Sometimes the greatest benefit of attending a SIETAR conference is not that you learn new content, but that you learn a new way of communicating that content. SIETAR is the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research which has been around in some form or another for at least 30 years. I typically spend more time with the "R" part, exploring the new research in the intercultural field because I am fascinated by new findings and gain insight by thinking of how these findings apply to the AFS exchange students. Perhaps because I always liked school, the academic approach appeals to me, and after so many years of my youth spent in classrooms and seminars and writing papers, it is now an even more comfortable culture for me than it was when I was in graduate school and would sometimes shudder at the thought of having to undertake Serious Geographic Research. In fact, doing research suits me well and are much less stressful than, say, being at a crowded cocktail party with dozens of people whom I barely know.

What is challenging for me, though, is to know how to train a group, particularly a culturally mixed group which is the norm in AFS. Knowing something about the variety of teaching and learning styles that exist in various cultures is not enough, especially when my goal is to help people learn how to move across cultural styles. So at this conference I found myself drawn to some less academic sessions and found that I learned a lot -- not in terms of new theories about intercultural learning, but quite simply in terms of organizing and presenting very familiar content to people for whom this may be very new. Since we have been doing some of our staff training "virtually" in the past year or two, I wanted to learn more about how this is done and how people take culture into account when working in this way. From the session by Kimberly Blanchard and Pamela Berland Ex, "Virtual Training: Engaging clients anytime, anywhere" I got some of these practical ideas. In particular, I have some new thoughts about improving the assignments between conference calls and some simple pre-training needs assessment that could be done. 

Since I have been focusing a bit on schools and classroom culture, I particularly wanted to look at education across cultures at this conference. Two sessions formed bookends on this topic. Each provided a quick worksheet to assess my own preferences in terms of instructional styles or cultural attitudes toward education. In all cases, I seemed to be seeking a balance between extremes, putting myself largely in the mid-range, with no consistent philosophy of learning or teaching. For me, it usually depends: on the cultures involved, on the age of the students, on the subject matter. Perhaps in a way, that is the point. No one method or style suits every situation and every culture, and even I am constantly changing my ideas and preferences. The first of these sessions was a workshop by Karen Rolston and Jack Lee, "Cultural Perspectives on Teaching and Learning." Though I attended this session by chance since the one I really wanted to attend was canceled, I was pleased with the discussions in our groups and the way the material was presented. Later in the week, Cornelius (Neal) Grove and Astrid Kainzbauer followed up with a workshop on  Instructional Styles in Global Perspective. In the 1980s I worked with Neal Grove at AFS and completed my Ph.D. while working on the AFS Impact study under Neal's guidance. Many familiar themes from Neal's extensive research were included in Neal's presentation, now organized in a very clear structure. But the country-specific challenges were presented by Astrid's personal account of her teaching in Thailand.

I heard a number of personal stories that helped me connect to other cultures and how different people make sense of the world. One of the first was Nancy Adler's story -- or perhaps more specifically, her mother's story. While similar in many aspects to numerous stories I have heard over the years about Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, hers was still unique and moving. Sometimes the best stories were ones that came out accidentally in small sessions or over coffee: stories of growing up with parents of different cultures like Nancy's, or stories about the challenges of teaching abroad, of marrying someone from another culture, and of living abroad generally.

In my last blog I wondered about the influence of the local Granada culture on the SIETAR conference. In addition to the Flamenco performance and the Alhambra tour planned for the program, I was also pleased with the many young Spanish volunteers in conference T-shirts who were ready to talk and find  solutions, such as helping me correct the Spanish subtitles on my Power Point slides. Though they were busy with other tasks assigned to them, they made time to talk to me rather than directing me elsewhere. Lunch was a comfortable 2 hours each day and a huge space was provided for coffee and pastries or cookies, with plenty of tables for small groups to stand around and talk. The poster sessions also took place in this large space. This large space was also the communications center: where to find colleagues, where to learn about conference logistics (usually verbally and through word of mouth), and to discuss the sessions attended.

The conference was very different from the SIETAR-USA conferences I have attended and I think this was a good thing. I never liked the geographic split of SIETAR into regional and local entities, though it does make it easier for interested people to meet, and new SIETAR organizations have emerged in Italy and in Arabia just recently. I hope that the various SIETAR organizations may join together again and start to consider some of the virtual tools that several sessions addressed and planning some SIETAR global virtual conferences. The fact that SIETAR conferences are almost entirely dependent on volunteers makes it challenging to organize something on the global level. Financial sponsorship of the conference was crucial, as well as participation fees from those attending. But it also depends to a large extent on the membership and each SIETAR organization is quite different. All the more challenging it must have been to create this global conference.

Bettina Hansel

Director of Intercultural Education and Research, AFS International

I traveled today from Berlin, Germany to Granada Spain. I've been to Granada one other time a few years ago when we were exploring Andalusia but now I am here for the SIETAR Global conference which opens tomorrow night. So far we are just getting started, but already I am struck at how very different Granada feels from Berlin. There is the obvious visual difference in the Spanish blue of the Andalusian sky, and the architecture and climate, of course and the very different histories of these two places. And there is the difference that here we are staying in a private apartment rather than a hotel. This saves money and brings us closer to the daily life of the place. But on top of all this, there is the very different type of energy found in the culture of the two cities.

And it is interesting to me to compare the conferences we had in Berlin with the sessions I will be attending here. AFS and SIETAR are two different organizational cultures, but both have a multinational membership and a specific interest in learning about other cultures. In both cases, I feel sure, the local culture will have its influence even as people sit in conference rooms and listen to presentations from professionals and academics from a wide range of cultures and backgrounds speaking to these topics.

You can get a good sense of the "Moving Beyond Mobility" conference from the press release we have on our web site. As a member of the steering committee from that conference, I am especially pleased with the excitement generated by the different sessions and the sense that this was a new kind of conference. Because of the limited space we had in the beautiful historic building, we had some challenges that were carefully considered by the logistics team in Germany who needed everyone to sign up for specific sessions in advance so that the appropriate rooms could be assigned and enough chairs allocated. In addition, in order to provide simultaneous translation in the largest room, a special arrangement needed to be made so that the microphones fed only into headsets rather than into loud speakers so that the other sessions in adjoining rooms would not be distracted. Very careful and thoughtful plans, but also very complex from an American perspective. So many aspects are taken into consideration to ensure a successful conference. People need to cooperate with the plans to make everything happen as it should. So at one point all 275 participants needed to leave the room and go directly to the coffee break so that some of the chairs could be redistributed to other rooms. With the excitement and goodwill of the participants, the arrangements did work smoothly but at other times in Germany it came to me clearly that I am used to a culture that is more loosely planned and where you can, for instance, decide to view an exhibition backwards if you wish, and where it is a goal to keep processes fairly simple.

I am curious to find out how much the culture of Granada permeates the SIETAR Global conference, which starts on Thursday. I expect the sessions to be quite different from SIETAR-USA meetings and look forward to finding out more. One thing seems certain: There is also a good energy here, already evident from the many SIETAR participants on the flight form Madrid this morning.

Bettina Hansel

Director of Intercultural Education and Research

AFS International

Photos from the Moving Beyond Mobility Conference, October 13-14, Berlin Germany.

I want to direct you to our AFS web site for information about the Moving Beyond Mobility Conference which took place this week (October 13-14, 2008) in Berlin. It was exciting to be involved in this event, attended by some 275 people from 46 countries. It combined presentations of recent research on exchanges and of reports on interesting and successful educational programs connected with exchange programs. Many of the studies presented showed different ways in which students are impacted by their study abroad experience while some dealt with the challenges faced by students studying abroad and how students (and sometimes host families) can increase their learning and insight and deal with the dissonance of encountering cultural differences. The conference closed with a panel looking at some of the obstacles to student exchange, and a call for action to nations and ministries of education to break down some of these obstacles and to provide increased opportunities for students to study abroad.

I always wonder why it is that so many ministries of education and individual schools do not allow students to receive credit for the time spent studying abroad. For many of our AFS students, to go on a year-long exchange program means spending one more year of high school back in their home countries to "make up" for the missed courses in their academic program. And yet these students have spent their year attending high school, living daily and studying in a foreign language, gaining new insights into their own culture and history as well as that of their host country. It is in all respects a more challenging year than they would have spent at home, and one that has a strong impact leading them to seek out additional opportunities to reach out across cultures, learn additional languages, and to seek career and volunteer opportunities that bring them in contact with people from other backgrounds. Most of all, they are more confident about their abilities to adapt to new situations and more comfortable to be around people from other cultures.

We would like to see it become a very normal thing for students to take the opportunity to study abroad, especially in the context of immersion programs with host families and where they study with students from the local community rather than in international student communities. We also want to help the schools make the most of the exchange experience for the entire school community. More on this in future issues.

Bettina Hansel

Director of Intercultural Education and Research, AFS International

in Berlin, Germany

Newly Dependent

Coming here to Berlin for the first time has reminded me how easily one can suddenly feel very dependent on others in a new place when you don't speak the language. Even the simplest everyday activities can be challenging when you don't know how these things are done here. I remember several years ago in Germany when I took the train from Luxembourg to Frankfurt with a change at Cologne. Not difficult to do, but when I handed my ticket to the conductor, I learned that I was on the local train to Cologne, not the express, and therefore I would miss my connection to Frankfurt. Knowing my friend would be waiting for me in Frankfurt, and without a cell phone, I had to try to telephone him in Cologne. This was not so simple to do. First was the matter that I needed to purchase a card for the telephone system. Then, as I held the newly purchased phone card in one hand and the telephone receiver in the other, I realized that I could not figure out how to operate the telephone and could not understand the instructions written in German. So I stood on the platform and said loudly to anyone who might listen, "Is there anyone here who speaks English and could help me use the telephone?" The person who responded did not speak English very much, in fact, but was able to demonstrate the use of the phone card so that I was able to make my phone call.

I felt like this again yesterday, when told that I could just take the tram three stops to find a shopping center, and was handed a tram map. This was not the kind of map I expected, with streets and the hotel clearly marked but rather a schematic representation of the tram lines. Jet lagged and feeling cramped from long hours in a tight airplane seat, at that point, I didn't even know which direction to turn when I left the hotel. I wasn't sure I had the energy to scout on my own for the aspirin to soothe my aching muscles, to approach people to ask directions with my phrase-book, mispronounced German, or to deal with remembering landmarks on my path to find my way back again.

Typically when I travel to new places, I need a day or two to settle in. I like to walk around the area of the hotel on the first day or two to know where I am and register it as familiar territory. After this initial phase, I am ready to travel further and further from my base, creating an increasingly large area of familiar space. I like to look for my own brand of landmarks: places that leave an impression on me, that I will easily remember. But until I feel familiar with the immediately surrounding base territory, I am often surprised to find how timid and tentative I feel. I need to take my time and know where I am. It always surprises me since eventually I always enjoy discovering new places and have little fear of getting lost.

I expect that this is also a common experience for some of our exchange students, who might need or want to stay closer to their new home in the first days of their experience before they have the comfort and curiosity to move out further. Even with personal relationships, it may be easier for some to talk mostly to the host brothers and sisters and the host parents, while meeting other students in the school might proceed more slowly as they build up some confidence in their "base territory" of relationships.

At this point, I am ready to explore Berlin in full, but must postpone at least some of that while I attend conference meetings. In truth, traveling for work usually doesn't allow one the kind of time needed to get much beyond the base territory. The exchange students, on the other hand, will still have lots of time to take the slow start they may need.

Bettina Hansel

Director of Intercultural Education and Research

AFS International

Shocks to the Senses

I've focused quite a bit in this blog on sensory perception because this is often the source of the first impression of "foreignness" for exchange students. Tastes, smells, sounds, the quality of the light: these are the aspects that can shock or reassure, and may be the first things that we will react to and judge when we approach another culture.

Years ago we did some research concerning students who returned home early. Though only a small percentage of all students on the AFS program returned early, we found in each of the two years we studied that there were some exchange students who arrived and almost immediately felt uncomfortable and homesick. Sometimes a small medical problem or some bad news from back home provided the excuse to give up on this new culture and just go home, but even a loving phone call from a parent could trigger homesickness and the desire to return early.

I understand why. At age 10, I could not last even a week away from home while at a children's summer camp. I was a fussy eater and did not like the smells of the kitchen. Worse than that were the wet floors in the large common bathroom shared by all the girls in my cabin. I had wanted so much to go to summer camp, but my fantasy about going to camp didn't include smells of unfamiliar food and slightly run-down facilities where the toilets didn't always flush.

Even now so many years later my memories of that week include much more than the bad smells, the gnawing feelings, or the tears. I also remember a magical evening sleeping under the stars, the taste of orange juice sucked through peppermint sticks, the songs I learned. And I wonder why these happy moments didn't more than balance the awkwardness I felt, the food I didn't like and the wet bathroom. As an adult, none of this would be terribly important to me, but at age 10 I was overwhelmed. Certainly it was NOT the fact that I was hit in the head with a baseball on the second day and was taken to the doctor's office, nor the fact that the saddle and I slid off the back of a horse the next day during one of the horseback riding lessons. I was not hurt or even bothered much by these events, but they provided a needed excuse to return early. Most of all, I believe, it was the daily letters from home that pulled me to end my one-week summer camp after 5 days.

Rather than daily letters, exchange students today have an array of options to stay in touch with their families and friends back home, and are likely to talk with their parents regularly, not just exchange email. The frequency of communication can be problematic, but it is the nature of the communication with the parents that may nudge an anxious student toward an early end to the experience. Parents who find themselves on one end of such a conversation will do well to remember that their daughter or son needs:

• to feel confident that she is capable of handling the experience;
• to know that her parents are managing fine at home without her; and
• to recognize that she will not always feel this way.

Abroad for the First Time

I returned Saturday night from a visit to Minneapolis for the IDI conference where I talked about how AFS is using Intercultural Development Inventory and the underlying theory of the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. In one of the sessions that afternoon, I was struck in particular by Paula Pedersen's research concerning a program of US university students studying abroad in England in what is known as an "island" program, where students travel abroad in a chaperoned group and study together in another country. The students in this program came with very little previous exposure to other places or cultures. For most of them, this was their first exposure to another culture. Dr. Pedersen's students tended to cluster together much of the time, and needed to be challenged through their course work to break away from their group and move out into the host culture. She used coursework assignments to get the students more involved in the host culture and to make the program more beneficial to them.

Getting the balance right between support and challenge is the key to the learning process and an important aspect of program design. Living with a host family as the AFS students do, the support provided by the host family is frequently packaged with the biggest intercultural challenge our students face. We will be focusing more in future issues on the preparation and support needs of host families.

Bettina Hansel

Director of Intercultural Education and Research

AFS International