Chinatsu Ando

Professor Agosta
UWRT 1101-007
4 November 2016

Observation of Global Gateway

Guiding Question:
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How does it feel to live in international oriented house?

Did you learn new things or change perspective?
What makes you feel like you live in a community?
What kind of effort do you make to get along with each other?
Do you intend go to those countries in the future?

Notes and Descriptions:

I observed the female international housing community that I belong to called Global Gateway
house on 11/04 at 3pm during our open house. The open house was planned to show people
inside the house and what we do as a program to look for participants next semester There were
two staffs from international department of UNCC and a graduate assistant of Global Gateway,
7 Global Gateway residents, and 11 guests from an international program for the open house.
The members were all wearing the Global Gateway T-shirts. The dining and living room where
we welcomed the guests were the cleanest ever. There were beautiful and colourful decoration
and the profile and pictures of all residents on the wall. Some refreshment, namely, mixed fruits,
crackers and puddings were set on the dinning as well as some juice and teas. The atmosphere
of open house was very relaxing. The chilling music was playing. This time, 3 residents helped
with holding the event. Unfortunately, half of the students were not there because they had
classes at the time. 7 members of Global Gateway were actively talked to people who visitors
from outside. All people are moving to talk with different people. The most of conversations I
heard from people were about the house and the different experiences that they have had. The
Global Gateway members looked like they were enjoying the conversation with them. I saw
people smiling and laughing. On the other hand, I could see that the residents asked the guests
their opinion of Global Gateway house and they tried to tell the appeal point of Global Gateway
house. I felt their strong conscious as a member of Global Gateway. In Global Gateway, we
have academic and cultural event every month. There are groups of 4 people in the house and
each group are in charge of different month. The monthly events are hold by the certain group.
However, the open house we had today was an extra event to look for new residents. So, none of
the team was responsible for it. It was planned by the graduate assistant. So, the members
looked a lot relaxed comparing to in the past events. The open house was more for people
outside the community than the people in the community. The members tried to welcome nicely

and make the guests feel comfortable. Actually, the gusts are all grown- up people, not college
students age. Language members used was relatively polite and formal.
Analysis:
From the way member of Global Gateway talk and behave, I could see that they are very
conscious of Global Gateway. They have a friendly and nice atmosphere to talk with people.
Most of people are interested in different cultures and eager to learn new things. So, they are
very positive and open-minded for others. They also have high communication skills. I believe
that they are all something to do with Global Gateway community. In Global Gateway, we have
worked together towards the goal to be global, learn other cultures and expand our world views.
I feel like those things people are conscious about influences members behaviour as general.

Interview of Nicole, one of the members of Global Gateway (I recorded her interview. I am
listing questions just in case you do not understand what I said in the voice memo.)
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Why did you choose to live in the Global Gateway community?

How has your perspective changed since you joined Global Gateway?
How do you feel that you belong to Global Gateway?
What do you like about Global Gateway?
What you dont like about Global Gateway?
What did you learn from living there?
What was the best experience you`ve had in this community?
How has living in Global Gateway helped you to deepen your understanding of other
cultures?

Problem Posing Questions

1. It seemed like some member of community have not been involved with the activities
as a member of community while others have showed very positive attitude. How can
we make everyone fully involved?
2. Some members have had conflicts and arguments because of miscommunications and
misunderstandings came from cultural difference. How can we better at dealing with
cultural difference?
3. How can we create more interesting and meaningful events? We had some boring
events which were nothing.