1. What is language? What is culture? What role do they play in your life? How does language relate (or not) to cultural difference?
2. What misperceptions about your own cultures have you noticed? Are these misconceptions ostensibly connected to language(s)?
3. What challenges do you face in terms of cross-cultural interaction?

Process

A modern day example of cultural relativism is etiquette when eating. Different cultures will have different customs when it comes to eating food, and what is considered “good behavior” and what is considered “bad behavior.” A fictional example of this that popped into my brain was the scene when Thor smashed the coffee mug asking for more coffee. He didn’t mean any disrespect by smashing the mug, but it wasn’t the right thing to do if he wanted more coffee. Instead, he should have asked nicely, as Jane suggested and as is common courtesy throughout the US.

In terms of the audience in relation to the third podcast episode, I would say the audience is pretty broad. If I had to pick a specific segment, though, I would guess it’s primarily people who understand English who newly immigrated to the US and want a better sense of what it’s like to immigrate to another country.

This podcast, 99% Invisible, is probably a podcast I’ve written about before. I decided to use an episode from this show because it’s literally my favorite podcast of all time, since it discusses the history and background of minutiae in our everyday lives. This particular episode was about the origin of fortune cookies.