Moderating role-play games

For 45 minutes the participants of the workshop will take part in a role-play game aiming to transfer the basics of cultural standards understanding, communication and expectations.

Afterwards we are going to discuss what kind of difficulties could a multiplier meet using role-play games as a method of intercultural education. How can we avoid mistakes and how far should we moderate the game?

African dinner

The workshop consists of preparing a meal from Africa (rice with peanut sauce) with people who want, moment important to discuss about new ingredients, etc. To put an African decoration, african music, to eat with hands on the floor and from the same dish (as they do in Burkina Faso). The main goal is to show the atmosphere and another way of life; then, all that give questions to them and a discussion about different ways of life because of the climate, the economic way of life, the different languages, etc.

The method of global simulation

The method is a complex game involving language, all human senses and the human body, and helps to improve language skills as well as intercultural skills by inventing one’s own fictitious identity. It can be applied in the modern language classroom as well as in all kinds of intercultural (youth) encounters.
The method is based on two principles:

1. We will construct/invent our own fictitious world (a new social space on the basis of a certain theme, „l’immeuble“/“block of flats“ f.ex.)
2. We will construct/create our new fictitious identities and settle them down in our fictitious world

We will then be able to start the game and integrate all kinds of linguistic and social activities within our fictitious world.

I create a new culture!

Culture is a set of values and a system of orientation of a folk, which everybody learns during their socialisation. It is predetermined for us and is delivered from generation to generation. But how were our cultures established? Were they generated by themselves or did our ancestors develop it?
In this workshop which has a form of a game, we will try to create three new artificial cultures. In this way we will learn, how the set of rules influences the behaviour of the representatives of different cultures and if peaceful co-existence of these cultures possible?

Improvisation theatre in intercultural work:
the body as a means of nonverbal communication

Often verbal barriers and uncertinness complicate communication between participants of intercultural youth encounters. This approach to gestures and facial expression will clarify that the main part of our communication passes through nonverbal channels and interaction is possible without using any language. Furthermore, the conscious use of corporal expression in small improvised scenes may help to overcome the obstacles of speaking in a foreign language. Engage in the wide field of nonverbal improvisation and participate in the common evaluation.

video documentation and DVD production

Multimedia content has become an essential part of everyday communication. Now that the technical equipment has become affordable and the internet offers a publication channel for everyone, video has become a very powerful tool. This workshop is split into three parts, every segment being open for everyone seperately:
I – introduction in camera work. How to handle all those buttons? What criteria distinguish a professional looking image from a shaky holiday tape of no interest?
II: pratical trial and error. During this stage, participants will start doing their first video recording, taking other workshops as a subject.
III: cutting and DVD production. Once you have your tape full of nice images, you'll need to arrange them and increase their value by deleting bad takes, adding titles and produce an interesting DVD with a personal menu.

Intercultural Didactics of Music

Music can be used in an intercultural workshop, especially when we work with children.
School is today the main place where differences meet, crash, mix. But school is also the place in which children develop their civic consciousness: here they discover their own identity. Through music we can discover our personal identity, but, at the same time, we can feel like others.
John Blacking, an English anthropologist, in his main work “How Musical is man?”, wrote: “Music production can help us to prove that men are creatures potentially better than most societies allow them to be”.
Music is a universal language, because making music is a universal human behaviour. I'd like to suggest some different music, some games, to tell the story of instruments ...

Orienteering

Growing up demands to move more and more freely in the world around us. Children are eager to detach from parental guidance and to discover their environment on their own. This workshop aims to practice navigating with the aid of a map and compass around a prescribed course, checking in at specified and clearly marked control points. It is done on foot, either by walking, jogging or running. Orienteering combines athletic ability and mental exercise, with participants having constantly to choose routes between control points.

The soft cooked egg: cooking as language animation in big intercultural groups

Come and cook!
Language animation is a method to approach an unkown language in a playful way. We want to use the preparation of meals to experience different tools of language animation to learn the other's language but also to get to know the regional cuisine of other participants.

As everyone will prepare a soft cooked egg, don't worry to miss this event. We will group you in such a way that you can take part in many other interesting workshops.

Communication skills in constructive conflict management

This workshop will be structured in two conjoint parts:
Part 1 will invite participants to approach the basic concept of conflict not only by theoretical input, but also by involving everyone on an interactive level.
Part 2 will emphasize by focusing on the resolution of conflict by means of non-verbal communication and will also examine new possible tools in order to better manage intercultural experiences.