Hello! My name is Meghan, and I’m really excited to study abroad in Berlin next year. I have been studying German since I was 12, so I like to think I know a lot about the culture and people of Germany. However, I haven’t had the chance to explore the country yet, and I look forward to seeing if my expectations from years of German classes and talking to German people online actually match up with real life.

Individual Cultural Profile

In my own life I haven’t often had to face challenges to my cultural identity. When I took the Deirdre Cultural Profile, I was not very surprised by my results. My strongest results were for Emotion, where I was a Strong Neutral, and Action, where I got Strong Thoroughness. For the other dimensions, I was more neutral, but not entirely neutral. For Clarity, I got Direct leaning, Status was Achievement leaning, Involvement was Process leaning, Collaboration was Independent leaning, and Authority was Rule leaning. The most interesting thing for me was my orientation for the Organization dimension, which I will return to later when discussing my goals. Overall, these results did not surprise me. I generally pride myself on being a very logical and thoughtful person, and I tend to avoid expressing strong emotions or being very impulsive.

As for my cultural identities, I grew up in a white, middle class family in suburban New Jersey, and generally had a traditionally American childhood. Growing up, I was raised as a Roman Catholic, and that definitely shaped part of my identity and my values. I think this is probably one of the strongest things I can identify as my own personal cultural identity. I went to CCD every week, so a lot of the people I was friends with in elementary school were also Catholic, because that’s where I met people. In addition, in high school, I was a part of my church’s youth group, and, through that, I went to a week long camp every summer called Catholic HEART Work Camp. This experience let me meet other Catholic teens from around the country, and participate in service projects in local communities. This definitely fostered my love for service, as a result of my Catholic identity. However, while I consider it to be a large part of my identity, I don’t think it has much impact on my daily life. I don’t frequently speak to people about religion, and while it may have influenced how I feel about certain political issues, those aren’t things I enjoy debating with other people, so I don’t think it influences how I act. In addition, while I mentioned before that being Catholic was linked to my love of service, I had other influences, such as my participation in Girl Scouts and National Honor Society, where I participated in service with diverse organizations, which gave me the chance to interact with people who weren’t Catholic, such as other religious organizations, or secular organizations. As a result, I feel like my participation in service has made me better at navigating cross-cultural situations.

Host Country Cultural Profile

From what I have learned about Germany in my classes, as well as from talking to German people, I think that my profile results from the Deirdre reading are fairly in line with German people in general. I know that Germans tend to be more direct than Americans, so in that sense, I feel like I could have an easier time relating to that than I have relating to my American peers. For example, while it is considered rude in the US to not participate in small talk, the opposite is true in Germany, especially Berlin. For Germans, chatting with the cashier at the store, or the person sitting next to you on the train, is considered rude, and it’s seen as wasting everyone’s time, because you aren’t talking about anything meaningful. While this might be difficult for a lot of Americans to adjust to, it fits pretty well with my own cultural profile.

In addition, being environmentally conscious is much more important in Germany than it is in the US. While I agree with this, I think it might take me some time to adjust to differences, such as different ways of sorting garbage and recycling, and not using single-use bottles. This is not necessarily at odds with my cultural attitudes, but it is definitely different from what I am used to in the US. I plan on doing a lot of research of cultural differences I should be prepared for, but right now, I think the biggest culture shock I might experience is that I don’t know how to ride a bicycle, and Germans ride their bikes almost everywhere, because it is more environmentally friendly.

While preparing for my study abroad experience in Berlin I have developed several goals for the time I am there. Academically, my goal is to stay focused on my work and get the most out of my classes, even in a new environment. I mentioned before that my result for the Organization dimension was interesting. This is because, mentally, I see myself as a very organized person, and I get very stressed out when things are not planned and detailed, or when I have to do work at the last minute. However, unfortunately, this does not always translate into how my brain actually ends up planning things. At Tulane, this has resulted in me having trouble paying attention in class and finishing work on time. While I have started to work on techniques to improve my organization and time management skills, I know that the change in environment and routine I will experience by being in Berlin will make this more difficult. Nevertheless, I want to get the most from my academic experience while abroad, so I want to try and put even more effort into making sure the new environment doesn’t disrupt my academics too much. From a personal perspective, I want to become more confident in my German language skills. I have been learning German for nearly a decade, but still, whenever someone asks if I am fluent, or even good at speaking it, I usually just shrug and say „I could be better.“ I hope that being able to use German everyday, and speaking to my host family in German will help me feel more confident in saying that I can speak and understand German well. For my cultural awareness goal, I want to interact in-depth with the residents of Berlin. I will get to speak with my host family a lot, however, I am also interested in learning about the culture of the wider city. This may seem a bit counterintuitive for a cultural awareness goal in Germany, but I am really interested in learning more about the immigrant community in Berlin, and how recent events such as the refugee crisis have impacted that, as well as how immigrants have impacted the culture of the city. As a result, I want to speak to native Germans, as well as immigrants or children of immigrants, to learn more about their experience in Germany.

While I am in Berlin, I definitely want to participate in an internship. I have already looked at a few opportunities, and, in the spring semester, I will have the chance to participate in an internship for credit through IES, so I look forward to taking advantage of that opportunity. I am very interested in the field of cultural diplomacy, so I am considering looking into internships with multinational corporations, to work on international business projects, as well as possibly with the American Embassy in Berlin, where I could work with German-American diplomatic relations.

I look forward to being able to have all of these experiences, and learn more about Berlin.