so outgoing normally, caused me high anxiety.  When meeting new people I felt this excessive pressure to be un-characteristically outgoing as I felt it was expected, and as Barna explained, this high anxiety can distract me and the other people from the actual situation and the messages of the conversation.  If we are all so focused on an individual's level of outgoingness, we tend to concentrate less on getting to know each other, or to create the comfortable environment that would cause the individual concerned to become more outgoing and friendly.  This also aligns with Barna's tendency to evaluate, in that we constantly judge people from other cultures.  For example, I have always been told that southerners are racist, sexist, and homophobic conservatives.  I am hypersensitive to these characteristics as I take these social issues very seriously.  Therefore, during a conversation I may have a tendency to concentrate on these stereotypes, and interact with southerners through this "screen of judgement".  As with the anxiety, this can distract from the true nature of the interaction, so that I may ignore cues that do not support this stereotype, and instead may overreact to comments and subtle signals that hint at these preconceived notions.  I may assume someone is racist or homophobic due to comments that may not have an a malicious intent, and that my non-southern friends or loved ones may say regularly, just because they are southern.

Intercultural communication

However, aside from this I have not noticed many other miscommunications.  This is primarily because the people I spent my time around were not primarily southern.  Duke University is very diverse, with only approximately 15% of students being from North Carolina.  Therefore, most of the 22 students were from California, with a large portion being from the northeast (e.g. Michigan, Maryland, Ohio).