Preparation

Exercise: Communication Irritation

In this exercise we will explore how it feels if somebody breaks our communication expectations. Communication customs are often different in other cultures, e.g. eye contact is avoided, people do not shake hands or people have a larger or smaller distance where they feel comfortable. In order not to give participants any hints about the target of the exercise, simply tell them that they will do a communication exercise about international topics.

Split up your course into two groups of the same size. Participants from the first group get the task of thinking about a topic for conversation, like:

• the last vacation in a foreign country
• the last international movie they saw
• news from another country

Leave the room with the second group. In this group everybody gets assigned a special instruction, how they should behave in the later conversation, e.g.:

• always keep a 2m distance
• get close to the narrator and touch his or her arm from time to time
• when they talk, they always close their eyes
• they avoid any eye contact by looking constantly to the floor
• make long breaks before speaking and between sentences

Let participants train their behaviors and bring them back together with the first group. Each participant from the first group picks one conversation partner from the second group. Without further instruction let the conversation begin. Let the groups discuss their topic for about 2 minutes. Then get back to plenum and ask them how they felt in this situation:

• Did the first group notice what the second group did?
• What did the conversation feel like for the first group?
• How did the second group feel?
• Did participants ever experience a situation where they were confronted with different communication behaviors?  

Method / Process description

• Group discussion: Gather on the whiteboard what "diversity" means for participants.

• Exercise: Either in plenum or in groups of two check out on Instagram, which images are tagged with the hashtag #diversity (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/diversity/) and discuss:
  • Do the images match your definition?
  • Are there topics that dominate the images?
  • Do the images show diversitiy as something positive or negative?
  • What symbols do reflect diversity on social media?
• Input: Explain why valuing diversity is crucial in order to benefit from intercultural exchange (e.g. Intercultural Competence - Turning Differences into Shared Success  https://www.giz.de/akademie/en/html/59662.html). 
• Exercise "Communication Irritation"
• Group discussion: Let's focus on participants' personal experiences. Ask them about situations where they had the feeling of being different:
  • When was the first time they had the feeling (e.g. being in a foreign country for vacation for the first time)?
  • When was the last time they had the feeling? 
  • Was the experience of being different positive or negative?
• Reflection: Let participants write down at home in which situations they had positive or negative feelings when being exposed to aspects of diversity. Encourage them to also express their negative feelings. If the group would like to discuss their results in the next lesson, ensure a fair discussion where nobody is blamed for expressing their feelings.   

References

• Interkulturelles Training Materialien und Übungen für den Einsatz in der Jugendarbeit im Sport: https://www.hochsauerlandsport.de/fileadmin/co_system/hochsauerlandkreis/media/PDF/Unsere_Themen/interkulturelles_training.pdf
• Intercultural Learning for Pupils and Teachers http://intercultural-learning.eu, collection of classroom activities: http://intercultural-learning.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ICL@School-Toolbox-final-1.pdf