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Day 5 12 February 2008 |
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We made contact
Kieran Sweeney was 5 minutes too early to pick us up, however we were ready! Ready to see his shop in Achill Sound. Happy to see a part of the Island during the ride and excited about the afternoon with Kieran we sat in the car and talked about the awesome sunny weather and the gorgeous landscape of Achill Island. Kieran had to slow down twice because of sheep on the road. He explained to us that all the sheep on the island run free on the common land and that people are more worried about the sheep than of their cars. Later I found out that it is even possible to pet the sheep. So a must for tomorrow is a picture with a sheep and me! After the arrival at Kieran�s shop I was surprised by the variety of products he sells. Knitted clothes, jewellery and special art stones. He even had a gallery in his shop with overwhelming pictures from Achill Island. When we started to talk about the website of his business I was quite worried about his reaction to our comments about this website. However he was so happy about our critique and asked for more advice how to improve the page. I think he was surprised that we had prepared three different perspectives to see the page. Due to my lack of knowledge about the technical side of web pages I analysed the website from a customer�s view. The exchange of various and interesting views finally ended with tea in a café and lead to a conversation about cultural diversity. Assja Tietz (German Group) |
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Intercultural Expert Workshop
It was a special day today because we prepared a unique presentation. Our workshop together with was very fascinating. Yesterday, we discussed the way we would perform a role playing game, a small theatre on different situations thought to be particular to our cultures, and which could be easily misunderstood. In order to have a progressive work, we were given homework: we had to rehearse in our cottages before. Since we are from different cultures, first we performed how we behave / what are the usual manners during a typical dinner. Seeing Hungarian, Lithuanian, German, English, American dinners performed by the participants and an Irish dinner by a local guest was extraordinary. The second part consisted of emblematic situations from our cultures, everyday behavior. After having performed, we drew conclusions of the day and took notes about the most interesting intercultural lessons.In the end of the day, we had a new guest whom we interviewed as agreed on the preceding day. Today we learned about plenty of new features of foreign cultures and it made us all more aware of the similarities and differences existing among us. Yasemin Isildak (German Group)
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Lunch Time Lecture
We were divided into 3 groups and than we had to discuss how Culture in general looks like. There were eight categories mentioned: 1.) It�s like a rainbow (sometimes bright, sometimes not, and has no ending) 2.) Like a river (has stability, but in the same time changes every time) 3.) Like a box of chocolate (hits you when you taste it) 4.) Like an onion (it makes you cry if you try to look at layers too fast) 5.) Like an iceberg (only 10 percent of it is visible � rest of it is not: hidden things) 6.) Like perfume (everybody notices it, but after a while it is impossible � because you are too close) 7.) Like a computer (you can receive pieces of information from parents and friends at the same level. Culture could be revolted. (new windows) 8.) Like a cake: (many ingredients (subcultures)); layers of meaning (people levels); reception is like history. Then we had a discussion about culture as software of the people. We were also talking about hardware, freeware and shareware and how to find parallel things in culture. If you pay for software, it is like paying for theater or for museum. Freeware in terms of culture is the heritage you have gathered from your family or peer group. Birutė Kurlavičiūtė (Lithuanian Group) |
Critical Incidents Real intercultural stories
Lithuania Greece This March I took part in Workshop Dolce Vita Europa - the meeting of Saint-Petersburg tourist operators with representatives of foreign hotels. My duty was to interpret Mr. N the manager of Greek hotel. At first sight he seemed to me very respectable, cultured and polite. Our workshop failed: there were not many clients Mr. N had to speak with. So we had some free time for communication. � I was �a bit� shocked when this solid and serious man in his 50s-60s began to discuss with me underclothes of female clients, then he asked me how I spend my nights and made some hints� You see our conversation was �a bit� delicate; I tried to keep quiet because I knew that Greeks are very impressive and hot-tempered. Nevertheless such unprofessional behavior was unexpected and pretty unacceptable to me.
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page by Aneta Przewożna and Balázs Tatár |
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