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Today was the day of our presentation. Everything went well I suppose. In my opinion, we were a fine group.

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Today was another day of of lectures. Very interesting ones to me. In the first one we had to discuss topics about what we can do ourselves to reduce our waste as much as possible. We also learned some new tips and tricks. In the second lecture I learned about radicalism. The president of OCAD in Belgium spoke to us. I don't think it has much to do with Environment and Sustainability, but I still could use a thing or two that I could couple with Social Work and Sustainability. Very interesting lecture!  In the afternoon we could work on our presentation. This was the last day we could work on it. I have the feeling we can be happy of our mindmap and what we managed. Today we had the opportunity  to work on all our ICOMS. We spoke English with each other, and I noticed in this short week, my english got better and better.

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Maarten is a client of the Heerlijkheid in Heule. Together with him I collected wood and finished of his Christmas tree. Thank you Maarten for this nice afternoon.

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On excursion in Kortrijk. We visited the 'ShareFactory' , the 'Heerlijkheid' in Heule and 'Samentuin de Venning'. Three extremely beautiful projects in the heart of Kortrijk and Heule. It was a very interesting day for me and it showed me the importance of these projects on a social level. Keep up the good work guys! Today was a day we worked on all our ICOMS.

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1. Observe how they interact with you
2. Appreciate differences (example: In India time-keeping is not important)
3. Do not assume that all people of a country interact the same way.
4. Be patient

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Cultures and Communication

Buongiorno. Salam. Nín hao. Hujambo. Howdy. There are so many ways just to say hello!

No matter where you are in the world, communication is important. But communicating across cultures can be pretty hard. And I don't just mean that there's a language barrier, although that can be an issue. No, I mean that cultures actually have some very different ways of communicating. Some cultures are informal, some cultures use a whole series of ritual greetings before having a conversation, and some cultures consider it rude to show up to a meeting on time.

But what do all these cultures have in common? Well, for one, you can offend each of them if you don't understand their communication practices. And we want to avoid that. So what do we do? Well, to put it simply, we learn to communicate!

Intercultural Communication

So, we need to learn how to communicate all over again, just like when we were children. And just like when we were children, this requires learning language as well as learning behavioral norms for good communication. However, this will be a bit different since we're adults learning how to communicate in someone else's culture, not our own.

Intercultural communication is the verbal and nonverbal interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds. Basically, 'inter-' is a prefix that means 'between' and cultural means... well, from a culture, so intercultural communication is the communication between cultures. Sometimes, this is used to describe a single person trying to interact in a foreign environment but more often, it is a two-way street, where people from both cultures are trying to improve their communication.

Now, if you want to learn about intercultural communication, it's important to understand what this is. But it's also important to understand what it isn't. Intercultural communication is targeted at allowing for positive and productive interaction. You are not joining this culture, you are not becoming a member of another society, you are not abandoning your own culture. That would be assimilation and that's not what we're after.

Intercultural communication is also not simply a language proficiency. Yes, communication requires the ability to understand language, but just think about how much of your communication with even your own friends is nonverbal: our body language, our attitudes, the rituals from hand-shaking to the stink eye. Some researchers estimate that up to 93% of all human communication is nonverbal, although according to recent studies, it's actually closer to 60%.

Still, that means that more than half of communication is never spoken. So, intercultural communication is going to take a lot more than just learning a language.

Developing Communication

Intercultural communication is generally explained through three parts. They overlap a bit with each other but together, give you the tools to communicate with people from another culture. Ready to give them a try?

The first is knowledge, or an understanding of communication rules within a culture. This is just the practical stuff you need to know to communicate, things like language but also greeting rituals, styles of communication, that sort of stuff. Do people of this culture prefer to talk business in morning or night? Are they generally formal or informal? It's best to try and develop as much knowledge about a culture before going off and trying to master the other two parts of intercultural communication.

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model & strategies - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Intercultural Communication: Definition, Model & Strategies - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Buongiorno. Salam. Nín hao. Hujambo. Howdy. There are so many ways just to say hello! No matter where you are in the world, communication is important. But communicating across cultures can be pretty hard. And I don't just mean that there's a language barrier, although that can be an issue.

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More ICOMS were used today. Like yesterday there was some personal growth and the language proficiency by following the lectures and the interaction with the others of my group. I followed  SDG 13 about climate action. A very interesting man who spoke to us about "The end of the world as we know it". He showed us the climate situation in the past, now and what he expected to be in the future, which thought me more about International expertise. The second lecture I attended was about intercultural communication. For me, I  this lecture gave me some Personal Growth, language proficiency and intercultural competencies. Our first steps to our mind map has been taken.

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We may not be superheroes, but we are social workers.

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Today we got to know the people who we are suppose to work with this week. We have two international students in our group. Marie is from France and Louise is from the Netherlands. I suppose that this first day I achieved or trained particularly my language proficiency by getting to know the other international students, interact with them. During the tour in school we played some games, we got our instructions in english... In the afternoon we went to the city-center of Kortrijk and also during this activity we all, including the international students, had to express ourselves in english. We did a good job I suppose, our group won the price connected to the search game in the city-center. A nice way to start our week! There was also some personal growth by showing some creativity, showing some self confidence by 'daring' to interact with people you just met etc.

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ICOMS I want to achieve or use during this International Week at Vives.

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ICOMS I want to achieve or use during this International Week at Vives.

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1. Personal growth
2. Intercultural competence
3. Language proficiency
4. International involvement
5. International expertise