More than a photobook about what it means to feel Italian today .
89 photographs selected by an international jury show images of the Italy of today. A country in transformation in a global context, in terms of behaviours, customs and values and, at the same time, a country linked to traditions and elements of continuity with the past. The Photography Contest, Feeling Italian, collected more than 600 images of professional and amateur photographers, from Italy and abroad. A jury, composed of experts of photography, visual communication and interculture has selected 24 photographic projects .
Feeling Italian – What does that mean?
This photo contest represented the first phase of a wider research and training project, that SIETAR Italia is developing in partnership with the Municipality of Milan and other private and non-profit organizations, to promote cultural awareness and intercultural dialogue . The book Feeling Italian will be, for SIETAR Italia and for all the supporters of this campaign, a precious tool with which to stimulate a better cultural understanding in the Italian multicultural society, and it will be a showcase for the photographers selected by the project’s international jury. Feeling Italian : a book in Italian and in English, approx. 120 pages, with black & white and color pictures, 21 x 21cm, exposed binding, containing the selected pictures, some of the photo projects’ narratives, and short essays written by photography, visual communication and intercultural experts .
Many language students often feel overwhelmed when learning a new language – What to do when you feel like giving up on learning German in Switzerland?
It’s no secret that learning High German in Switzerland can be difficult, but what do you do when you hit a learning wall? When you feel frustrated that the language you are learning is not even what the locals regularly speak? How do you persevere with your language learning goals?
When I
first moved to Switzerland I was so excited to learn a new language because I
wanted to be part of the community. As a resident of Basel Stadt, it seemed
like even the Canton was keen on me learning German as I was provided with six
weeks of free High German lessons.
After a few weeks of intensive lessons at A1 level, I was frustrated with the ‘full immersion’ process (you’re only allowed to speak German in class), but I was speaking basic German in a short time and I was determined to keep learning. Although my accent was terrible and the German sentence structure still confused me, I was eager to keep learning after my six-week course ended. I continued learning German on my own accord – but then things got really tough.
Learning in Basel
The
teacher introduced me to difficult German grammar known as ‘German
declensions’, so I decided to stop going to intensive lessons. Instead, I opted
for two lessons a week and a year later after moving to Basel I am halfway
through the A2 level course and am feeling very discouraged.After speaking with
other international residents and my former classmates, I learned the obstacles
I faced were all too common – especially for those affected by Switzerland’s new language requirements for citizenship.
Common
obstacles to learning German in Switzerland:
1. The
local Swiss community speaks Swiss German, a totally different dialect to High
German which makes it difficult to practice in day to day life
2. Most
people in Switzerland speak English so it’s easier to explain things in English
(when foreigners attempt High German, locals often respond in English)
3. As
with most languages, German is not easy to learn as an adult
According
to international German language teacher Heike Reinhart, many of her students
have expressed the same frustrations but these ‘obstacles’ should be dismissed
as limiting beliefs. “Many foreigners often give up on learning a new
language in Switzerland because they believe they will return to their home
country, but 70 per cent of people actually reside in Switzerland for longer
than they intended. That’s why it’s important to work out your desired language
outcome and not give up,” says Reinhart.
As an
expert who has worked with German language beginners, she says to overcome
learning stumbling blocks, language learners must realise that the process is
similar to buying something new.
“You
pay a lot of money for your German classes and in a sense, the journey is
similar to that of buying a waffle maker. When you first buy the waffle maker
you want to use all the time, so it’s exciting. But then your enthusiasm fades
and slowly there are no waffles and then you stop using the waffle maker, this
is the same when learning German,” explains Reinhart.
Reinhart says for many learners the curriculum is too difficult and not aligned with the specific needs of a student: “Often what you need is not what you learn and textbooks can be grammar based and irrelevant to your needs.”
We are happy to invite you to the conference of our cooperation partner IACCM jointly organised with the IÉSEG School of Management, from 31st October 2019 to 2nd November 2019 in Paris, France.
October in Paris
IÉSEG and IACCM warmly invite submissions from both practitioners and academics alike. Different contribution formats are available to suit different approaches and content, more info online here.
All submissions must be made via Conftool (https://www.conftool.com/iaccm2019), where you will be required to choose the presentation format best suited.
Submission should follow the abstract template available online, please note that there are two templates (practitioner and academic).
Submission deadline: June.2019
AND. Did you know about our available student bursaries? Our student bursary awards are for students and early career scholars who have submissions accepted for presentation at the IACCM-IESEG2019 Conference.
Application deadline: June.2019
How to apply? All details can be found online here.
All enquiries on bursary applications (subject: student bursary) should be directed to Dr. Barbara Covarrubias Venegas: barbara.covarrubias@fh-wien.ac.at
Please like & share with your intercultural community – We’d love to see you in Paris!
best wishes, Dr. Barbara Covarrubias Venegas Secretary General IACCM & Conference Chair
A week at the SIETAR Europa
Congress 2019 in Leuven has fed our collective brains, hearts, stomachs and
livers (if a liver can be fed.)
Overall, the event was a great success lead by Outgoing President, Joyce Jenkins. Joyce is the definition of an inclusive leader – combining leadership with latitude to develop purpose in an enthusiastic tribe of followers, ready to sweat a little, get creative, make decisions and get stuck in. There were many many dramas along the way (town, venue, gala, menus, rooms, people, tickets, buses, etc, etc.) And the lunches – we will get to that later. The end result was the transfer of much wisdom to a large group of intercultural enthusiasts in an effective manner in a beautiful town that was fit for purpose (Muntstraat had end-to-end restaurants and easily contained the learning hordes.)
The Leuven Town Hall Reception
Diversity and Inclusion
The inspired suggestion for
this year’s Congress theme gave the amorphous and sometimes stagnant
essentialist version of culture something substantial to work with and the
results were impressive. Inclusion is where the rubber meets the road and the
presenters with practitioner experience brought their experiences to life in a
unique and memorable way for many of us. The topics of colour, racism, LGBTQ, as
well as the prejudiced brain, polarisation and ethics got traction and the attention
of this, sometimes, critical SIETARian crowd.
Quality – Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk
When I drew attention to the
frequent lack of original content and questionable quality of some presenting
seen in the Dublin sessions and keynotes of 2017, I was unfriended by some
pretty big names – Sometimes the truth is painful to hear.
I am happy to report (not just so that you stay friends!) that both content and presentation quality seem to have bounced back to the Valencia standard of 2015.
Working hard to find the PURPOSE of SIETAR!
The selection of papers for inclusion
in the programme was BLIND – If ever an event was aligned with its topic, this
has to be proof positive of that healthy intent. – A bi-product of this
meritocratic process was that some big names where not on the programme.
Whilst there are still
issues – Keynote speakers reading from their papers in “monotone”, some under
rehearsed sessions with avoidable errors and the like – Speaking personally, I
only had one sub-par experience during the whole event.
Super Stars
It was a very broad
programme with up to 9 simultaneous choices at any one time, so I can only talk
about the ones that I witnessed first hand.
***Shannon Murphy Robinson – An easily accessible introduction to the
neuroscience of bias, culture and behaviour. Educational.
***Seyda Kutsal – Buurman – Giving regular folk (outside the police force) a
chance to experience the strong feelings generated by the Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes
experiment for themselves. Profound.
***Christoph Bader – Bringing something NEW to Brexit / Trump / Popularism! That is rare
these days – Using the vehicle of collective memory, we were asked to apply its
cult-like methods to the “other side” and come up with some pithy slogans to
balance out fake news – Therapeutic.
***Christine Wirths and Lies Wouters – Digital learning – Giving us the chance, with a
real case, to come up with our own attempts at constructing a digital learning
programme – Inspiring and encouraging.
***Jackie van der Kroft – Reliably excellent, Jackie took us beyond conflict
to the anatomy and mitigation of polarisation and asked us to apply some
suggested methods in our own world. Outstanding.
***Monika de Waal, Natasha Aruliah & Henning Zorn – Sharing their life stories as 3 “outsiders”,
trialogues around difference and discussions of feelings and implications – A richly
experiential event.
***Alan Richter – Using ethical dilemmas and dramas and asking us to unpick them and
choose a response – our results were then compared with global data and
analysed. – The slickest show in town! And, finally,
***Sue Shinomiya – Ikigai – Finding one’s life’s purpose – The perfect post Gala session – Engaging enough to keep everyone zoned in, beautiful enough not to over challenge our fragile state. Elegant.
Sue Shimoniya – Ikigai
***Films –
A reduced film track curated by a knowledgeable team and with the chance to see
the most popular ones again on day 3. Moving.
Confession
I am sorry to say I missed
the “Obama-like” opener with Leuven Mayor, Mohamed Ridouani. My loss.
Challenges – The vast voluntary team had much to cope with, not least their own size – Steering committee – 10, Congress team – 21 and Assistants – 12 (You probably need another committee to handle all of the 43+ volunteers!!!)
Great minds, and me…
The venue
– The concrete medical school was funky though not always fit for purpose –
Arriving at the hospital entrance (never trust a taxi driver who says, “Ah,
yes, I know exactly where that is…”) we went past real medical patients, walked
along many corridors only to be finally denied by a double set of locked doors
– Signalling with my mobile phone light attracted the attention of the people
in the registration hall but they could not blow the locks on the doors (a
competence beyond university professors it seems.)
The Lunches
– Yes we are finally here. Let us reframe this moment to get most benefit from
our collective experience – The lunches were a bonding disaster that unified a
diverse crowd in a common complaint. I am put in mind of an old Jewish joke
about Catskills catering – “The food is horrible here – And, such small portions.” And it did not
matter – It lead to some hilarious survivor behaviour with charismatic SIETARian
explorers attempting to bribe, influence and persuade KU Leuven medical
students to buy canteen lunches for them – with mixed results.
Gala – In the end we all survived, ate and laughed. Apparently, the first choice venue went bankrupt before our event so a few brave souls found the substitute venue and persuaded them to host the do. The last minute instruction to select our food choices meant that, inevitably, many did not see the e mail and respond in time with their input. For them it was a fixed menu. But no more moaning – IT WAS A FREE OPEN BAR WITH BELGIUM BEER! – Come on.
With Natasha Aruliah and Kelli McLoud – Shingen and me.
In Conclusion
Where else can you guarantee bonfemmie and bonhomie like that? (New Word – bonfemmie!!) Is there anywhere like a SIETAR Europa Congress as a place where you can tell your story and be respected, included and truly heard? – I don’t think so. We have something precious here that is safe, user friendly and staffed entirely (with two exceptions) by volunteers. Wow.
Paul Westlake, Steve Crawford and George Simons
Thanks
Thanks to the steering
committee of 10, the 21 strong congress team and, especially, to the 12 hard-working
assistants.
Next
See you in Malta, May 2021.
P.S. – I
promised to set up a Collaboration workspace after my interactive Collaboration
session on day 2 at the Congress – Watch this space on Culture99 and do feel free to join in the exchange, ask questions,
contribute and continue the dialogue about getting to collaboration within your
organisation and spreading it to other work and community spaces too. Thanks,
Matthew
Or, How to shorten the waiting time for stardom to come knocking… #keynote #speaker #publicspeaking #presenting #paid #gigs #culture #diversity #profile 1, Post Deep Content on LinkedIn – It sounds obvious to some and it will, at the same time, … Continue reading →
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