YOGA form_intercultural competence

Hello guys!!!

Let's speak about intercultural competence!

The reason why I chose to attend “Foreign Languages” at University was not only the will to improve my English skills but also I liked the idea of getting to know other cultures, travelling or working abroad in international contexts. After many courses based basically on the improvement of English linguistic skills, I’m happy to deal with a concrete exercise, that is the exchange with students in the United States, to develop my intercultural competence. Well, I have to say that it is quite hard to become familiar with any culture you did not grow up into. Even if you spend some time abroad, your idea of the country you are living in will always be influenced either positively or negatively by your own culture.
Reading and reflecting on the document “Developing Intercultural Competence” was really interesting. It made me think of the current increasing need to be able to deal effectively and appropriately with diversity, whether ethnic, racial, religious, or cultural. We can simply think about the difficulties of some immigrants to fit in our society: insensitivity and mistrust are the main attitudes towards them. Is it right?
This is why I’d like to focus our attention on some fundamental traits pointed out by this document: respect, empathy, flexibility, patience, interest, curiosity, openness, motivation, a sense of humour, tolerance for ambiguity and a willingness to suspend judgement. I think we should remember all these words when we come into contact with people of different culture.

The YOGA (Your Objectives, Guidelines, and Assessment) form is definitely a useful tool to critically examine the development of our intercultural communicative competence (ICC).
It helped me to consider aspects I hadn’t previously considered such as the importance of ‘awareness’ (especially of my own culture) and the level of willingness to interact with members of the host culture I demonstrate.
The hardest part about it is the fact that it’s a self-assessment and I found it very difficult to rate myself! Anyway, I think that so far my intercultural competence is not very developed but through our exchange and experiences abroad I hope to become a multicultural specialist!

C u in class!