GICE200-D10_A Final Reflection on the Topic of Cultural Intelligence: My Goals for a Higher Purpose

A Final Reflection on the Topic of Cultural Intelligence: My Goals for a Higher Purpose

I had always internally muttered amongst myself and to others on occasion about

how if I had not even grown up in a Christian household, that I would still represent my instinctive outlook just the same. But then I could be very much wrong. I have always said this, in a way, to support my faith in God, a greater good, and higher power— be even a strange idea. So, with that said, I have always approached my relation to others during communication with my focus being more concentrated on the heart of the person or people I am interacting with. Not much has changed in that sense in my organic pursuit to reach a mutual understanding with our humankind despite any cultural, race, sex, etc. differences. I would perhaps admit that the change for me considering the understanding of Cultural Intelligence and the realities of interacting across cultures has not changed in principle but elevated my knowledge on a more technical level. I had not even been made much aware of the phraseology of CQ before this course. It has also raised my respect and mindfulness when associating with other cultures and even that of my own. It instilled a deeper impression for doing my best to retain the love of Jesus in my heart as I affiliate myself of other cultures.

To my best discernment, contemplating from what I have learned to be the most or, at the least one of the most, significant things from learning about intercultural communication and engagement is rather a simple matter. However, the mental means in which it took me to arrive at this deduction was more an extensive one. And this is ok because what this has done is give me more of an impression on how different I am to many others when it comes to the desire of including myself in a diversified environment. I become so eager with anticipation and restrained with interest to learn from other cultures and the things different than me and the things unknown to me. I would suggest that this also could be from the impression of my own cultural upbringing where the impact of neglecting change is significant and the values held are deep-rooted in tradition. Anything foreign to this cultural upbringing would result in funny looks from others, or uneducated judgment towards why I would associate myself with someone different than our “own” kind or the “way we live.” It put a real damper on my spirit. Hence, why I had chosen to resent God so much in my teenage years and early adulthood even though I still had enough faith that was depended on Him through this time of indignation.

As I have grown older and matured spiritually, I came to realize that God wasn’t the issue— it was people. These people that I grew up around, and quite regrettably some that were even family, had this controlling and seemly prejudice demeanor about them. They were also “self-proclaimed” Christians which of whom had this prejudice-like attitude and selfish prideful sense of carrying themselves. They spoke highly of God yet the hypocrisy was so outwardly visible to me it made me sick.

I have always had great interest in the study of why people do what they do, may this be culturally, instinctively, based upon environmental influences, etc. The genuine passion for literature, writing, and old books, gives myself the impression of a lifestyle or personality rather than it merely being that of an artifice or just some skill to acquire. This is almost a necessity for me and it can resemble itself socially to many as a compulsion that one may perceive. So, why am I bringing this up for this final reflection? I have discovered over the incessant self-examination that these mannerisms of mine are applied best with the field of writing, my love for words, and constructing ensembles of literary compositions. However, now I am not just following this pursuit for my own interest and prideful insight but utilizing this inclined temperament for God’s will and the sake of others. This is my purpose for the field I am interested and feel as though, perhaps, I am being spiritually led to seek out this personal commission that seems to resonate a sense of Godly veneration.

Following this preface, the article I sought to study was quite ironically and uncannily on point to my current and pending personal application to the contemplative and stressful process of arriving at my destination for what I am doing and who I am doing this for. My choice of article deals with the statistical fluctuation and study with the well-being of educators teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and the perseverance in which they are able to carry out the job not just by being able to rely merely on their interest for doing so but to continually cultivate the resilience and grit it takes to stay with the efforts as stated in this article of second-language teaching (Moosavi et al.). This is a matter of confliction I find myself at and I am not even in the field yet. It is not enough to possess great interest in the field of which you wish to study, but the stamina, the endurance, the perseverance, and grit to move forth in your works despite all obstacles.

I somewhat understood the weight of what was to be carried with the field of education but until I invested more time, study and involved myself in higher education, did it really start to sink in. I was like, “oh gee I’m actually doing this now.” According to Springer, 150 EFL teachers participated in the quantitative study with 40 percent of those being male and 60 percent of those being female (Moosavi et al.). The average of educators were 35.5 years of age and had an average teaching experience of 11.3 years (Moosavi et al.). Only 30 teachers participated in the qualitative phase of the research. Not only do teacher need to have perseverance in their line of work when matter of confliction arises but it requires to have emotional regulation, adaptability, and a clear sense of professional identity (Moosavi et al.).

I understood that there are specific and unique qualities to every line of work, some of which being similar to each other. However, by reading this analysis among teaching in EFL I wasn’t aware of the technical focus there was regarding the matter. One would instinctively think that perseverance is a vital role in preserving the longevity in one’s life as this concept can be applied in just about any circumstance. So, it is only natural to think that this field requires the perseverance to continue forth despite the obstacles one faces in teaching. I also learned that many of these tests being conducted were focused more on the outcome of student performance rather than directly linking the study to the teachers’ performance of their cognitive and emotional regulation. There is a variance in the examination where grit showed 39 percent. Grit plays a significant role in a teacher’s well-being for carrying out the endurance and emotional resiliency for being successful.

One goal that comes to mind that may not pose too much of a hindrance to me but I do find how this can affect my relationship and communication with other cultures. This would be being diligent in not allowing my bias and exhaustive upbringing find a way to negatively influence my approach and walk for how I am to conduct myself accordingly when associating with others of another culture. I would rather think I am a bit more critical and reactive to the culture of my own place of origin. After all this study of cultural intelligence and all the incentives that make up this framework, I believe I had been exuding my outlook on life with a great deal of CQ but didn’t even know there were more technicalities involving the matter. Overall, my goal is to not allow the adversities that knowingly set me apart from reaching both my personal and spiritual goals and doing so with the intuition of Godly insight and carrying my walk with the love of Jesus to the best of my ability.

Works Cited

Moosavi, Seyedeh Sara, Maryam Pishghadam, and Dariush Nejadansari. “Exploring the

Impact of Second Language Teaching Grit on English Language Teachers’

Psychological Well-Being: A Mixed Methods Study.” Discover Psychology, vol. 6, article

7, 2026, Springer Nature, https://doi.org/10.1007/s44202-025-00542-1.