June 3rd

With the class complete and my month-long adventure in Berlin coming to end I began to look over my whole experience in Germany. I am realizing that this amazing opportunity has taught me so much about myself and having large cultural awareness. Norwich University’s mission statement describes that the education our school provides to us should help give a global perspective rather than just an enclosed perspective of only the United States of America. As the Norwich website states, “Global in perspective means that our students should understand that the USA is not alone in this world…Defining the entire world with American values distorts the reality of a multicultural planet and limits one’s perspective on the history of man’s journey to the present time. Because America is a leader in the world, and because our students are destined to be leaders in America, we must understand and respect all points of view as part of gaining the wisdom to lead.” I think this is a perfect reason behind why Norwich University students should study abroad. Before this experience, I would say that I had a somewhat closed mind to the different cultures around the world, and this experience helped open my eyes to the reality that every culture is different. This is good because as the Norwich website stated, “Defining the entire world with American values distorts the reality of a multicultural planet and limits one’s perspective on the history of man’s journey to the present time.” This is an important topic that has been hit on multiple times this month.

Sculpture representing perspective.

 My professor explained to the class today that recognizing and respecting different cultures applies to the engineering and business world regularly. Your company could design a product that is to be sold around the world, but you may have to change some small aspects to the design to encourage customers to purchase it. For example, button placement on the products controller or the color of the backlighting used to light up a screen. Different areas around the world are used to their way of doing things and if you try and introduce a product that is different than what they are used too there could be a hesitation to buy into a new idea. Another example our professor gave to us is about how cultures differ with baby food. He explained how he volunteered to package baby food for a country in need and his task was to put blank labels over the giant baby face on the food container because the area that the baby food was being sent to the mothers questioned what was in the food because they were used to having the label on food containers having a picture of what was in the food, like ingredients. The mothers questioned the volunteers handing out the food about what they were about to feed their children this is what provoked putting on the blank labels over the picture of the baby head to help change the possible different perspectives the mothers have of the food for their children. This is kind of crazy to think about though because something so small like a picture of a baby on a food container has a different meaning than what we Americans recognize it as. Here in America, I think we almost recognize baby food having a picture of a baby on it. These are just a few of the examples I have had the opportunity to learn about during my time here. There are so many that cultures differ, I have learned that having a global perspective is an integral part of being an outstanding American citizen.

Picture from the East Side Gallery.

This trip has been a wonderful opportunity for my fellow classmates and I. I am very thankful for all the support and guidance we received leading up to the trip and all the help we have received here from our professor and on the ground advisor.

Keegan Brock

Norwich Forever