Please share a positive experience (yours or others’) about intercultural communication.
I met Ali (not his real name) about 5 months ago as a volunteer. I was assigned to him to teach him English online, as we live in different countries.
Ali lives in the UK, as an official refugee. He is in his late 30s, male and comes from one of the poorest countries in the Middle East. Because of stress, loneliness and isolation, Ali can’t really focus on learning English, although he tries hard. We chat in Arabic with the help of Google Translate. We tried to use Skype interpreter…sometimes crazy misunderstandings happened.
Ali is always positive. He always communicates with grace and dignity. Sometimes, he even tries to cheer me up when he feels I’m discouraged. We understand each-other, although we come from completely different cultures and world-view. We WANT to communicate, therefore we CAN.
Flora Komlosi-Ferdinand
Thank you for this human interest story. It takes good will on both sides to achieve a positive outcome under such difficulties. Here is my contribution. Many years ago i taught EFL over summer while completing postgraduate studies. I was assigned this Italian priest who knew no English, for a period of a month. I spoke no Italian, which was probably the point. I acquired an English Italian dictionary. He too was good willed, and put up with my attempts to teach him English. It became obvious if i used traditional methods of no Italian in class, we would progress too slowly and he would lose interest. SO i started using Italian words, and rejected the set text as being inappropriate for a man of his age and occupation. we discussed religion, the concept of the devil, and other interesting topics that were relevant to his background, and had fun. On the last day he gave me a huge bunch of flowers and we parted all smiles. A positive approach to life is so important.
Thank you so much for sharing your experiance Valerie :)
Your approach was truly intelligent and kind... it was so nice reading it!
Wonfderful! Thank you.
When I met Hamed (name changed), a refugee from Yemen, in Munich, he described to me the terrible torture he had experienced during his time in prison. Two years ago, he was arrested in his home country for refusing to shoot at demonstrators while he was a police officer. Hamed complained about now having to live in a shelter with five other refugees. Every night he woke up at the same time and screamed loudly in his nightmare. To alleviate his trauma, we worked together using various psychotherapeutic methods. He got a little better. I was also able to get him assigned a single room. But Hamed always remained unhappy, even though he looked better on the outside and unfortunately had not made any valuable new contacts in Germany. His wife had fled to Egypt and was laboriously making her way to southern Germany. Although he now no longer had to suffer in the dungeon, he is deeply unhappy about his destroyed life, both privately and professionally. I try to teach him to value gratitude and forgiveness.
Jean-Marie Bottequin, Munich, Germany
Jean-Marie Bottequin thank you so much for sharing your experience.
I often have the feeling (I might be very much mistaken) that, unfortunately, certain traumas are too difficult to overcome...
I appreciate your comment and kindness very much!
A few days ago a young Nigerian man, living in Germany, visited me online and asked me for therapy. He suffers from depression because he has bad grades and probably has to repeat his year. He was very polite, well dressed and his online appearance and his English language where exemplary. I mirrored his special skills and was able to quickly convince him to look much less in his mobile phone and even leave it regulary out for a day. His problem is being overwhelmed by multiple signals coming from the outside and the dependence on social media. For his lack of concentration we practiced a simple meditation to possibly stop thinking for minutes at a time. He absorbed everything immediately and was so grateful and proud to share this new experience also with his family in Africa as well. He was fully motivated by a Belgian in Germany to learn and try out ancient Indian meditation techniques and pass them on in his home country. In 60 minutes this young African shone with joy and was so motivated to save his school year and to take his life in his own hands with more energy.
Jean-Marie, this was really interesting! Your approach is so kind and effective...it's such a great lesson. Thank you so much for sharing your experience again.
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