Blog
Does Culture Matter?
This summer Act Global had the privilege to join the Project Does Culture Matter? Lead by Romanian NGO Asociatia ADDO. In total Twenty-five participants came together in the pictures town of Slanic-Moldova for a one-week training course looking at Intercultural Competency. The course focused on 4 main pillars of cultural learning, which were…
- Vales and Ethics
- Intercultural Communication
- Conflict Management
- Logistics and Facilitation.
Each of these pillars focused on challenges that can arise when working in an intercultural setting. The activities gave participants the opportunity to share their working reality and reflect on the challenges they face.
Participants came from a range of sectors including Businesses, Schools, Universities and the NGOs. The aim of the course was to look at the commonalities all these sectors faced in terms of managing cultural issues and how in this divers group they could identify and empathise with the issues from different cultural perspectives.
So as well as the sectors being diverse the countries were too. Countries participating in the project came from Sweden, Turkey, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia and of course the host country Romania. The difference in cultural perspectives and values was really large, as was the potential for miscommunication and conflict, however all that participated in the course was amazing. It was clear that within the group we had created an atmosphere were participants were conscious about their own cultural values and empathetic to how they could be interpreted by others. Participants made huge efforts to understand each other and to be understood; as a result the outcome was truly great, it was clear to see that participants showed real cultural competency.
Over the course of the week participants engaged in a range of activities that explored the topic using the method of non-formal education. Some of the learning included looking at perceptions of time, power distance and individualism v.s collectivism, to name a few. The course demonstrated theoretical examples of intercultural competency and allowed participants to explore through set activities how to turn these into practical applications, relevant to their reality.
As well as numerous taught sessions participants were also engaged in a cultural visit to the town on Bran were they saw the historic castle of Vlad Tepes, a Romanian Prince whose story was famously and transformed into the legend of Dracula by Irish writer Bram Stoker.
It was a long and full week filled with learning, fun and intercultural sharing at both the non-formal and informal level, but the course is not over yet. Participants will now conduct a range of activities based on the four pillars of the course. To accomplish this task they will all be coached by one of the trainers and all results will be added to our online platform (Does Culture Matter?). By November all activities should be completed and participants will meet again in an evaluation seminar in Bali Indonesia. Watch this space to learn what happens next.
This project was made possible by sponsorship from the Erasmus+ Programme Coordinated by the AudioVIsual agency of the European Commission.
Trainers on the course.
Alenka Ipanova Sebastian Graça da Silva Andreea Bulai
Participating Partner organisation.
Chalmers / University of Gothenburg – Sweden
MindSane – Turkey
VCD Nepal – Nepal
Youth of Osh – Kyrgyzstan
Act Global – Indonesia
Asociatia ADDO – Romania
If you are interest to learn more about this course or would like more information on other intercultural communication training please contact info@act-global.org or office@addoconsult.com
