The Iceberg Analogy

Hello, world!

This is an iceberg. If you've seen Titanic or a nature channel you probably already knew that. Doesn't look that big, does it? 

This is how big icebergs can be. In fact, they can be the size of a small country when you look below the surface! Now, why am I talking about icebergs? One of my classes this year is called Cultural Food Practices and I'm enjoying it to the fullest! I love learning about people and new foods so, it's a win-win for me. One of the things we most recently spoke about was intercultural communication.

Being in America I hear all the time that we're "the melting pot" of the world, but truth be told, I don't think we are. Maybe more than others, but not like we tend to advertise. From my personal experiences we see each other on a day to day basis, but don't necessarily interact. Everyone is together, but not and it's sad because we all have such different perspectives on life and ways that we live. Part of the reason I believe we don't mix as much is because we all speak differently, but we also tend to assume things about others before getting to know them. 

Hence the iceberg. There's only so much that we can see about a person before we speak to them. These things at the top would be someone's ethnicity, their age, their sex, and (sometimes) their nationality. Now, that's not to say that you can't know a lot about a person from these four things, but how many of us have researched multiple nations and ethnic histories to have some basic understanding? Below the top of this iceberg are the things that you learn when you get to know someone such as if or how they're assimilating in your country, their socioeconomic status, their occupation, what their health is like, what religion they follow, their sexual orientation, what groups are they a part of or consider themselves to be a part of, what kind of education do they have, what's their political affiliation? All of these things and more make-up who a person is and how they live their life!

Now, after telling you all these important things don't you think it would be great if every healthcare worker or future healthcare worker took a class that made them think about these things? I was honestly shocked when my professor told me that doctors aren't required to take such classes. How could they not? They're supposed to come into contact with sometimes hundreds. From what I've learned from my classmates I'm very blessed in the fact that I've had good experiences with doctors. Some of the stories they told in class had me shocked because my family doctor has always done well communicating to both my parents and me as I was growing up. A lot of the conflicts they spoke of were communication-based of all things. 

So, as a future dietician, or rather just a future human interacting with other humans, I'm glad to be taking a class that helps me know the basics of some of the larger communities in my country. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a 12-page paper due at the end of the semester!