Keep On Keeping On

Perseverance Cultural Intelligence is defined as our level of interest, drive and motivation to adapt cross-culturally (from Cultural Intelligence by David Livermore). We took a Cultural Intelligence (CQ) quiz on Monday as part of our unit this week. Interestingly, three of us came out strong in Knowledge CQ but weak in Perseverance CQ.

It is important to gain an understanding of other cultures. All of us love to do our research. Olivia looks up information on ninjas J Alicia studies maps of Gamagori. I will read and read in an attempt to understand better. All of us observe EVERYTHING.

Knowledge and information are important parts of becoming part of a culture. However, it is not enough to know. We must choose to enter in. This is where Perseverance CQ comes in. Life is hard when learning a new culture. Everything takes energy when entering a new culture. You can’t just grocery shop on autopilot. We have to learn to ride motorbikes on the left side of the road. We have to learn new people and how they react in different situations. This is often hard when we are tired, overwhelmed, and fully engaged with the world around us.

All of us want to be able to take our knowledge and apply it successfully the first time. We want a guarantee that the knowledge we have is accurate and that we can apply it correctly. Instead, we fail. It leaves us afraid and insecure. We are left with the choice to persevere or not. What the quiz told us (and what we already knew) was that more often we make the choice not to persevere.

So we are trying to make different choices. We are holding each other accountable to risk and to try again when we fail. We want to get better at failure. We want to get better at being ok with trial and error. We want to keep going.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

So we keep loving even when it is hard. We go back to our TESOL class after a night where no one seemed to get it. We get ride the motorbike again the next day. We persevere.