Global Learning Courses
I was privileged to take over eleven global learning courses while at FIU. Here are three that really stood out.
Honors Seminar VII: Vietbodia
As part of Honors Study Abroad, I enrolled in this course in order to prepare for our summer trip to Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. This course was a deep survey of the three countries mentioned as well as Southeast Asia as a whole. We covered aspects like the Vietnam War, the struggles of women and other minorities in Vietnam, Thai culture, and other topics. I got to connect my field of study in tourism with the strategies and challenges of tourism in Southeast Asia. Through lectures, discussions, and literature, I learned about the religions of Southeast Asia and their influence on the culture today. I also learned about some of the complexities of the region such as the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. I was moved by the resilience of the Cambodian people despite the suffering and tragedy they experienced only a few decades ago. It showed me the reality of what other parts of the world experience and reminded me how important it is to learn about other cultures. Even though I did not get to travel to the countries I studied, I have been more excited to connect with and learn from southeast Asians.
Hospitality Marketing Managment
I was privileged to have had several Global Learning courses built into my hospitality major. I took this course over Zoom in Fall 2020. Despite being taught in the middle of the pandemic, I gained many global insights from taking this course. One of the first things we learned in the class was the importance of the four Ps - product, price, place, and promotion. Each of those depend heavily on the target market one is trying to reach. Culture plays such an important role in determining how to best serve a target market. We analyzed case studies in which being aware of cultural elements meant the difference between success and failure. One example of this was the company Starbucks. The company was successfully able to expand across the United States but failed to consider a key cultural difference in their efforts to break into the Australian market. That case study and others like it helped me to realize that I have to take the time to analyze a culture, ask questions, and avoid stereotypes or generalizations before I draw any conclusions.
Interim Spanish II
This Spanish course was incredibly impactful on my global learning journey. I had been craving this depth of learning about countries in the Americas for years, and this course provided me the opportunity to do so. I took this course online in Fall 2020. Although I was disappointed that it was online, I still learned a great deal from the course material. In addition to learning vocabulary and having readings, we applied the knowledge we learned in discussion posts. It was great to read about the experiences of my peers as it related to Latin America because many of them were from those countries or had close family from those countries. Although exploring aspects of the culture in person would likely have been more beneficial than doing it online, we were still able to engage with the cultures of Mexico and Central and South America. We would watch films or listen to music from the country or countries we were studying in that week. For six weeks of the course, we also had a Zoom call with a native Spanish-speaker from Guatemala to practice Spanish and expand upon the topics of that week. A great moment in one of our calls occurred when we were both able to explain the significance of a special festival that is held in our respective hometowns. I realized that despite the differences in our upbringings, we were able to relate in a very specific area.