When individuals of different cultures interact with each other, be it at home or abroad, major communication problems can arise (regardless of how fluent one is) due to the uncontested relationship between language and culture. Intercultural awareness facilitates clear, culturally appropriate communication, creates business opportunities, trust, and helps builds relationships. It can also contribute to tolerance, deeper understanding and world peace. Many corporations and NGOs consider it essential to provide intercultural awareness training to their staff.
According to The Forum on Education Abroad’s “State of the Field Survey” for 2011, “the cultural integration of students” ranked # 1 among the top overall concerns among institutions involved in the study abroad field. In spite of this, most study abroad programs today do not include extensive and specific on-site intercultural training for their students.
AHA International, long before it joined Global Education Oregon, was pioneer among study abroad organizations to provide intercultural awareness orientation to students participating in its programs. In 2006 the Oviedo program began offering a mandatory intercultural awareness course to help fall and spring students process their cross-cultural experience abroad.
The course helps students to make sense (and light) of their cultural bumps, gain a deeper understanding of themselves as cultural beings and as well as a greater understanding of the host culture. Students learn to see the world that surrounds them through “multicultural lenses” and build “intercultural muscle” (skills) though reflecting about experiences and observations from various perspectives.
The objectives of the course are:
To provide students with a conceptual framework from which to process their intercultural experience here in Oviedo and to help them develop and put into practice specific intercultural skills. Specifically, students will:
- Learn about themselves as a cultural beings.
- Learn about the elements of culture such as value orientations, non-verbal communication and communication styles, etc. that inform daily life.
- Learn about the levels of cultural awareness, intercultural sensitivity and cross-cultural adjustment.
- Develop and practice their cultural observation skills.
- Develop knowledge and skills that are both culture-specific (pertinent to the host culture) and culture general (relevant to all intercultural experience.)
The course is very hand-on and makes use of a varied methodology ranging from short lecturettes, class discussions, small group work, ethnographic observation exercises, reflection essays, critical incident analisis and much more. The course is 20 contact hours and is graded A-F. The mandatory Interncultural Awareness
Self study course for summer students
We have developed an optional condensed self-study intercultural course for interested students enrolled in the intensive summer sessions. This course is designed to enhance the students cultural self awareness and guide them through several ethnographic observation exercises during the short time they are on site.
COMING SOON:
We are currently developing several optional seminars/workshops to complement this course in the areas of:
- Service Learning Seminar in Oviedo which complements the Interncultural Course and community service of interested students.
- Spain Today (or Spanish Cultural Studies): Understanding the Context (to provide necessary contextual information that the students are often lacking).
- Spanish Work Culture: A Comparative Perspective (to complement internship and service learning placements).