Let’s see, where did I leave off. Ah yes, how did I come up with the idea of the [ NICE TO MEET YOU ] series? I always wanted to pursue a project along these lines, one with storytelling at its core. Though I fell victim to the life of a busy college student and simply found no time to. But this semester, my Branding of Me class has definitely given me the urgency to pursue this project, especially now that I’m tacking a grade onto it. I am an avid believer in the power of storytelling and cross-cultural communication, so I knew the premise of the series would involve this.
As I said in Part 1 of this post, when we take a moment to understand the perspectives of others we allow ourselves to be more empathetic, open-minded and connected to the world around us. Understanding the stories behind people and the places they come from humanize them, regardless of the differences you may have. According to Communication Theory, cross-cultural communication is defined as “the communication between people who have differences in any one of the following: styles of working, age, nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Cross-cultural communication can also refer to the attempts that are made to exchange, negotiate and mediate cultural differences by means of language, gestures and body language.”
Go out and see the world. Photo sourced from Unsplash.com
Essentially, all of our experiences are shaped by our identities and social location. We perceive the world from our own standpoint, and expand that through traveling, conversations with others, education, and relationships we form. Participants in each [ NICE TO MEET YOU ] episode come from different backgrounds, whether that’s geographically, ethnically, racially, socioeconomically, or based on gender or sexual orientation, etc. The cross-cultural exchange between the participants throughout the interview almost immediately breaks down barriers between the strangers to show that there’s much more to a person than meets the eye.
Our lives are made up of a collection of stories. Some stories we present willingly and openly. These may shine through in our personality, the way we dress, our academic choices, etc. But other stories aren’t as publicized — hardships we face, periods in our lives that swallowed us whole and spat us back up dazed and confused, the triumphant moments, or times dynamic shifts in normalcy. These stories often lay beneath the surface, yet these are the stories that mold us. We wouldn’t be ourselves if not for the challenges and triumphs we’ve had or the major changes we’ve experienced. Despite this, people often only pay attention to what’s on the surface. Which, quite frankly makes perfect sense, because who the heck has the time to sit down with every person they encounter for a wholesome life discussion? I know I sure don’t. It’s natural for us to try to make sense of things in a visual way because that’s the quickest method of doing so. However, this often leads to assumptions being made about people that aren’t necessarily true. Not all people from the same race, gender, sexual-orientation, ethnicity, country, etc. are the same. There’s a multitude of stories intertwined within a group of people or place, they just may not all be at the surface. So we have to dig deeper.
I hope this project shines a light on the depth of both individual people and the groups they identify with. Storytelling has the power to humanize people. It bridges gaps and can save us from critical misunderstandings. Chimamanda Adichie said it best in her famous TED Talk, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” I hope you continue to enjoy the stories you hear through the [ NICE TO MEET YOU ] series. I’ve loved hearing them too.
xx Bella
