Basic knowledge of interculturality
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This self-study module was created by the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg and adapted to the profile of the Hochschule Geisenheim University. For more information, please go to the bottom of this page.
This project is funded by the European Social Fund and by the State of Hesse.
Basic knowledge of interculturality
What you can expect:
The online self-study course is designed to help you better understand your experiences in your everyday life as a student in Germany or another country. You will become aware of how cultural similarities or differences can play a role in your interactions with others. You will develop ideas and strategies to improve your own intercultural skills.
The three learning sequences of the course are designed to build on each other.It takes about 30 - 45 minutes to complete each learning sequence.
These are the topics and learning objectives:
- You are familiar with various approaches from modern cultural theories. This cultural awareness is like the glasses through which cultural influences can be perceived, grasped and appropriately addressed. It thus forms the basis for intercultural reflection in the context of university and studying.
- Using different cultural models (the iceberg and the onion), you can describe and compare your own cultural imprints.
- You also know what 'culture' is not - and besides 'culture' you know the two further levels of the 'mental software' of human beings, which influence their perception and their behavior or actions.
- You are acquainted with and understand the importance of the concepts of multicollectivity and polycollectivity.
- You know that every person belongs to different groups that culturally shape him or her.
- You have dealt with your own group affiliations and intercultural learning experiences of your biography.
- You understand that cultural similarities can always be found, even among people of different origins or nationalities.
- You are aware that every person perceives the world through (his/her) "cultural glasses" and interprets, evaluates and acts accordingly.
- You are aware of cultural differences in various linguistic areas.
- You know communication and working styles and how they may differ culturally.
- You know German cultural standards and how they can affect you in an academic context.
- You know the dynamic of intercultural communication.
- You know what intercultural competence consists of.
- You know the stages of intercultural learning which develop intercultural sensitivity.
Start
Literature & sources
This work was created as part of the kosmic project at the University of Freiburg by Janine Söllinger-Weist, pre-translation into English done by Karen Oostenbrink, proofreading by Adrian Walton. It was adapted to the profile of the Hochschule Geisenheim University by Rita Broschek. For this purpose, content was shortened, images exchanged and the order of the chapters changed. Like the original module, the self-study module is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, unless otherwise noted.