Well, I don’t know if this time title and entry fit so well together. (That’s why I crossed it out.) The exercises in this lesson were more in the aspect of “changing one’s perspective” and had not really something to do with “playing” and “staging”. If I was asked about my opinion, I was disappointed. The “playing” and “staging” had interested me much more. I wonder why this lesson was canceled or was put under another topic. Well, anyway, I don’t want to complain!

During last week the big folder “Global Learning” has arrived. It is a collection of loose sheets of paper with intercultural games and texts (105 pages!). Since I roughly browsed through it for the first time I knew that also university professors only use water to cook the soup. I found most of the exercises we have done since the beginning of the course in that folder. –Very interesting! And so there were also those exercises of today’s lesson.

The first task was to write down some thoughts about what an African development assistant would change here in Germany. This was indeed something what ordinary people here would find paradox I assume: Why should we learn something from “underdeveloped” countries. But actually it is interesting to get an outside opinion. Nowadays this is rather possible than years ago I think. You can see this in how the words changed. First, it was called “development aid”. Later it became “development assistant”. But I am not quite sure what the political correct version at the moment is. So my classmates wrote: stopping the waste of resources (energy, water, food…), promoting the cohabitation of different generations, supporting youth and culture (especially migrants and integration), and increasing the role of church in everyday life. But was it really the opinion from an African perspective or only what we heard about criticism of globalisation in general? When I answered the task I tried to find the problems Africa has and there was lack of water and food. We have those things in excess and that’s why I thought an African perspective would criticise it. For me it was by chance that this criterion was identical with the globalisation critic’s point of view. The aspect of family and church seem indeed to be more individual for Africa. But on the other hand those criteria could apply as well for Asian countries.

To confirm or not to confirm our ideas, a text was read from the ded-folder about the (fictive) experiences of an African development assistant in a German village and what he would change there (p.44f). Everybody should draw a picture of the village Mamadou (the name of the development assistant) described. Actually the German village was meant but some drew the African or both of his narration. I didn’t like drawing. In school I was never good at it and so, according to the teachers, my skills seem to be limited. I thought of imagining it instead. To me the description seemed to be full of stereotypes. The African village is totally traditional, the German village a modern large farm, I said in the evaluation. But the comments of my classmates convinced me. Actually there is no real “village-farming” in Germany anymore. The villages here are only settlements without much more infrastructure and the fields around them are in the hands of big farming companies which are like in Mamadou’s description “clinical” and over-efficient. Individual farming is more the exception here (because big companies can offer their products much cheaper I think). As for the African villages, the only African villages I have been to were in North Africa. In fact they were more rural and one could watch farmers doing their work with their hands. Nevertheless globalisation hasn’t stopped at their gates. There are also big companies and on the markets you’d find goods imported from neighbour countries. Of course Mamadou’s description was exaggerated because it was an exercise which should show people “development aid from another side” and should make them think.

[During class I wondered if the text was really written by (or after the experiences of) an African who stayed in Germany. It seemed to be too exaggerated. I found the answer in the folder: It was written by a German development assistant who stayed in West Africa.]

The next exercise in class (and also in the folder) should be to speak about African proverbs which were handed to us. Each group of three got three sayings where German equivalents should be found and their meaning should be discussed. I hardly could concentrate. It was very loud. The weather was hot and we had the windows open. Because the same day Germany had a football match, many people outside were making terrible noise. –And this for almost 2 hours in that room!

There were quite interesting proverbs among them. But mostly there was not only one interpretation possible. For example: “Only one digs the well, but many come to drink out of it.” Is it meant that one can reach much? Or is it meant that others come and exploit one’s work?

It was interesting to read those proverbs. I wondered if one can conclude from the existence of a proverb about “something” to the value of this “something” in society. Are there other values in African than in German society? Would we find to every proverb an equivalent?

Surprisingly many proverbs were similar to German equivalents although I could not exactly name them. Maybe my German proverb competence is not big enough for this. At the end I wondered about the sense of the exercise. In class there was not spoken about it. The folder says: “Experiencing a different image of man and different attitudes of life; Getting into touch with different norms and values” But unfortunately for me this aim was not reached. –Or it was maybe only in the context that African proverbs seem to be more ambiguous. More? At the same moment I wonder how ambiguous our German proverbs must seem to foreigners in their language.

Well, I post it in German... Unfortunately I can not participate myself in those interesting projects but only can recommend them. All you would have to pay is 30% of the travelling costs (and flights to Turkey and France are not that expansive!), so take the chance! For all those who study IKEAS it is - I am sure - a good opportunity to gain intercultural competence.
Please spread the information on your homepages, emails and so on. For further information please click on the coutries and you will be directed automatically to the pages of the project.
Thanks a lot!

**Teilnehmer für Projekte in Frankreich und Türkei gesucht**

Frankreich: 10.07.2006 - 20.07.2006
Türkei: 01.09. - 09.09.2006

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Actually I planned it already a long time ago to write some “additional” things here concerning intercultural experiences. But it is, I confess, hard to find the time. I am sometimes glad to have the obligatory articles about classes finished that I feel too tired to write some additional stuff. Anyway, there were some things which I liked to mention or only to make a note on.

The first thing happened already lots of weeks ago. Our market place was re-opened after some re-construction. The participants in the celebration were dressed in traditional costumes; the city was popular for its salt gaining. What surprised me was that there also was a black man. I wondered if this was intentionally and if the characters displayed should refer to real characters from that time. If so, was late medieval Germany so liberal to allow a black man to participate in the contemporary society? Should he display a trader for salt from a far country? Maybe. I did not pursue the question further but only wondered if in old times of trade intercultural communication played already a role or if this “science” actually is a modern days phenomenon.

The second things happened in the village where I am living. Nearby there are gardens, so called “Schreber-Gärten”. For me the Schreber-Gärten were a typical German occurrence. During the warmer days of a year people of the city go out to their small piece of land in the garden colony, grow plants, relax or barbeque. The more surprised I was to see two Vietnamese women planting salad and other German vegetables. I was with the dog and at first I passed. However my company made me to return and to ask them for a picture. In this occasion I also found out where they were from. But unfortunately the picture has never been taken. They were too shy (or I asked too harsh?). Anyway, it impressed me somehow and I had a strange feeling what I interpreted as that kind of feeling which you have when you make up with stereotypes.

The third thing… (I don’t know if I really get everything together what I actually wanted to write about)
The German national pride is also an interesting thing to watch. At the moment I think it might be in a change which can not be excluded to be long lasting. After hundreds of years in which Germany was split into more than 300 single states (dukedoms), two lost world wars and a long time of occupation, one can not deny that the German pride is different from other countries. If you ask German people what they think about their country they would answer with complaints. With further thinking, this is maybe observable only in Germany itself. When Germans are abroad I suppose they have certain national pride, or merely know how to differentiate them from other people (either native inhabitants or tourists). Of course I don’t know if this is a general phenomenon or if I only watch it with me. In fact because of the tomorrow beginning World Cup many foreigners come to Germany or look at Germany. Probably this is a good occasion to think about the own culture a little bit more, about what makes the difference between us and others. As a Focus article (in German) states being German has been discovered recently by the media. “We have the Pope,” “We have the World Cup” and “You are Germany” one can read from time to time. But this new euphoria is in its beginning. The Deutsche Welle published an article which says it is only limited to the World Cup and that the German flags, banners and t-shirts will vanish again soon after it is over. However it may be, I will definitely take the chance and buy one of those Germany flags for one Euro. And this actually only out of the fear that after the World Cup everything will be as it was before the World Cup, that is becomes impossible again to get a German flag.

The forth thing has something to do with the unfriendliness of Germans. At the moment I am living together with a foreigner, let’s call her “S”, and she sometimes tells me about her experiences. One of the first things she told me was that everybody stares at her all the time. First it wasn’t so obvious to me but then, when standing together with her in a waiting room it was quite obvious! My theory was that only old people would stare but in fact it was everyone. Okay, it might be a difference if you are in town or on a village. In our case it was the latter. There, people seem not really being used to foreign looking people in real life. For sure, TV has transported foreign life already into their homes, but in real…
Then she told me about the experiences in the bus. Can it be that foreigners are nicer to the people who surround them than Germans? Well… maybe, but I will not give my thoughts on that now. S was sitting face to face to a woman on the bus. The woman must have just come back from shopping. Suddenly the woman lost something from her basket. She was old and couldn’t reach it right away. S helped her but as soon as she took it up from the floor the old woman grabbed as if she was afraid S would steel it! Yes, she said “thank you” but in a monotonous, ignoring voice, looking to outside of the window and no trace of a smile on her lips.
It is difficult to explain that situation but I absolutely can follow her description. It was already sometimes that I thought people are ignorant here. Never expect too much from them! Even a reply to “Guten Tag” is oftentimes too much.
But of course this strange behaviour can be interpreted as personal by somebody who is a foreigner here and still quite unsure about language, culture and people.

Hard cut. I will end my posting here though I have not written a final or general concluding part. I will not do it here and maybe do it never because I think my Personal Notes can always be continued. I hope I will once more find the time to write something like “Personal Notes on Life - Part II” :-)

Sorry that I mention about this, but the date is quite remarkable. 06/06/06 – it will never come again. While I found it merely fascinating, others saw some biblical background in it. The triple six as a might have something mystical but the magic is dependent on its cultural context. Non-Christian cultures would see something else in it maybe or have other numbers for secret conspiracies. …What brings us back to the intercultural topics. But I admit that it is difficult for me now to build a bridge between 666 and international greetings and congresses. (Yea okay, in global astrological meetings it may play a role.)

But we didn’t start with the actual topic anyway. “What is insecurity for you?” and a picture was drawn on the blackboard. “Insecurity” in the middle and our associations around it: fear of unknown situations, fear to make something wrong, no mental preparation, expectation pressure, authority/dominance, lack of practice, language difficulties, lack of self-awareness. Those points with a personal context should be marked in one colour and those with an intercultural context in another. Soon it became clear that there is actually no distinction. All the mentioned facts can play a role in inner-cultural and intercultural situations. The explanation of insecurity can maybe be summarized as the following. It is the non-knowledge in and about certain situations.

Te main part of the lesson was now a game. We should imagine an international congress and divide into groups of four or five people. In the respective groups we should act like people from different countries. We had North Europeans, North Americans, Maghrebis, Vietnamese, South Americans, Japanese and Turks. I was in the group with the Japanese. Every group got a sheet of paper in which a description was given how people from those particular cultures would behave. During the meeting we would meet in our role others acting in their roles. I introduced myself as a Japanese manager with “Konidshiwa” but I could not follow all the points in the instruction. So probably I mixed some things up in the order of introducing. But I always made a deep bow and remained distance to my talking partners. Unfortunately there was not enough time to get to know all the cultures and I only met North Americans, Maghrebis, Vietnamese and South Americans. I was surprised by the way the Vietnamese were characterized. They had two males in their group and they only were – according to the descriptions – only allowed to talk to other males, which of course was difficult in a class with 89% women. They went hand in hand and introduced themselves as brothers. Also their girls came very close which surprised me. I – as Japanese - made automatically a step back. It was more difficult to talk with them, or to find common things, than I have thought. In general I found it quite difficult to talk to someone “normally” because everybody remained in his or her role. In reality there could probably be found a common basis much easier (?). At least I and maybe also my talking partner could try to make contact with each other.

Although it is (for me) rather questionable if this exercise has much relation to reality, it was a good practice. After class I met a Vietnamese girl and discussed the newly acquired knowledge about Vietnamese with her. She said that those things like holding hands, men not allowed to talk to women, coming (much) closer during the talk, men should not look at strange women and so on are not spread in Vietnam. I argued that it might be that she doesn’t know because she is from a bigger city. But she remained her point.

Anyway… some people said they wanted to copy the culture descriptions. I asked Ms Müller where she has it from and she replied that it can be ordered online from the Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst. The next day I send them a letter but still have no reply. Maybe they ran out of the material? I think it might be interesting especially for people from those cultures described to see how others would characterize them.

Short before the lesson ended there was another exciting game: the distance game. One member of each two-people group should come close. The other member should signalize nonverbally when the approaching person is coming too close and shall stop. Unfortunately I was in the only group with three people. I don’t know if it was because of this or because of the fact that we know each other pretty well that it didn’t work. I didn’t know how to signalize them not to come closer. I made a step back but the others just didn’t stop. It was the same with me when I was the approaching person. I didn’t know when to stop. But actually this game was not necessary for me to know how it feels if another one comes too close. I have made the experience for a couple of times before. And I remember a trick to make other people give way. It was called “the third eye” (in a communication or rhetoric seminar). It means that you go exaggerated straight and stretch your chest out, as if you would have another eye in it’s middle. This over-erected body lets people seem to be more self-conscious. Maybe it is because of two things: First, the person feels automatically more self-conscious, and second, for others the person seems to be more determined and also physically stronger, or “unstoppable”. So others would go out of my way. When I heard this I doubted if it really works, but it does. (The best way to try it is the pedestrian precinct ;)