Discussion Thread: Reflective Assignment, May 14, 2026

What?

What I am going to take away after taking this course is 1) a re-affirmation  that people rarely ever change their core values such as ideology, worldviews, faith/religion or the lack thereof  (unless the HS intervenes mightily), 2) but there are some scientific and methodological ways and strategies that can be fully utilized to bring about a better behavior and interaction out of individuals in intercultural communication, externally and extrinsically; 3) CQ action plans which are employed with achievable, measurable, relevant, and time-sensitive/-bound elements could effectively aid in improving individual’s outlook and even a mindset toward cohesive and harmonious interaction with those outside their own cultural, linguistic boundary, rid of one’s pre-existing bias/stereotyping,

which under the normal circumstances is usually a deterrent against establishing a close meaningful interpersonal relationship.

For sure, in order to be Champions for Christ and be equipped to boldly go into mission fields, our neighborhoods, slums, refugee camps, schools, family homes and whatnot, 4) one ought to be fully immersed in the Holy Ghost to be a proficient soldier carrying the banner for the gospel of Christ. Nonetheless, 5) I also humbly and fully recognize that (as prof. Melody Harper noted in her video lecture) I am also an active participant and a contributor to the brokenness existing in our world no matter how small that might be; I still need to getter in certain areas as I march toward the complete and full sanctification regarding my shortcomings and some already well-established skill sets and accomplishments.

So What?

As a true disciple of and a vanquishing strapping champion for Christ, my personal values and worldviews should always orient toward the Two Greatest Commandments (Cf.  Deut. 6:5, Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:26-30 HCSB, “He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbors as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.”).

Combined with a preliminary purpose in taking this course to grow & mature in likeness of Lord Jesus & my Christian faith as I intimately walk with Lord Jesus on daily basis, I’d like to be more like Him each and every passing day even in Intercultural Communication so that my personal values, worldviews, and the end results of the time and effort spent on completing this wonderful engaging course would have those values, outlooks, worldviews, and intents and purposes—everything I stand for—favorably and strategically line up in fostering, benefiting and uplifting the Great Commission Mission which we are all so critically tasked with until the day our Savior and Messiah returns in glory and power wearing the belt of Undisputed King and Lord of the Universe (Cf. Matt. 18-20, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing the in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”)

Wholeheartedly, I would like to speak, talk like Him, but most importantly I would like to act just like how Lord Jesus would have done in the same situation regarding my own brothers, sisters, strangers, and neighbors in whatever a situation it might be, no matter what color of skin, income/age/socioeconomic brackets, regional origin, dialects, ethnicity one might belong to. There should be no pretense, excuses, lies, schemes, shenanigans, plots or conspiracy, insincerity or exaggeration on my part: but, with plenty of empathy, love, care,  kindness, unconditional giving, interculturally savvy purposeful pre-planned communication skills sets and competent CQ prowess I’d like to approach, evangelize unto the members of the Intercultural Community, and help disseminate the Word—the good gospel of the ultimate sacrifice and deliverance unto the eternal salvation. Pray for them, offer comfort, connect them with people or organization which can lend substantial and tangible aid in basic essential needs and more...

Now What?

My immediate reflection is a relief that I’m rather relatively well-immersed, -entrenched, and -positioned in Intercultural Communication to be an effective communicator and ambassador for the Gospel of the Good News at this juncture in my life. To proclaim it unabashedly, unshamefully, proactively, and truthfully—well, for most part, perhaps. It didn’t happen overnight: just like everything else in life, it has taken years, rather decades of shortsightedness, trial & error, learning & relearning, interactions, mistakes, and refinements. Reflections, repentance, heartaches, prayers and plans to get better.

My plan for future moving forward is to work on improving my overall CQ acumen in every single area ever so slightly where the present relatively weaker areas become as strong as the others, and the present stronger areas become even more noticeably good/excellent. I will continue to grow as a person, a disciple of Christ, as a husband, as an ordinary citizen member of our great society, nation and people where I rightfully belong. I will respect my neighbors, friends, and colleagues, and even the subordinates, the elderly and the neglected.

For those people who are vehement proponents of the Critical Race Theory or the prevalent Social Justice (Victimization): I cannot right all the wrongs done in the history of mankind such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, the Conquest of America, the Inquisition, the (European) Colonization of the Third World, the Holocaust, Colonial Empire building, etc.. Down the road, there will be even an appropriate time and space to discuss such weightier subject.

However, as Ting-Toomey & Chung write, “Promoting global intercultural social justice takes tenacious and “big picture” leadership vision, a disposition of intergroup inclusion, culturally sensitive and astute peace-building communication practices, and a desire to execute change. The phenomenon of global social justice exists on cultural, political, economic, environmental, institutional, media, social/interpersonal, and intrapersonal levels…how we treat one another in our everyday lives—with respect versus indifference, or with an ethnorelative mindset versus ethnocentric posture—also reflects our everyday intrapersonal social justice standpoint,”[1] for my small part I can show others my genuine authentic due love, respect, honor and care based on my love for my Lord and Savior Jesus as I continue to grow, mature, and be trained to a Champion for Christ at LU and beyond in our Intercultural Communication endeavours. 

I applaud and appreciate all the efforts and good intentions of everyone involved at Liberty U including my classmates. Go Flames!

Blessings to y'all this summer~~

[1] Stella Ting-Toomey, Leeva C. Chung, Understanding Intercultural Communication, (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 311.

**My response to someone named Josh:

Dear Josh,

Thanks for a good, well-written post; I’d just like to make a couple comments relating to my interactions with my own wife and your/our efforts in reaching out to our neighbors.

Firstly, to many non-discerning observers outside, I and my wife may have looked culturally perfectly in sync with one another, but not quite so: it did take a lot of work, detours, tears, etc., to get to this point.

Well, I immigrated here at age 15 whereas my wife moved to the states when she was an adult being already a veteran office worker with 15 years of experience under her belt with a bachelor’s degree in statistics. Mutual family friend set us up, and the rest is history as they say.  

Not even a month into our honeymoon at one late night, I woke up after hearing someone bitterly weeping from the direction of our living room—none other than my newlywed wife crying her heart out as she was murmuring to herself, “There is nothing I can do in this country. Nothing. I am nobody.” And continuous sobbing. That literally broke my heart right there. It was so sad…I could kind of relate to her helplessness & culture shock as I once had been a fresh off the boat immigrant myself as the language barrier in particular made my newly arrived in the states wife feel as if she was no one.

Incompetent at anything she tried her hand. The STEM college degree she earned, 15 years of work experience  all went out the window as they did not matter in a new country where a totally language was spoken and used…She was a confident, accomplished office worker at the headquarter of the largest Chrisitan denomination at the heart of Gangnam District in Seoul, S. Korea for almost 1.5 decades right out of college with a good pension to look forward to when she would retire at the ripe old age (my father-in-law constantly reminded me of this very fact). Then, she met me…Well, due to our discovered or rather revealed cultural differences later on, which served as somewhat of a pet peeve to me at the time, I made some inconsiderate observations to her like how I might have been better served had I met someone who was culturally and linguistically more like myself, and so on. Real dumb, huh? We used to argue a lot for several years too…Virtually over things of no real consequences…Just bickering over something for argument’s sake…

Of course, I’ve learned my lessons as the marriage life matured, and we got to know each other better. And in the process I’ve become a better man, a better Chrisitan through all the good and bad experiences, mistakes made whether consciously or unconsciously, errors in judgement which I made. The turning point was when I truly discovered & realized how much my wife truly loved me. How much I meant to her. Her unwavering faith, her constant prayers for me..She literally was the best thing that ever happened to me outside Jesus (& my own lovely family, I should say).

Things are quite good for us these days as they have been for several years now. The Holy Spirit definitely intervened, and made me accept my wife for who she is, with her strengths and weaknesses, perhaps, and made me mainly look at the direction where she is really good at. She is a good cook. Her bright smile and innocent laughter brighten my mood and my day any time! I cannot imagine living without her. I simply cannot. It would kill me. She is my best friend as I am hers; she is my closest confidante, and my biggest cheerleader in everything I do and try to accomplish in life. Prayers and family worship time go really a long way in establishing a trusting loving bond between a man and a wife (Cf. Acts 2:42, 46-47; Heb. 10:24-25; Matt. 18:19-20 HCSB, “Again, I truly tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there among them.”) Ting-Toomey and Chung write, “However, when it comes to romantic relationships, research indicates collectivists value companionate love (strong friendship intimacy and commitment) more than passionate love…

Essentially, love and intimacy are slowly cultivated and with an emphasis on the long-term commitment. The value of intimacy or incremental love is expressed via dedicated caregiving, doing things for one another, reciprocal loyalty and trust, forbearance and forgiveness, and holding a long-term view of the companionate relationship over romantic ideals (Kline et al, 2008)”[1]: that is exactly what has taken place at our home between my wife and myself as the novelty of the honeymoon phase  started to wear off after the first few years: we’ve now become the equal stakeholders, and life partners. We’ve grown real fond of one another.

Secondly, kudos to you for reaching out to members of Hispanic community in your neighborhood/city; from my own past experiences just reaching out to people of different cultures with no hidden agendas would serve best. Let things flow naturally, but pray about it. Be genuine. No deceptions. And in due time and place God willing, he would inspire and move people’s heart as they would enter through the doors of church to seek Him, perhaps not necessarily at your own church at first, but a church nevertheless where God is worshipped and praised.

Take care.

Blessings in all you do.

Warm regards,

Joo Won

[1] Stella Ting-Toomey, Leeva C. Chung. Understanding Intercultural Communication, 3^rd Edition. (New York Oxford University Press, 2022), 252.

**My response to someone named Leslie,

Hi Leslie,

Thanks for your heart-felt post which showed the genuineness and intentionality, which reverberated through the computer screen, in your attempt to bridge the gap with persons of Hispanic heritage in particular as you’d attempt to relearn the language and so on. Kudos to you! I am not sure whether I’d go that far in my own attempt to be a more interculturally communicative person reflecting love, respect, and care I do have for my neighbors, strangers, and visitors I’d come across in contact moving forward, or not. (If anything, I’d need to stay focused on biblical languages as not to forget them, and perhaps even dive into learning the Latin or relearn the French language...)

My CQ assessment tests came out relatively high showing good scores on all four categories; as an immigrant person of Korean heritage, I had always been interested in meeting and making friends with persons of other linguistic/ethnic backgrounds throughout my entire life here in the states, and that is one of the main reasons which might have contributed to good scores in general. Nevertheless, I’d like to perhaps increase the awareness, strategy, and the overall mindset (“being more interested”/broaden the horizon) regarding CQ Motivation/Drive and CQ Action. So how would I go about doing that?

(FYI, broadly-speaking, this is what I scored on CQ assessments:

1. CQ Drive: 75th percentile

2. CQ Knowledge: 87th percentile

3. CQ Strategy: 84th percentile

4. CQ Action: 79th percentile.)

   
   

Well, I’d like to join a small bible study group at my new church, and since most of them would be outside my own Korean culture, I’d attempt to get to know them more personally if I could. We saw a lot of senior citizens two weeks ago who could potentially be those people we could approach closer, and be possible friends at church. We shall see. At least some of them seemed to be intent on getting to know us better on more personal level.

This is not a rebuke nor a sermon (“getting on a high horse” type of things), but one almost universal thing about a member who hails from a perceived dominant culture is that he/she would need to show truthfulness and humility (genuine conviction in equality of all human beings) above all other characteristics to persons of perceived subordinate/inferior culture/background when attempting to make inroads in newly forged friendships/acquaintanceship: that is where the vast majority of American missionaries have failed when they are sent to actual mission fields in a third world country (Cf. Proverbs 17:5 KJV, “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.”).

They still do speak and act as if they are the masters in cotton fields or the “cowboy Gringo” ; they didn’t go there to serve the locals as Jesus would have, but rather they went to those impoverished countries to foment, reaffirm, and reinforce the prevalent and permeating ethnic supremacy or such held conviction/traditions of their own country of the melting pot.

Avoid being sarcastic, patronizing, but most of all being judgmental as Ting-Toomey and Chung write, “Developing a set of “universal standards” to judge “good” or “bad” behaviors across 195 countries on a global scale requires knowledge about the unique features of a culture plus the underlying deep similarities across cultures (Pedersen, 1997). Within each country, multiple ethnic and identity cultural communities uphold distinctive beliefs, values, and ethical standards. While a derived ethical universalistic stance is an ideal goal to strive forward, it is easier said than done.”[1] For myself, one thing I’d really like to work to better educate myself on and get better at is the way how how I might stereotype people based on their regional affiliations or even institutional pledges. We always learn and relearn as we become a better human being in our journey of becoming a Champion for Christ.

Good luck to you and rich blessings to you and your loved ones!

Regards,

Joo Won Lee

[1] Stella Ting-Toomey, Leeva C. Chung. Understanding Intercultural Communication, 3^rd Edition. (New York Oxford University Press, 2022), 306.