Navigating Cultural Differences: Practical Communication Skills (ECE1.7)
Section outline
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EUPeace is the European University for Peace, Justice, and Inclusive Societies. It is only too obvious that these values are fragile and heavily contested in Europe and all over the world. Our mission is to help future generations of citizens and policy-makers and provide them with the skills, knowledge, and experience to cultivate Peace, Justice, and Inclusive Societies. In order to achieve this, EUPeace focuses on a fruitful societal dialogue, reflecting the third mission of universities to engage with and contribute to society. By offering flexible and elective Soft Skill micro-courses on a wide range of top-ics, from critical thinking and intercultural awareness to problem-solving and mediation, EUPeace in-vests in capacities that transcend disciplinary boundaries. These Soft Skill courses for students, staff, and beyond, are designed to strengthen the competences needed for inclusive, ethical, and peace-oriented community engagement.
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Hello and welcome to the course "Navigating Cultural Differences: Practical Communication Skills"! This course aims at re-wiring your approaches to communicating and interacting with cultures other than your own - in a gentle way. You will learn to question your own behaviour and the behaviour of others in favour of a respectful and successful communication between cultures.
This course includes three chapters plus a final summary and test section. In the first chapter, you will focus on awareness for your own cultural habits and other peoples' habits. The second chapter will teach you verbal and non-verbal strategies for successful communication. Lastly, the third chapter will prepare you for everyday-situations that may require a culture-sensitive communication.
Each chapter will include an input source (text or video), a short quiz, and a real-life-exercise that encourages you to reflect and practice your intercultural communication skills in real settings. The latter will not, however, contribute to successfully concluding this course.
Now, have fun exploring the chapters and learning new strategies for intercultural communication!
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My name is Helena Grunebaum and I am a lecturer for academic writing at Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany. I usually teach students how to write papers in academia, but I have a degree in linguistics and cultural studies and I enjoy working in intercultural settings. I've found myself in several situations where I was interacting with international students or colleagues on international conferences and had to navigate these intercultural encounters. I'm happy to support you in learning these skills too and hope you enjoy the course!
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Course content
Awareness: becoming aware of one’s own and other cultures’ habits and practices without supporting stereotypes and prejudices
Approaches: preparing for intercultural encounters by learning about ways to communicate about culture and paying attention to verbal and non-verbal language use
Collaboration: developing strategies and ideas for successful collaboration in intercultural settings, e.g. working or living in intercultural communities
Learning pathway
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The Moodle campus is structured in three main sections—Introduction, Content, and Conclusion—to guide participants through a clear and consistent learning journey. After reviewing the introductory materials (welcome message, course description, and syllabus), you should follow the Learning Pathway by progressing sequentially through the content sections, each of which includes an over-view, core learning materials, interactive activities, and a short conclusion. All core content and ac-tivities within these sections are compulsory and must be completed in the given order to ensure understanding and progression, while any “extra materials” are clearly marked as optional and not required for course completion. Intermediate results, such as quiz scores or activity feedback, are available within each section, allowing you to track your progress continuously. Upon completing all required sections and activities, you can access their final results in the course summary area and download your certificate from the final “Conclusion” section, where guidance on certification and further learning opportunities is also provided.
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Learning Outcomes:
- Avoiding stereotypes
- Observing instead of judging
- Avoiding culture as the easy answer
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Let's start with a simple question: What is intercultural communication?
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Now that we have a better understanding of what intercultural communication is, we want to focus on navigating it. A difficult part of this is avoiding stereotypes and othering. While it is quite natural to differentiate between “my own” and “other people’s” culture, we want to avoid viewing one as “better” than the other or creating hard borders between “us” and “them”.
While reading the following text, focus on the different strategies the three protagonists take at approaching cultural diversity.
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Sometimes, we tend to be quick with cultural biases and stereotypes because they seem like the easiest answer to a certain behaviour. Especially when that behaviour causes an inconvenience for us and the person responsible happens to have a different cultural background than we do, culture serves as an easy explanation for conflict.
Read the following text about Gerald noticing the stereotypical thinking on himself and watch how he guides himself towards a new understanding of the situation.
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Learning Outcomes:
- How to approach intercultural communication
- Asking the right questions
- How to be respectful
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How can we navigate different cultures without denying their existence?
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In the following TED Talk, Pellegrino Riccardi talks about his experiences with cross-cultural communication. Pay attention to the different aspects of verbal and non-verbal communication and his concept of the “accepted and familiar”.
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Learning Outcomes:
- Challenges and benefits of multicultural work teams
- Living in a multicultural environment
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How can we navigate cultural differences in our daily environment - at work and in our private lives?
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Sometimes, different cultures meet in your private life, too. You probably have some friends with different cultural backgrounds and maybe your family is multicultural, too. While sympathy and shared interests are a foundation for friendships and other relationships, bringing together different cultures might still be challenging: Maybe you have different daily routines, different ways to spend your free time, or celebrate different holidays.
Let's have a look at an example for how to combine different cultures in one family.
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In this final section, you are invited to reflect on the key knowledge and skills acquired throughout the course, revisiting the main learning outcomes and how they contribute to effective community engagement. You can consult your performance and progress via the Moodle gradebook, where all results from quizzes and activities are compiled. Once you have successfully completed all compulsory components, you will be able to download your attendance certificate directly from this section. To continue your learning journey, you are encouraged to explore further readings and additional resources provided, as well as to enrol in other courses from the EUPeace soft skills offer. You may also consider engaging with broader EUPeace initiatives, such as the European Track, the Virtual Exchange and Engagement Programmes (VEEPs), or the teacher training courses, with links provided to the relevant sections of the EUPeace website for easy access.