The idea of question is related to the cultural grounds and curiosity of your experience in arranging professional visits of foreign guests in your own city, on your university.
In recent years, I organized and coorganized professional visits of guests from France, Japan and the UK. Differently every time, along with my friend we planned organizing time dividing it between professional meetings, seminars, and/or conferences and leisure. Every time we had different challenges and different guests. There were also stumbling and mishaps on our side. Sometimes hilarious.
- What are your Dear Colleagues, good or unfortunate experiences in the arranging and coordinating visits of foreign professional guests ?
- Did you have any mishaps?
- What would you expect as a guest ?
- What would you show to visitors from abroad and foreign cultures in your city?
P.S. The last question was once essential because even if it happen to me live in gothic, medieval city, placed in the UNESCO List of World Heritage in 1997, not everybody wanted visit medieval Catholic churches. I got such suggestion from my guest from France.
Dear Beata,
Yes I'm fortunate to live and work in a most colourful and beautiful Country, where hospitality counts as gold, and most of the population is cheerful and nice to foreigners. The weather also helps a lot, and we have wonderful sunshine most of the year. I hope to be able to receive you here soon, to show you around and to demonstrate in a practical way, how to best answer your question. (!)
My University and my Department, in particular, is very keen on Internationality and we do get several foreign visitors per year, as we perform original post-graduate courses, open to international students and with foreign participation in teaching.
It's great to participate in receiving those visits and I do document myself previously to get to know how to please different personality traits, and to best accommodate.
We also had , a few years ago, the great honour and pleasure of organising a huge International Scientific meeting, on the occasion of 1994 International Symposium on Morphological Sciences, that was held in Lisbon, with more than 800 visitors from 88 countries, from all continents.
That was difficult. (Oh boy! That was really difficult and I learnt great lessons from this organisation... But it worked alright. ) I remember in particular, the great difficulty to arrange a menu to please all, which took one whole evening to compose and imagine, including a choice of vegan diet dishes...
We are here to live and learn.
Things work out well, when you are well intended and cheerful, and your visitors usually are as eager as you to have an enjoyable stay.
The main problem is usually the economic expense, as I usually need to offer special treats out of my own pocket, and the University might not understand some of my most eccentric choices, as I wish to please foreigners.
Another (personal ) problem that I use to face derives from the fact that I tend to spoil people, and we shouldn't overdo it, so my problem is to find the correct imbalance between spoiling and not intruding too much on our visitors privacy... (not easy. It is a sort of Art of Human relationship)
Dear Beata,
I have had limited experience with this activity, but in the few instances where I was involved in greeting/hosting/touring/presenting to foreign guests, the most embarrassing incidents were occasioned by differences in native language of the parties involved. So, I would say that the most important point is to make-sure a very competent translator is always present that speaks the languages of the guests-and-host, and can correctly interpret not only the words, but also the nuances-of-idiom (and especially humor), of both, fluently-and-competently.
Best regards,
Bob
The key is People Preparation
Though there had been many international events and conferences, I appreciate the way University of Bengkulu, Indonesia conducted the 3rd RENPER (2012)International conference - 3 days. They had a clear plan of preparing their people (Students / Staff / Hotels / Vehicles / Food etc.,)
When it came to students, they selected a very sizable number of volunteers, trained them to speak and behave (two months), trained them for quick use of technology support (Google translate in case of English translation) etc., Mock practice drills, Workshop arrangements, exhibition and stalls, guest reception to departure coordination and help desk etc.,
Photo of Paper Presenters from various countries
https://plus.google.com/103215648876518107695/posts/cT8uUmczj9z
Dear Beata,
Yes I'm fortunate to live and work in a most colourful and beautiful Country, where hospitality counts as gold, and most of the population is cheerful and nice to foreigners. The weather also helps a lot, and we have wonderful sunshine most of the year. I hope to be able to receive you here soon, to show you around and to demonstrate in a practical way, how to best answer your question. (!)
My University and my Department, in particular, is very keen on Internationality and we do get several foreign visitors per year, as we perform original post-graduate courses, open to international students and with foreign participation in teaching.
It's great to participate in receiving those visits and I do document myself previously to get to know how to please different personality traits, and to best accommodate.
We also had , a few years ago, the great honour and pleasure of organising a huge International Scientific meeting, on the occasion of 1994 International Symposium on Morphological Sciences, that was held in Lisbon, with more than 800 visitors from 88 countries, from all continents.
That was difficult. (Oh boy! That was really difficult and I learnt great lessons from this organisation... But it worked alright. ) I remember in particular, the great difficulty to arrange a menu to please all, which took one whole evening to compose and imagine, including a choice of vegan diet dishes...
We are here to live and learn.
Things work out well, when you are well intended and cheerful, and your visitors usually are as eager as you to have an enjoyable stay.
The main problem is usually the economic expense, as I usually need to offer special treats out of my own pocket, and the University might not understand some of my most eccentric choices, as I wish to please foreigners.
Another (personal ) problem that I use to face derives from the fact that I tend to spoil people, and we shouldn't overdo it, so my problem is to find the correct imbalance between spoiling and not intruding too much on our visitors privacy... (not easy. It is a sort of Art of Human relationship)
You are already well experienced dear @Beata. You are good host to foreign colleagues.
When I was a host, I believe a good one, I have presented them specific things that are related to Serbian culture, like customs, heritage, national foods, arts, few Universities, some country side... There are no rules. Just behave as you do feel. Each foreign guest is a specific one. They come to your country with some acquired knowledge about your country and people.
If they come again, believe me, You were an excellent host.
Dear @Bob, @Krishnan, and @Maria, thank All you for inspiring comments.
Dear @Bob, You are right about competent translator (and decoding properly nuances) as essential issue. It happened such situation once to me in Prague, on Charles University when Polish guests were kindly asked during panel to not use word (in Polish "to search" which is key in researches, reports etc.) because of it's vulgar meaning in Czech language. It was very hilarious panel. Besides, the situation while coordinating visits from abroad is sometimes doubly complicated. When the official language at professional meetings is English, and the same time, it is a second language for both parties.
Dear @Krishnan, my entire attention went to your remark about the time of preparation the team + volunteers. This means two months. Good to know.
Dear @Maria, I can't almost imagine such congress of 800 people you coordinated. Of course kitchen and dishes are problematic issues as well as interpersonal relationships and Face-To-Face communication which need to be emotionally balanced and differentiated in various contexts (e.g. while seminars or city round trip) Good points.
Dear @Ljubomir,
Thank you for nice words. Instincts are helpful in such cases. I just hope that the various stumbling, that accompany our actions are forgiven or accepted as less important. Well said, dear @Ljubomir about guests who are returning after some time.
Dear @Cecilia,
You highlighted one quality, I missed to this day: the eating times. Absolutely. It is essential as well as special diets preferences.
Be yourself, remove formality, and transfer your guest from a colleague to a friend!
Kind regards and respect to dear @Kamal! Long time my dear friend! :)
While hosting guest from abroad having different cultural specifications, we must take care cultural variations and values of the guest.
Dear Napoleon,
I am grateful for your comment, because of a few reasons. In an interesting way you described real problems by giving names of the dark sides while visits of foreign guests. Indeed, it is important that both parties are ready to express good will and friendly gestures in difficult situations or aime to solve problems. I suppose that most essential thoughts, you shared with simplicity as:
"As a guest, I would except to feel at home, treated and loved as a human being; not merely tolerated as a source of foreign exchange or as a spy to be spied upon and restricted in what to say, see and meet."
Some ways may be having multicultural knowledge, learning the basic communicative phrases and expressions in other languages, having pre- arraged scheduale for visiting sightseeing places and finally considering different tastes of food.
That is right, Dear @Masoumeh. Basic phrases can modify and create warmer atmosphere of the meetings Face-to-Face. I have the impression that also illustrate the effort and interest, which fosters ties. Sometime is good to know basic taboos underlying social communication rituals.
Dear All,
Is there anything in particular you would like to show in your city to visitors from abroad within the framework of social activity? What would you offer as the most important highlight in the social program?
Dear Ivo,
Nice ideas and I see an interesting illustration of the way you make feel at home on deeper level foreign visitors from professional circles. Although I did not try to use the travel agency or professional cook but these are an interesting ideas as well as catering for example. I have to say that the guest from France was once also invited by me to dinner at my family, my home and even happened that we all as a group of people, colleagues went to the rock music club, (with live concerts) aptly named "The Lizard King". Dinner "chez moi" was certainly well remembered, however, serving Polish cuisine to the French guest was more of a challenge. It's hard to compete with the French cuisine, which I know from experience too.
Dear Concha,
Yes, as I see we we act similarly. Ivo and you are right about the natural way of building the rapport. It helps a lot. It happened to me to improvise too. What a great creativity one can bring out of him/herself while being host for invited professional visitors.
When we are going to host a guest from different culture then we have to do some homework regarding there culture and try to know their lifestyle etc, and we need to plan the things accordingly like what is to be asked to them and how to make them feel comfortable and other things. So, just a bit home work is sufficient according to me.
Dear Nittala,
Nice support. I agree with you that we need do some homework and learn of culture, lifestyle and customs of our guests. What would you recommend to me, as basic knowledge of customs/lifestyle if I would like to invite academics from India ?
People adjust and tune themselves to different cultures, both host and a guests. You can not predict every possible situation dear @Beata. As a good host, just try to avoid a sort of possible cultural schock.
Good hosts should welcome cultural differences.
Dear Ljubomir,
Yes, you are right about accepting the cultural differences by good hosts and on the other hand to be able to cope with the cultural shock. Thank you.
Friendliness on the part of of the host members, should display socially acceptable behavior suiting the guest's culture.
D.B. Jani,
Thank you for kind suggestion. I would ask you for the examples of typical Indian traditions which would make Indian guests delight. What would be the most important ?
Bharatanatyam - a dance form performed to entertain guests (Tamil Culture).
https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-48fde0874e14d453f3997c6bb1c4d730-c?convert_to_webp=true
A host can do this by first making a "cultural background investigation" of the possible visitor- knowing the "dos" and "dont's, and the "likes" and "not likes" and also giving the visitors of the cultural picture of the host place. In our country, it is the host who adjusts to the guest. We call it "hospitality:.
One needs to show good will, empathy and assistance of all kinds. But the question of good relationship remains open if there are too many differences between two sides - then diplomacy and remaining assistance can help. For the bigger group of guests almost all is the same as above mentioned, and the contradictions can even easier disappear.
I have always been just humanistic creative human being - without any shows. Be yourself in the situations, if you are not a zhlob Victor Tsoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO_VEv1wFio&feature=share
Interesting contributions. I love Prof. Maria Bettencourt Pires's submission and agree with her stand.
Dear Beata Borowska-Beszta , Eraspus plus touches your question and offers some answers.
Erasmus+ represents a sort of remedy: ‘A lack of tolerance is always based on a misconception.’ In overcoming these misconceptions, Erasmus+ provides a unique opportunity to acknowledge differences and learn to look past them...
With Erasmus+, openness is not only a value, it has become a reality. The programme has shaped a new generation of European citizens by opening up numerous opportunities. It has even led to the creation of new families that bring together different nationalities: one in every three former Erasmus+ higher education participants has a life partner with a different nationality – compared to only one in every ten graduates without an Erasmus+ experience...
https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/anniversary/spotlight-erasmus-opens-your-mind_en
Dear All, Dear Ljubomir Jacić I posted this question more than 3 years ago. Since then my personal experiences on this matter improved. Thank you All for support!
Beata
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