Intercultural Seminar

Category of recipe: Internationalisation through national and international students; Internationalisation through pedagogical activities and development of international skills.

Objectives:
Bring students some basic intercultural knowledge for both personal and professional contexts through diverse pedagogical activities and interactions with those with experience in the field.
Showcase the cultural diversity that exists within the group of participating students.
Contribute to making students aware of different cultures, with their inherent values, beliefs and ways of doing things.

Short description: The 3-day Intercultural Seminar is divided into four main parts (see Programme in Appendix 1 of this Recipe):
Workshops (mornings, 8 am–11 am): from the 4 workshops on offer, in our version, students do 3. Each workshop lasts 3 hours.
Presentations by participating students (mornings, 11 am–12 pm).
A time of presentation and exchange with QLIO1 students from outside France: an extremely formative activity for the students concerned. They were able to present and explain their culture of origin OR an international volunteering experience.
Exchanges with professionals (afternoons): each one presented his or her 'international' experience in a company, through a job/project abroad, contact with international colleagues and/or colleagues at work with a different cultural background. This was followed by a discussion with the students.
A piece of work to hand in that requires the students to reflect on and take a step back from what they learnt during the seminar (see Appendix 4).

Academic recognition: In our context, the Intercultural Seminar is part of a module called “Communication Skills”. Therefore, there is ECTS recognition indirectly. An additional use of this seminar could be as preparation for another type of international activity, such as a semester of mobility or a BIP.

Level of difficulty: Basic.

Calendar and time needed: In our academic year, the Intercultural Seminar takes place mid-March each year. It is part of a “Communication Skills” module.

End of previous academic year:

• As the whole year group will be participating, it is essential to block off the days and necessary rooms in their timetable.
• Contact the guest lecturer(s) from the partner university and/or those invited to do a workshop on their native country to confirm availability.

4 months before:

• Contact the professionals you wish to invite.
• Ask the university’s Community Manager or Communications department to take photos and prepare a short article for the university newsletter or website.

1 month before:

• Ask students who have a family origin other than where the Intercultural Seminar is taking place to present that country to their colleagues.

1 week before: Prepare the student lists, room posters (see Appendix 2) for the different activities and the main Intercultural Seminar poster.

Cost summary: €. The costs involved are:

• Paying the teacher and workshop leaders (hours are budgeted as part of the teaching programme).
• End-of-seminar soft drinks (optional).

Language and level required: Most of the workshops and presentations are done in the native language (in our case, French) so that the challenges of interculturality are better understood. However, in previous years (see Step x) we have invited a guest lecturer from a partner university to come for a STT mobility and give their “Country workshop” in English to several groups of students.

Roles and responsibilities:
Coordinators: This seminar is coordinated by the English teacher and the Communication Skills teacher in the department. Both have a profound interest in all things intercultural! They have the following roles:

• Build the programme.
• Recruit the different workshop leaders, students and professionals.
• Liaise with the timetable coordinator for the rooms.

Workshop leaders: As teachers, they are responsible for the content of their 3-hour workshop. They are given a general framework as detailed below:

• Ask the students what they know about the country and its’ culture.
• Present the culture in a fun way (e.g. via quizzes). Another example is a calligraphy activity used in the Japan workshop. This ‘hands-on’ activity is very popular with students. We buy any materials that are necessary.

Ingredients:
1st-year university students.
Workshop leaders.
Students with a different cultural family origin.
Professionals with intercultural/international experience.
Classrooms.
Material for the cultural activities, like calligraphy.

Steps:
Step 1: Decide on the length and dates of the Intercultural Seminar.
Step 2: Reserve rooms and block periods in students’ timetables.

• NB: the four parts of the seminar described in “Short description”, and the times given are based on the author’s experience and context. These activities could also be separated and done over a longer period. Advantage: it will allow the students more time to think about things.

Step 3: Decide on which countries/activities you wish to do in the morning workshops and find the workshop leaders. This could also be done the other way around: i.e. find possible workshop leaders and see if this fits with the vision you have for this part.:
A1) Country workshops:

• This 3-hour workshop is ideally led by a native of the country presented. It should enable the student to:
• Get a basic understanding of the culture (knowledge)
• Ask questions about the given culture(s): some reflective thinking!
• Identify the differences and similitudes between his/her country and the one discovered during the workshop: some reflective thinking again!
• For flags to use for poster, free of copyright, I recommend: World flags | free flag gifs

A2) Other possibilities:

• Intercomprehension workshop: With the arrival of UNITA, we decided to add an Intercomprehension workshop to encourage another approach to making links between similar cultures, via a common ground in language. In this case, the Latin base of Romance languages.
• African dancing: this is a different, more physical, expression of culture. The students perform a group dance at the end of the seminar, which requires both individual body coordination AND group coordination. A big positive is that often the students who are best at this, are not necessarily the most academically gifted. It shows that “everyone has their gifting”. In practical terms, it is important to be in a room a certain distance from other study areas, as African drums can be heard from far away!

B) Student presentations of their family’s country of origin: This Intercultural Seminar is for 1st-year university students. We are therefore very clear on the following points:

• A 10-minute presentation: Appendix 3 offers a basic structure for the students to follow, as they often do not know where to start. They are encouraged to introduce music, dance and fun elements. It is NOT a formal academic presentation.
• Avoid sensitive points related to the culture: the idea is to present aspects of the culture their fellow students do not know. It is not to get into a debate around political or religious questions.
• Who will be there: the presentation is done to a group of around 20 of their fellow students so that it is not too intimidating for them. A teacher will be present throughout the presentation.
• The students manage the session: there are 2 students per session, each presenting their respective culture. At the end of each presentation, there is a Question-and-Answer session.

B2) Other possibilities:

• Ask students who have been on:
• a semester of mobility and/or
• a work placement abroad and/or
• a volunteer activity abroad (humanitarian aid…)
• To come and present to the participants at the seminar. They could be from the same programme OR a different one; it does not really matter as we are not discussing discipline-specific issues.

Step 4: Decide on the different profiles of professional you would like to have present their international experience to your students.

• Get contact details by speaking to colleagues, university services and your business contacts.
• Depending on the profiles and backgrounds, you could also add points to discuss to the document in Appendix 3.

C) Professionals’ presentations: These are done in the afternoon and follow the same format as the student presentations.

• The students must come with some questions prepared beforehand.
• A representative from the UNITA team also comes to give a presentation of the OPPORTUNITA’ available as well as share her international experiences in the context of work.

D) Reflective work

• Several activities have been done over the years. The students take notes of the different points that surprised/interested them and then:
• Perform a group sketch at the closing event of the Intercultural Seminar.
• Answer the questions found in Appendix 4, using the notes taken during the seminar.
• Make a 2-minute video in groups of 3 to show what they have learnt during the Intercultural Seminar.

Step 5: Create the different administrative documents: posters & presence sheets.
Step 6: Do the Intercultural Seminar.

Non-mandatory items

Name of the author: Paul Jones, Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB).

• Questions / comments:
• Why organise an intercultural seminar?
• We live in a ‘global village’.
• A certain number of students wish to have an ‘international’ experience, whether it be a semester of mobility or a work placement abroad, for example. In order for them to adapt as well as possible and make the most of it, a first approach to the workings, values and ways of working of other cultures is essential.
• Other students do not envisage this experience, BUT they will undoubtedly be confronted with the international reality at some point in their professional and/or personal lives, when cultural diversity may come to them (work colleagues, suppliers, clients with another culture). It's important to make all students aware of these aspects of life, which can have an impact on their day-to-day (and professional) lives.

The information given below is the fruit of 19 years of developing this internationalisation tool at USMB. What is described below is the 2025 version. However, we have done different activities in the past and this is reflected in the parts named, “Other Possibilities”.