On 27 September 2012, the European Federation of Intercultural Learning (EFIL) and AFS partnered to celebrate Intercultural Dialogue Day (IDD) 2012 to promote intercultural learning. This year, IDD held a best Video and Photo contest for events and activities that celebrated intercultural learning and dialogue.
Everyone who participated in the IDD made wonderful contributions to furthering the awareness of intercultural learning. As well, many stayed connected through IDD’s facebook page, which is where the winners of the photo and video contest were announced. Congratulations to the winners from AFS Hungary and AFS Russia!
Dear Volunteers around the world – Today is your day!
In 1985, the United Nations declared 5 December as International Volunteer Day, to formally recognize the millions of people around the world who participate in volunteer activities and make visible their contributions on the local, national, and international levels. In celebration of this year’s International Volunteer Day, Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has shared this message:
“Founded on the values of solidarity and mutual trust, volunteerism transcends all cultural, linguistic and geographic boundaries. By giving their time and skills without expectation of material reward, volunteers themselves are uplifted by a singular sense of purpose.”
AFS also extends its heart-felt thanks and appreciation to all of its 43,905 active volunteers, who dedicate their time, energy, and passion to AFS in so many ways! We invite you to view the below video from AFS’s President and CEO, Vincenzo Morlini, as well as visit the AFS Intercultural Programs website today for special information related to International Volunteer Day.
The Youtube channel of the Global Nomads Group (GNG), an NGO that fosters intercultural dialogue and understanding amongst the world’s youth, offers 272 free videos that portray how young people from all over the world live, what they think, and how they discuss and cooperate with others from different countries. Many of the videos show how groups of young people (usually secondary school classes) from two completely different countries meet each other, listen to each other, and learn about each other’s realities through online classroom exchange, known as Exchange 2.0. Many other videos also show interviews with young people and portraits of their lives in the US, Uganda, Haiti, Spain, Vietnam, and many other countries.
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.
In a recent TED talk conference, Susan Cain, author of the book Quiet – The Power of Introverts makes a case for acknowledging the power and contributions of introverts. Many introverts have a rich inner world and Cain acknowledges that they do not show themselves outwardly simply because they work best in quiet environments and don’t feel the need to self-promote. Cain suggests that introverts not be confused as being shy, as shyness is linked to a fear of social judgement. Being introverted, she says, is related to the environments in which a person feels they can do their best work and be most authentic.
Cain identifies as an introvert, and she describes often having forced herself to be extroverted having learned that some of American society may not value individuals who hesitate to communicate their knowledge, skills, and ideas. She passionately argues for accepting these differences and acknowledging the introverts around us (1 out of every 3 people is introverted). If we do so we may see that introverts have qualities that many extroverts lack; they are often strong team leaders, because they let people run with their ideas, instead of constantly talking about them or taking over with their own ideas.
Her book can make us think about how we may have a bias towards paying attention to those who talk most frequently or articulately, instead of carefully listening to all who are around us. She also encourages us to reflect on how we can create the space for quieter people to share their ideas.
Susan Cain entertains the notion of the extrovert ideal, a notion which she points out is evident in US American culture. Is this also a reality in all national cultures? Cain’s book includes a chapter that asks this very question: Do all cultures have an extrovert ideal? In many East Asian classrooms, she says, the curriculum is focused away from talking, and emphasizes listening, writing, and memorization for the learners and reserving the talking for the teachers.
As AFSers, many of us live our lives outwardly and easily connect to many people in many places around the world. We are curious about and restlessly question the world around us in order to learn about the lives of others. If we remember to remain open in these intercultural contexts and to listen and observe the opinions and messages that come through in quieter, more hidden forms we can learn a lot about others and about ourselves – we may even make more of the experience.
In his speech, Trompenaars explains dilemmas and how they may be reconciled. His speech aims to help understand cultural differences in dealing with a number of dilemmas. What would you do if you were confronted with the following situation? You witnessed your boss or teacher make a mistake – would you tell him or her? Under which circumstances? Are you honest or polite? Is hierarchy more important to you or the quality of your work/studies? Could you have it both ways? And there are many more dilemmas! Trompenaars introduces some of them in his speech.
Some cultures propose specific solutions to these problems, and these solutions are closely connected to their value preferences. In one group or society, honesty might be more important than politeness, and in another, the reverse may be true.
The same goes with respect for hierarchy. How do we deal with situations where someone who expects a high level of politeness and hierarchy meets someone with the opposite expectations? There are many situations like this that we have to deal with every day – especially in intercultural environments.
In our work with international AFSers – colleagues, volunteers and sojourners – and when you come to another country, many of us know what it means to try to reconcile the differences and to find a way to deal with each other that builds on recognition, respect, and understanding. This speech will help you to understand how.
The ICL Team at AFS International has recently uploaded a new video presenting the 2012 Intercultural Link Initiatives. In a dialogue, Laura Kline-Taylor and Vincenzo Morlini, President & CEO of AFS Intercultural Programs, discuss the current opportunities that exist for the AFS Network and for Friends of AFS.
The Intercultural Link Initiatives include the following materials and tools:
Registered AFS Volunteers can log in now. Contact icl@afs.org with any questions.
To become an AFS Volunteer and gain full access to the opportunities and materials that are part of the Intercultural Link Initiative, contact AFS in your country today.
One of the best ways to confront stereotypes and prejudice is through education about different people, different countries and different cultures. When ordinary people from very different backgrounds come together to learn about what makes them different, they can start to develop a truer understanding of the wider world. The documentary, “Crossing Borders,” directed by Arnd Wächter, records students from the United States and Morocco attempting to accomplish this goal.
These students travel together through Morocco and in the process, they confront some of their preconceived notions of their respective cultures. In each instance, the students must carefully balance what they had learned previously about “The West” and the “Islamic World” through their schools, the Media, and their wider societies with their new experiences of interacting with a member of the other culture. In many cases, they find their preconceived notions firmly rooted in cultural misunderstanding.
The students’ intercultural experiences in Morocco powerfully display how people can change their understanding of other cultures by spending time with members of the other culture and gaining a more informed perspective of cultural differences. When exploring what makes another culture different, it is important to understand how people are similar, despite great differences in geography and way of life. This intercultural experience changes the way the students in “Crossing Borders” view each other and the global community.
Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie, gave a compelling lecture at the TED Talk where she cautions against believing a single story about people and cultures.
Chimamanda Adichie recalls a time when she was studying abroad at a university in the United States and her American roommate expressed curiosity about Adichie’s Nigerian culture, yet allowed her general knowledge about Africa to color her perception. Her roommate knew of Nigeria only as presented by some Western media, not as the vibrant and diverse Nigeria that Adichie calls home.
All too often, we learn about different cultures and society but only learn one story, or one side of one story. Adichie warns about the danger of a single story because “a single story creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but rather that they are incomplete. They make the one story become the only story.”
Our increasingly interconnected world makes learning about differences possible, and thus, it is even more important to learn about all the unique stories and perspectives about our cultures.
One of the best ways to confront stereotypes and prejudice is through education about different people, different countries and different cultures. When ordinary people from very different backgrounds come together to learn about what makes them different, they can start to develop a truer understanding of the wider world. The documentary, “