Interaction and Cultural Analysis (Cross-Cultural Engagement Activity)

​This activity is used in a Cross Cultural Engagement course about two months after students have arrived at their education abroad location. Students are asked to write up their reflections in order to focus their observations. In this case students are asked to submit their writing to an instructor at the home campus, but this activity could easily be submitted to an instructor or director who is on-site with students.

CURRICULUM TOOLBOX HOME ​

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​Instructions to students:

Reading: “Strategies for Making Cultural Inferences to Enhance Your Culture Learning” in Maximizing Study Abroad, 2nd edition, pp. 113-117.

Write 1-2 pages and submit in the course module. Also upload this into the Forum section of Sakai, and post your half-page response to another student’s paper in the Forum as well.
NOTE: You may attach one or more photos from your social activity. 

​Join other students from your host culture for a social activity.  Note what kinds of topics the group talks about.  Are there cultural references (jokes/pop culture/traditions) which make you feel like an outsider?  Note how the group budgets its time –do you detect any difference between your host culture and how a group of students in the US might use their time?  Do you feel impatient, rushed, or neither?  With communication, do people interrupt/jump in or do they usually wait for the speaker to finish? Were any efforts made to bridge your culture and theirs?  If there are other aspects about your interaction with students from the host culture that you noticed were different from your normal expectations, describe these, and also feel free to discuss these differences with other students in the Forum section.

Faculty

• Andrew SmithAffiliation: Wake Forest University​
• Steven DukeAffiliation: University of Nebraska