Kindergarten Dreams and Teenage Realities • 幼兒園的夢想和少年的現實

Hello, my name is Halden Levin, and you are listening to Little Dragon’s Journey. 你好！我叫李靜辰，你正在聽小龍的旅程。

Transition Music（音樂）

This is a blog post from Little Dragon’s Journey:

Kindergarten Dreams and Teenage Realities

“Throughout my life, my dad, being an entrepreneur and adventure seeker, has taken business trips to China. My favorite part of his travels was obviously the souvenirs: Hello Kitty earmuffs, plush dolls, fans covered in Chinese calligraphy, even a calculator that spoke Chinese. One time my dad returned with two 旗袍, traditional form-fitting Chinese dresses, for my sister and I. These dresses were made from a red silk-looking fabric with gold embroidery and a few red buttons at the top for an authentic look. As an imaginative and curious child, I would wiggle into my 旗袍 and wrangle my blond curls into matching buns on my 5 year-old head and proceed to dream. I would pretend that I was a little Chinese girl, with help from a few props (i.e. chopsticks and a tea set), despite the fact that my hair was not black and my eyes were not brown.

Another one of those dream-inducing souvenirs was a necklace with a silky, navy-blue chord, jade-like beads, and a metal snake surrounded with milky stone. One of my father’s Chinese correspondents had given him this snake necklace, along with a bunny necklace for my sister, to represent our Chinese zodiac signs. I gleefully wore this necklace to kindergarten despite name-calling and stares. As a little one, I became a different person: a little dragon with the milky stones, a little Chinese girl in her 旗袍, and a 5 year-old cultural addict.

It wasn’t until now that those imaginative experiences manifested into reality.”

I began learning Chinese because of this limited exposure I had to Chinese language and culture when I was really young. When I started high school, I signed up to take in-person Chinese classes, and although no Chinese teacher was hired, I continued to pursue Chinese language-learning through NC Virtual Public School. Starting from a limited understanding, ultimately ignorance, to being able to more intimately and authentically understand Chinese and Chinese culture, as well as truly understand what it means to be a part of our global community, is a journey I’m still continuing.

As I mentioned before, in addition to NSLI-Y, the National Security Language Initiative for Youth, I am also a part of GGYF, the Global Gap Year Fellowship through UNC-Chapel Hill. Back in September, all GGY and Bridge Year Fellows were required to take the Intercultural Development Inventory. Basically, the Intercultural Development Inventory (or the IDI) is a 50-question assessment measuring intercultural competence, allowing you to gain insight into how you engage cultural differences and how you may improve your intercultural competency. To be honest, I was a little skeptical: how can a quiz measure something as complex as intercultural competency? However, the IDI has been the center of many studies and is considered a reliable and accurate tool to quantify intercultural competency.

So, we know what the IDI is, but what is intercultural competence? According to the IDI's website, “Intercultural competence is the capability to shift perspective and adapt behavior to cultural difference and commonality. Intercultural competence reflects the degree to which cultural differences and commonalities in values, expectations, beliefs, and practices are effectively bridged, an inclusive environment is achieved, and specific differences that exist in your organization or institution are addressed from a 'mutual adaptation' perspective.”

When you take the IDI, you will be provided an IDI Individual Profile Report expressing what sort of mindset/orientation you tend to utilize when recognizing and responding to cultural differences and commonalities. There are five different orientations on the Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC), ranging from monocultural to transitional to intercultural/global. The five different orientations are denial, polarization, minimization, acceptance, and adaptation.

Those who utilize a denial mindset tend to recognize more physically observable cultural differences, but often fail to recognize or withdraw from cultural differences that go below the surface. Those who utilize a polarization mindset tend to view cultural differences from the view of “us” and the “other.” In other words, with a polarization mindset, people may be uncritical of one’s own culture but hyper-critical of someone else’s culture or be hyper-critical of one’s own culture but uncritical of someone else’s. The minimization orientation is when we start transitioning into possessing a more global/intercultural perspective. Utilizing the minimization orientation, one tends to recognize and appreciate cultural commonalities but may fail to truly recognize and appreciate deeper cultural differences. With the acceptance orientation, individuals tend to recognize and appreciate both cultural differences and commonalities, and with the adaptation orientation, individuals are able to shift cultural perspectives and appropriately change behavior to adapt to cultural differences authentically.

The results provided through the IDI Individual Profile Report don’t simply state, “Based on the assessment, this is your method/mindset/orientation utilized when recognizing and responding to cultural differences and commonalities.” There are three main parts to your results: Perceived Orientation (PO), Developmental Orientation (DO), and Leading Orientations (LO). Your PO indicates how you think you stand along the IDC or how developed your intercultural competency is. Your DO indicates how the IDI believes you stand along the IDC; this orientation or perspective is the one you most likely utilize in situations requiring intercultural competency.

In combination, your PO and DO result in your Orientation Gap (OG), which is the difference between how you perceive where your intercultural competency skills are as compared to how the IDI assesses where you’re at. Oftentimes, people’s PO tends to higher than their DO, indicating they believe their intercultural competency skills are more developed than they actually are. However, sometimes your PO could be lower than DO, indicating you underestimate how developed your intercultural competency skills are. If your PO and DO are the same, you generally accurately know how you address cultural differences and commonalities. Finally, the LO are the next steps you should take to further develop your intercultural competency skills.

I feel like that was a really long explanation of the IDI, but completely necessary. So, where do I stand? Based on the IDI I took back in September, my Perceived Orientation Score “indicates that you rate your own capability in understanding and appropriately adapting to cultural differences within Adaptation, reflecting a capability to deeply understand, shift cultural perspective, and adapt behavior across cultural differences and commonalities. This capability may be reflective of individuals and groups who are bi-cultural in their experiences,” and my Developmental Orientation Score “indicates that your primary orientation toward cultural differences is within Acceptance, reflecting an orientation that recognizes and appreciates patterns of cultural difference in one’s own and other cultures in values, perceptions and behaviors.” My PO is higher than my DO indicating that “You overestimate your level of intercultural competence and may be surprised your DO score is not higher.”

To be completely honest, I am surprised, but not surprised that my DO score is not higher, more so surprised that my PO score was so high. I believe my DO score is accurate; I try to be an empathetic individual, and definitely in learning Chinese and studying abroad and having opportunities to engage with individuals from culturally diverse backgrounds in the past few years has helped me become a more interculturally competent individual. However, I don’t think I am quite at the point of Adaptation; Acceptance more reflects my orientation in dealing with cultural differences and commonalities. I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone before, directly at least, I oftentimes feel anxiety in interacting with others, even people I know well, even my own family members. Being a more quiet, shy, introverted individual does make it difficult for me to comfortably shift my cultural perspective and interact with others in that way.

I love meeting new people and learning about other people and their way of life, but since I am a quieter individual, doing so does take a lot of energy. I guess I’m being a bit brutally honest about myself, but that’s the truth.

Reading this blog post now, I feel like my utilization of language does sound a bit awkward but is reflective of my naivety, my ignorance, at sixteen years old. As I mentioned before, over the past few years, I have grown as an individual and am continually learning how to be a more interculturally competent individual, how to interact with others authentically and appropriately. Even if you don’t take the IDI, I do think it’s a good idea for you to reflect on who you are and who you wish to be in this beautifully diverse planet. That’s just my two cents today.

Transition Music（音樂）

Please visit haldenlevin.wixsite.com/littledragonjourney to access the transcript of this episode, and know you are always welcome to contact me through my website, email, or social media. Thank you for joining Little Dragon’s Journey. 謝謝你們參加小龍的旅程。拜拜！