Workshop on Intercultural Skills Enhancement

Most of you attending WISE 2011 have completed a short pre-workshop survey regarding goals for the workshop, issues you want to hear, and what questions you have. Many identified a goal of learning how to teach intercultural competence, including what activities work effectively with college students. These are great goals. The sessions will cover these issues from a variety of perspectives. It is wonderful that so many of you have significant experience taking students abroad, and I look forward to hearing more about your own experiences.

Please post a comment regarding your experience leading students abroad, particularly whatever strategies you have found that work well with your students.

I am looking forward to WISE 2011. This year we have added several new topics, and I am excited about the specialists who will be presenting. This year we are also trying out a new format, beginning at 9 am on Friday rather than in the afternoon. I look forward to meeting all of you. Feel free to post a comment about your main goals for the workshop.

Thank you to all the attendees who attended WISE 2010 last weekend. The discussions were active and engaging, and many good connections were made. It was great to network with people, talk about different dimensions of intercultural competence, and plan new activities for our students. Please add your comments about what you learned, what questions you still have, and what you implement following the workshop. We’ll add new comments and posts here to stay connected. Thanks.

After months of preparation, WISE 2010 begins today at 1 pm. I look forward to meeting colleagues and talking more about cultural preparation for international study. Please feel free to add your comments to different posts throughout today and tomorrow.

I’ve found that students in home stays are often very interested in learning about their host culture. Students have indicated to me that they are concerned about communicating with their host family, about doing something wrong, and not knowing what sorts of things to discuss with the family. By learning about the host culture, it makes the students more confident and less anxious. The students who view study abroad in more of a tourist light are not always as strongly motivated. What other factors are strong motivators for students to learn about the host culture?

I am curious to know what activities you use with students to help them develop cross-cultural sensitivity. Have you developed your own activities, or used something created by others? I would love to hear examples about what you have found to be effective.

After months of planning, registration is now open for WISE 2010. The workshop will take place on February 26-27, 2010, at Graylyn Conference Center in Winston-Salem, NC.

Information is online at www.wfu.edu/cis/wise/index.html.

Recently, as I have talked with Wake Forest students who have returned from studying abroad, they have told me how important it was for them to receive training before their departure about the cross-cultural experiences that were in front of them. Several students described how other students in their programs clumped together, speaking English together and spending little time with locals, while they took advantage of opportunities to meet people from the host culture, go to activities and events, and get to know how things work in those locations. They came back from their abroad programs energized and with a richer understanding of their host cultures. These students were grateful for those pre-program activities that helped them move out of their comfort zone and engage in cross-cultural learning in-country.

Intercultural competency is important for students to develop, yet many don’t know how to go about it. This workshop is intended to guide faculty as they prepare their students for an overseas program. The workshop is hosted by the Center for International Studies at Wake Forest and is coordinated by a faculty steering committee. We invite all faculty who are teaching students abroad, particularly those leading study abroad programs, to participate in this workshop.

For more information about the workshop and to register, visit http://www.wfu.edu/cis/wise.