This year’s conference took place in Moscow, Russia on the 18^th of August, and was held at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. It is one of the three conferences that together make up the AISEC International Congress, an international event to plan projects for social and economic development. At the Global Youth Voice event, two AFS staff members had the opportunity to take a more active role and act as facilitators for one of the sessions.

Tom McLeod, an AFS returnee (Australia 2000-2001) and current Intern at the AFS Russia office in Moscow, along with Nonna Kovrizhnykh, Partner Director of AFS Russia, and Organisational Development Coordinator Natalia Zakharova facilitated a session on Intercultural Dialogue and Tolerance. The 10-day conference hopes to foster a positive global impact in the way youth collaborate and interact, and aims to build a global perspective for future generations.

AFS-USA, AFS Indonesia, AFS Malaysia and the US Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam have cooperated with GNG for a media literacy project called the Global Connections: one LENS program. This program is sponsored through the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Through this project, opportunities were offered to students and educators from Indonesia, Malaysia, the United States, and Vietnam to develop their media skills and to get to know each other better through working towards a common goal. The students met online (through video conferences and social networking), and later also in person. The project ended with a local media festival, where students had the opportunity to showcase their public service announcements or digital stories. On the Youtube channel below, you can find videos that were taken during the completion of this project.

This cooperation of AFS and the Global Nomads Group was a big success. It has become more and more common for us, especially for young people, to connect to others via online tools and video conferences. AFS and the Global Nomads Group have pioneered in the area of facilitating youth exchange using these tools, and their positive and very successful experience lets us hope that there is more to come in this area.

Since I have a B.A. in International Studies, my experiences share some similarities to AFS and Intercultural Learning, but my understanding of the subject was at the most basic level.  I came from studying the realms of politics, history, security, conflict resolution and a bit of economics thrown in for good measure.  Of course I was aware of the fields of Intercultural Studies, but this time last year, I considered the concept of intercultural learning to be little more than an interesting, but mainly theoretical, lens through which to view those from different cultures.

All this changed once I saw first-hand the vast array of work that AFS Intercultural Programs accomplishes.  I learned that it is wrong to simply understand Intercultural Learning as an academic approach to cultural interaction with only limited practical application.  Intercultural Learning is nothing less than a powerful tool that allows an individual to know how to understand and navigate what makes each of us different. What a useful, relevant and practical skill to possess!

At first glance the fields of International Relations and Intercultural Learning may seem very similar.  Yet the two subjects in many ways speak different languages. An enthusiast of International Studies learns about a nation with a nod to formal culture, whereas an enthusiast of Intercultural Learning may learn about the same nation with a nod to subjective culture. For example, International Relations is a field that is generally more focused on analyzing all the possible factors of why the particular nation as a whole may act. In contrast, Intercultural Learning is a field that is slightly narrower and focuses specifically on the possible cultural factors behind people’s actions within the same nation. Therefore, International Relations is more system oriented and Intercultural Learning is more oriented towards understanding individuals within their own cultural contexts.

There is a definite learning curve I currently navigate as I further understand how intercultural learning is a field that is unique, essential and practical. This is the first post in a weekly series dedicated to describing my process becoming familiar with intercultural learning.  I will take a subject every week, and look at it through intercultural learning ‘lens’ and comparing it to international relations ‘lens.’

So far this process has allowed be to really come to appreciate the value of ICL as an important tool that I can use to adapt when I interact with people from different cultural backgrounds. This is the heart of the AFS mission–understanding and respecting difference.  My journey to understand the distinct and useful qualities of Intercultural learning will lead me to have an even deeper understanding of AFS’s work, since the two are intertwined.

Look for my post next week about one diplomat’s six winters in Central Asia!

Paul Edinger is a strategic operations intern for the Intercultural Learning department at AFS International, where he works to facilitate the implementation of ICL strategy throughout the AFS Network. His time at AFS began in April of 2011 with the Development and Branding department and he continues in 2012 as an intern for ICL. Prior to joining AFS he taught English, Spanish and computer literacy courses to Guatemalan and Salvadoran immigrants to the United States while obtaining his B.A. in International Studies with a concentration in Latin America. He completed minors in Anthropology, Political Science, Latino Studies, and Spanish Language Studies.

AFS Czech Republic has decided to broaden its horizons by developing a new ICL project for a special group of young people: students of vocational high schools. The project, called Stereotypes in us – Intercultural and Experiential Learning for Tolerance, was developed by AFS with two other Czech non-governmental organizations: Multicultural Center Prague (- http://www.mkc.cz/en) and INEX – Association for Voluntary Activities (http://inexsda.cz/en).

AFS wanted to engage a different group of young people other than the participants and volunteers than typically attend secondary school. We were aware that Czech vocational high schools do not offer a great deal of ICL and their students tend to develop stereotypes and prejudice around other cultures. The main aim of the project is to prevent xenophobia and racism among students through ICL, using various interactive methods. We offer different activities for students as well as for their teachers.

The main offerings include a 90 minute Intercultural Workshop and three 90 minute Intercultural Workshop Classes where the students talk about differences among cultures, think about their own personal values, or discuss the role of media in our lives. The project also offers out-of-school activities: a 3-day Mini-Workcamp and an Experience Course. The Mini-Workcamp is voluntary work on a local project for 10 hours together with different intercultural activities, whereas the Experience course focuses on teambuilding games to make the participants think about themselves and their role in a multicultural group. All these activities are led by experienced trainers, including AFS volunteers, and accompanied by foreigners living in the Czech Republic, which brings the students face to face with different cultures.  We occasionally invite our hosted AFS students too so that they can experience and learn something new as well.  Finally, we also offer a Teacher’s Workshop which is a one-day event with time built in for sharing best practices and presenting ICL topics within this project.

The project, begun in June 2010, will continue until May 2013. It is funded through the Education for Competitiveness Operational Programme of the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The programme mediates funding from the European Social Fund, one of the structural funds of the European Union, in the programming period 2007-2013. The total funding was over half a million euros, covering all project-related expenses.

Stereotypes in Us looks to the long-term and has multiple connected pieces.  We are happy to share the AFS vision in additional places and offer new perspectives to young people. Learn more at: http://stereotypek.mkc.cz/

Karolína Kouslová, Educational Program Coordinator, AFS Czech Republic