Übersicht des Interkulturellen

“trait d’union” - a learning and action platform for intercultural involvement

     
By Lothar Thiel
   

     
Intercultural competence - what does this really mean? Certainly, some knowledge about other cultures belong here, being able to deal with ambiguity due to cultural diversity still more. But all the knowledge becomes irrelevant if you don’t apply it to concrete situations, and the best abilities are useless if not practiced in case of need. Getting involved is therefore an essential element of intercultural competence. The international multimedia school magazine “trait d’union” offers to the students a lot of opportunities to learn and practice intercultural involvement - learning by doing: Organizing and presenting a bilingual poetry reading is such a kind of intercultural involvement, conducting an interview with immigrants in Spanish and presenting its translation to an international public is another one. And working together with students from other countries within an international editorial staff - virtually and during the project meetings - can certainly also be considered as a kind of intercultural involvement.

Organizing solidarity actions in order to help people in distress is as well a very important kind of getting involved. Many “trait d’union” partner schools organized offertories; some of them were initiated by the “trait d’union” network. “Putting Ourselves in the Shoes of Others” is the title of an incomplete chapter of “trait d’union” n° 8/2011 “Do You Understand Me?”, which is presently under revision.

       
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Picture 1: “Run for Haiti” at the German School in Bilbao/Spain (2010)

Picture 2:  The school of Kalulushi/Zambia, supported by the Liceo Classico “Sesto Properzio”, Assisi/Italy