Martha's Story

“What most inspired me in my personal/professional life?”

Without a doubt it would be my friend, my sister, “mi hermana”, Anne Onofre.

It was at Greenwood High School in central Wisconsin where making a new friend would steer the course of my life. Freshman English class in the fall of 1970, the girl that sat in front of me was the Foreign Exchange student attending our school that year from Lima, Peru. I don’t remember at all our first conversations, but I do remember I was so excited to meet and get to know someone from “somewhere else”. Greenwood is a very small rural town and with a population of about 900, at that time, it was so unusual to meet or see people that were different than me or the others in my school and community. Someone exotic, someone different—that’s what drew me first to Anne. And to practice my very limited Spanish! Anne and I became fast friends. Anne lived with a host family that school year but spent many days and sleep-overs at my house. She became the sister I never had and also became very close with my parents, brother and my grandparents. Before Anne was suppose to return to Peru she received permission from her sponsor to stay a few weeks longer and lived with my family for that short time.

38 years later Anne and I are still sisters. When we are together, it is as if we have never been apart--- even though we could count the number of times we have physically been together on our fingers. The 6 weeks I was in Peru with Anne and her family was one of the best parts of my life. Not the tourist stuff, but the day to day life of the people. Celebrating the holidays, attending a funeral, shopping for meals, hanging out with neighbors---life.

Her family is my family. I remember once hearing Anne’s brother, Edgar, tell my husband, Steve, “Anne and Martha are sisters, that makes you my brother in law”.

Since I meet Anne I have always been drawn to the people who were new or who are different than me. I have tried to learn as much as I can about the world and its people and cultures. I have tried to make my vacations to other places and countries a learning experience, not just a destination

Working for the last 6+ years in the International Student Services office at UW-Madison seems so perfect. I feel that the new friend I made in that freshman English class so long ago lead me right here and made me the person that I am today.

That excitement about meeting someone new, someone different, learning something about them, it still feels the same, and I love that feeling.

Martha Querin-Schultz (ISS Office UW-Madison)

May Lee's Tree

I took this photo when I was attending the Summer Institute of Intercultural Communication in 2004. This photo does not do it justice but it purely serves as a reminder and an inspiration to me to look at the bigger picture. I was at this institution in the middle of redwood country for almost a month, but I was so busy doing my conference activities that I forgot to appreciate the wonders of life. Thanks to Jack Condon and Nagesh Rao, some great interculturalists/teachers, who gave us some disposable cameras, I was able to see this giant tree, that existed hundreds of years before me, that went through so much changes, and could testify to the challenges of animosity. How did I not notice this giant being? This is a reminder for me to cultivate stillness and look beyond myslef; and concentrate on the "big picture" in any situation and in life.
~May Lee Moua-Vue

Japanese Story "Rude Introduction"

Japanese Story 2003 Curator’s clip description Mr Tachibana (Gotaro Tsunashima) waits outside the Port Hedland airport. Sandy Edwards (Toni Collette) arrives late, and with no idea of the proper way to greet a visitor from Japan. Mr Tachibana also has no idea of Australian manners – including never sitting in the back seat. At the large iron ore mine that he has come to inspect, part-owned by his father, the mining company’s Mr Richards (John Howard) shows much greater formal knowledge. Sandy is surprised to hear him speak Japanese. She’s even more surprised when the visitor shows he can speak English. Curator’s notes Much of the film is preoccupied with language, and the potential for misunderstanding between cultures, but this scene illustrates a wilful understanding. Mr Hiromitsu is withholding his language skills from Ms Edwards because she offends his sensibilities, and possibly because she is ‘only a woman’. He opens up immediately to John Howard, playing Richards. We suspect this is not simply because Richard addresses him in Japanese, and with due deference. He has ‘standing’ because he’s a man, something she is always denied in the film. Paul Byrnes, curator Australian Screen

Individualism-Collectivism Cultures

High Context-Low Context Cultures

Schaetti, Barbara and Wantanabe, Gordon. "Personal Leadership the Art of Crossing Cultures." A seminar presentated at the Summer Institute of Intercultural Communication, July 2004.