Association for Educational Development Ekvalis, implemented the program “Cultural Transitions“ in May and June. The aims of this program were to equip participants with the necessary skills set when entering new cultures, acknowledging the existence of culture shock and finding common ways to overcome it and using the diversity in cultures, education and at work as effective environment to grow professionally. 20 participants from Macedonia, Turkey, France, Germany, Denmark and Japan attended this program.
The workshop on “Entering new cultures“, highlighted the specific elements of culture and what to expect when entering a culture different from the one at home. Through various exercises, open discussions and simulations the participants shared their views and opinions on how they see and perceive the world. We were also joined by two guest speakers, Macedonian university students who study abroad. Melpomenie Doubi studying at New York University in Abu Dhabi and Tamara Barsova studying at Yale University in Singapore, shared their experiences of their contact and way of living into these cultures.
The second workshop on “Culture Shock and Re-entry Shock“, covered some aspects of culture shock and re-entry shock from diverse perspectives. Through the exercise “Derdians“, the group had to simulate that they are indigenous tribe and a group of engineers who had to teach the tribe how to build a bridge. The simulation required some specific behaviors like greeting the fellow tribe members with a kiss on a shoulder, staying together and touching each other, answering with a “yes“, even if you mean no. The engineers had to figure out patterns of living on their own while they guide the tribe on how to build their bridge in the country of Derdia. There was also an open space for sharing our personal experiences on how the individual members of the group have experienced culture shock or re-entry shock in real life having in mind that the group was multicultural.
“Cultural Diversity in Education and at Work“, was the topic for the third workshop for the program. Diverse perspective of cultural diversity in education such as segregated housing by race or gender, criteria for receiving scholarships, school uniforms and their acceptance by students and values at work were discussed with the Human Barometer where participants share their opinion for set of statements while positioning on different levels in the working room with one end being the “Agree“ side and the other end “Disagree“ side and everything in between. The workshop ended with ideas for contribution for increasing cultural diversity in educational institutions and work organizations.
Besides the regular workshops each Saturday, the activity “Cultural Conversations“, was completed as group work in mixed intercultural groups. The groups were supposed to discuss a topic in focus each week while they are spending time together. They had freedom in arranging the meetings in terms of date and time and the groups were allowed to be creative in terms of what they are going to do or visit while discussing the topics. They could go to the park, the cinema, visit a local festival, cook together food from their countries or sing karaoke. The three topics in focus for the cultural conversations were: friendships (nature of friendships), cultural perspectives (language, primary cultural identity, other cultures you identify with, misconceptions about culture, cultural symbols and multicultural societies) and education as a culture.
For the end of the program the participants gathered to evaluate their participation in this program. The evaluation was made with the help of Dixit cards. Each participant chose one illustration that described their experience from this program and shared it with the rest of the group. The final meeting was used to give certificates to the participants.
This program was supported by People to People International Skopje, People to People International (European Office) in Brussels, Youth Office of the Municipality in Center and Center for Youth Activism- KRIK. The program was implemented by Angel Dimitrievski- trainee at Association for Educational Development EKVALIS through the Eramus + work placement program.