Maria Popova maintains a blog called, “Brain Pickings” (http://www.brainpickings.org/) where she shares thought-provoking posts ranging from philosophy to intercultural learning.

One of Maria’s posts was on the artist, Yang Liu and her project, Ost trifft West (East Meets West). Chinese-born and German raised, Liu has a unique perspective of the differences between Eastern and Western cultures and Ost trifft West very clearly displays key cultural differences between China and Germany with minimal words and simple but insightful illustrations.

For example, Germans tend to be very punctual, whereas Chinese are generally a little more flexible. Liu illustrates this cultural difference through the image to the left.

Similarly, the image to the right from the Ost trifft West project demonstrates the cultural difference between China and Germany when people gather to form a queue.

And this image from her project attempts to illustrate the culturally acceptable level of noise in a German restaurant versus a Chinese restaurant.

Liu’s work is part of the ever-increasing interest in and importance of intercultural learning.  AFS, like Liu, is continually seeking new ways to provide intercultural learning opportunities to its diverse audiences.