They always say that no amount of reading, discussion, and
listening to other’s experiences can truly prepare you for an intercultural experience.
Actually, I’m starting to think the opposite. Yes, it’s impossible to equate a
story you hear to a story you can tell, but there is something to be said about
preparing and educating yourself about intercultural dialogue before it
actually happens. Preparing yourself for miscommunications and misunderstandings
are essential to an experience abroad: otherwise, you would continually walk
away from uncomfortable situations without any idea about what was going on,
why people felt that way, and why you felt uncomfortable. You would have no
idea how to turn that culture-shock moment into a real learning experience.
My personal guide to processing culture exchange, with an example of what happened in class one day:
My personal guide to processing culture exchange, with an example of what happened in class one day:
- Identify what factually happened. At the end of a discussion about civil rights and racism in the US, and student asked about the n-word.
- Turn the fact into a story to identify what about it made you feel weird. My most recent learning experience (of many more subtle and significant ones this time around in Santiago) happened on Wednesday in the 1a media class when they had a reading about Rosa Parks. It was a great class! The students seemed interested and for the first time they were directly asking me questions and I could see their curiosity. Near the end of class, one student raised their hand and asked nonchalantly “So, is n***** considered an insult or something?”. Half the class didn’t hear what was said, and when I wouldn’t repeat the word for them, they started chanting and shouting “say it, say it, say it!”. I was completely caught off guard, but fortunately I had the situation under control: I firmly established I wouldn’t say the word, and subsequently explained how it carries the weight of hundreds of years of horrifying repression and history.
- Third, consider that story from every possible perspective and ask questions. On the walk home from school and for hours after, I was turning this event over and over in my head, asking questions, replaying it from various perspectives, considering details, big picture, etc. What can I take away from this? Does this reveal anything about myself? About Chile? About the way foreigners view the US? Did I learn any new skills? Did the students learn anything? Did I represent myself the way I would want? How can I use this experience to help me in the future?
- Answer those questions. This step takes much longer and I still haven't gotten around to thinking, discussing, and writing down my tentative answers.
- Return to the story a few months later and see how your interpretation of it has changed.
Unsurprisingly, coming from someone who considers education to be one of the most fundamental learning tools, these real-life strategies are taken directly from the theory taught in school. Critically looking at an event or object in a text for its symbolic significance, logically working through a math problem, analyzing the results of an experiment and coming up with every possible explanation, explaining people's motivations for acting in historic events, and breaking apart people's arguments in writing. All those strategies from different classes are applied in the real world at some point or another.
So, reading and discussing and listening DO help you prepare for an intercultural experience. It's classroom practice where you can make mistakes and learn in a safe environment. Taking different subjects in school isn't just about learning the facts that exist in that subject area. It's learning the strategies involved in creating math, history, literature, philosophy, etc. that you learn to apply in real life.
In my mind, preparing yourself for an intercultural experience means understanding how to ask questions based on strategies you learned in the classroom. Cultural miscommunications and misunderstandings are real and tangible, but you can soften the blow with some preparation and self-forgiveness.
So, reading and discussing and listening DO help you prepare for an intercultural experience. It's classroom practice where you can make mistakes and learn in a safe environment. Taking different subjects in school isn't just about learning the facts that exist in that subject area. It's learning the strategies involved in creating math, history, literature, philosophy, etc. that you learn to apply in real life.
In my mind, preparing yourself for an intercultural experience means understanding how to ask questions based on strategies you learned in the classroom. Cultural miscommunications and misunderstandings are real and tangible, but you can soften the blow with some preparation and self-forgiveness.