Studying Abroad: an Intercultural Communication Experience
Studying abroad: An Intercultural communication experience Florencia Gonzalez Intercultural Communication Instructor: Prof. Cees Hamelink Spring Semester 2011 Zeppelin University
Introduction We are 6,952,296,627 million of people in the world and 243 countries in which the citizens have different cultures. Since centuries ago, when the men started to travel, the humanity begun to understand a little bit more about other cultures, now a days with the mass media and living in the communication era, we know or at least we should know that we are different and we have several habits in our own country which are not the only ones and sometimes are very different from others. For this reason people need to understand what intercultural communication means, we need to know how to communicate with other cultures, and realize how important is this for the world. Raising consciousness to the people who belongs to the academic field about Intercultural communication is a good way to give them the instruments to live in this diversity. The European Commission aware of this, in 1987 created a programme called Erasmus or European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students, and one of the objectives of such mobility is to enable students to benefit educationally, linguistically and culturally from the experience of learning in other European countries1 1 European Commission. Lifelong Learning Programme. Erasmus. http://ec.europa.eu/ 1
Through this paper we are going to understand how this programme works as an opportunity to learn about other cultures, to live an intercultural experience and to bring the youth and the people in charge of teach the knowledge to them, the chance to become an open-minded person in order to understand each other between Europe and also between other countries more far way from us. First we are going to understand what intercultural communication means in this
Introduction We are 6,952,296,627 million of people in the world and 243 countries in which the citizens have different cultures. Since centuries ago, when the men started to travel, the humanity begun to understand a little bit more about other cultures, now a days with the mass media and living in the communication era, we know or at least we should know that we are different and we have several habits in our own country which are not the only ones and sometimes are very different from others. For this reason people need to understand what intercultural communication means, we need to know how to communicate with other cultures, and realize how important is this for the world. Raising consciousness to the people who belongs to the academic field about Intercultural communication is a good way to give them the instruments to live in this diversity. The European Commission aware of this, in 1987 created a programme called Erasmus or European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students, and one of the objectives of such mobility is to enable students to benefit educationally, linguistically and culturally from the experience of learning in other European countries1 1 European Commission. Lifelong Learning Programme. Erasmus. http://ec.europa.eu/ 1
Through this paper we are going to understand how this programme works as an opportunity to learn about other cultures, to live an intercultural experience and to bring the youth and the people in charge of teach the knowledge to them, the chance to become an open-minded person in order to understand each other between Europe and also between other countries more far way from us. First we are going to understand what intercultural communication means in this
Bibliography: Domínguez Garrido, m. c. (2006). Investigación y formación del profesorado en una sociedad intercultural. Universitas: Madrid Brislin, R. (1986). Cross Cultural Encounters in Face-to-Face Interactions. NewYork:Pergamon Press . European comission. Lifelong Learning Programme. Erasmus. http://ec.europa.eu/ Eurostat. European Comission. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/ Cultural Statics 2011. Available in: Tylor, Edward B. 1958. The Origins of Culture. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers. Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Larry A. Samovar-Ricahrd E. Porter. 10th Edition. Vertovec, Steven. 2001. “Transnationalism and Identity.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 27.4 (October): 573-582. Intercultural Communication: An Introduction. Fred E. Jandt. Second Edition 10