Semester EventsINTERCULTURAL SKILLS - NAVIGATING THE VARIOUS CUSTOMS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

International students and their Buddies or tutors are often faced with unique challenges: The students have to learn to live in a foreign country and deal with unfamiliar study environments. The Buddies and tutors support people with other mindsets and behaviours as well as a different native language. In order to competently deal with all these differences, the involved parties need to have good intercultural skills.

In this interactive workshop, you will learn to understand your own culture as well as cultural differences and be taught how to constructively deal with these difference in everyday life and at university. Students and tutors will be able to learn from each other. In addition to an introduction to the theoretical foundations, you will have sufficient opportunities to share experiences.

Overview of the various workshop topics:

• Germany: Expectations vs reality
• Accompanying students: Expectations vs reality
• Cultural standards - what are we / the Germans like?
• Recognising and overcoming cultural misunderstandings
• Intercultural (online) skills at university and in Buddy/tutor programmes
• Experiences of other students and other Buddies

This course will be offered in English. Good English language skills are therefore required.

A corresponding workshop in German will take place in the winter semester.

The course is free, however, there are a limited number of places available. Therefore, early registration by e-mail is necessary! Register at betreuunginternational@zuv.uni-heidelberg.de