On the US Peace Corps website, you can find the free Culture Matters Workbook that can help with learning about culture differences, and what they may mean in your life and in international and intercultural contexts.

In the workbook, you will find an introduction of the concept of culture, as the US Peace Corps describes it. You can also find a section on communication styles, and on intercultural interaction at the workplace. The Culture Matters Workbook includes a lot of reflection tools, questionnaires, and case studies that can help you to understand the meaning of culture. In addition to this, you may also learn about adjustment processes.

The use of reflective tools such as those offered in the Culture Matters Workbook can help to think about one’s own background and how it influences our way of thinking and behaving. As this Cross-Cultural workbook clearly comes from a US-American background, when going through the exercises that this workbook offers you may find it interesting to consider what is universal, and what is specific to various cultures. How has a specific concept of culture shaped this workbook?

Using this workbook can help you, as AFSers and interculturalists around the world to think and reflect about the intercultural experiences you may be having. By being aware of culture differences, and by remaining conscious of the many deep needs we as human beings share, we can gain intercultural empathy. In this way, we can learn to follow the platinum rule: treat others as they wish to be treated. We can learn about the many possible ways we can show respect, and about the importance of accepting and appreciating differences.

You can download the whole workbook here, or find more resources about this topic. Do you have any interesting ideas or useful resources for ICL that you would like to share with us? We invite everyone who is interested in ICL to contribute! Send your ideas to icl@afs.org