intercultural differences meetup
TRANSCRIPT
Intercultural Differences MeetUp Department of Economics of Padova University 10 December 2014 International Tutors
Aims
¡ Openly and freely discuss cultural differences
¡ Find out new ways of approaching situations and problems
¡ Minimize the «culture shock» in your next experience abroad
¡ See things from different eyes
¡ Learn new things
¡ Meet new people
Humor across Frontiers: International Competition to write an article about elephants
¡ English Hunting Elephants in British East Africa
¡ French The Love Life of Elephants
¡ German The Origin and Development of the Indian Elephant from 1200 to 1950 (600 pages)
¡ American How to Breed Bigger and Better Elephants
¡ Russian How We Sent an Elephant to the Moon
¡ Swede Elephants and the Welfare State
¡ Spanish Techniques of Elephant Fighting
¡ Indian The Elephant as a Means of Transportation before Railroads
¡ Finns What Elephants Think about Finland
¡ Norwegian title: “Norway and Norway’s Mountains.”
How?
¡ Split in groups
¡ Launch a broad area of topics
¡ Every group chooses a topic to discuss about
¡ 5-6 mins discussion
¡ Present 3 main ideas
Some topics
¡ Some points came to our minds, but you are more than welcome to revise them and add what you prefer!
¡ We though about 4 macroareas:
FOOD HABITS LIFESTYLE
ATTITUDES
LIFE IN ITALY
ENTERTAINMENT
LIFE IN ITALY
LIFE IN ITALY
¡ Why did you decide to come to Italy?
¡ Main difficulty once arrived in Italy
¡ Bureaucracy: how is enrolling at University in Italy vs your home country
¡ Life in your flat
¡ How is the local (Italian) populations? Do they
speak English?
¡ Relations with climate/sickness/cold
¡ Dealing with Italian students (curious or shy?)
¡ Work in Italy
FOOD HABITS
FOOD HABITS
¡ Dealing with FOOD! (to survive or to taste?)
¡ In company or alone?
¡ Traditions?
LIFESTYLE
LIFESTYLE
¡ Distance: What does far mean for you?
¡ How much do you travel?
¡ How much do you value your free time?
¡ Hobby
¡ "In your country, how do students normally spend money (clothes, foodd, travel, etc)?
¡ How is this different from what you've observed in Italy?
¡ Work hard or hardly work?
ENTERTAINMENT
ENTERTAINMENT
¡ How to approach the opposite sex/same sex = a potential partner?
¡ Type of relationship (open/close relationship)
¡ How do you have fun? (alcohol, disco, Karaoke,..)
¡ Roles in the relationships (different tasks, equality)
ATTITUDES
How many truths?
¡ For a German and a Finn the truth is the truth.
¡ In Japan and Britain it is all right if it doesn’t rock the boat.
¡ In China there is no absolute truth.
¡ In Italy it is negotiable.”
ATTITUDES
¡ What’s the truth? How many “truths”?
¡ Discrimination / cosmopolitan view
¡ Which country would like to visit the most /the least?
¡ How do you see legality? (i.e. buying stolen bikes? Not pay the bus ticket? Cheating during exams?)
¡ Gay Marriage
¡ How do you deal with failure/difficulties/unsuccess?
¡ How do you see the future?