Thursday, February 2, 2012

Adapting to Challenges

On Tuesday night, all the students, faculty and staff at the Global Campus here in Rome were invited to join our Academic Dean, Kevin Murphy, for a roundtable conversation about cross-cultural exchange.

One of the things that the conversation emphasized was that, when you are in a cultural situation that is new to you, you have a real opportunity to reflect upon whether the differences are cultural ones (or whether something else is going on) and also how you will react and adapt to these differences.

Something that is a universal: no matter where you live, sometimes things don't go exactly as planned. But, when you are living and teaching abroad, it is easy to blame the chaos on cultural differences. My class on Monday did not go as planned, because a scheduling mix-up meant we could not go to the Capitoline Museums as planned. Class tomorrow has now been cancelled due to inclement weather, and we've just learned that there will be a transportation strike on Monday, which will complicate our intended site visit then.

All this is quite frustrating, but snow days and scheduling problems happen in the U.S., too. One of the great things about the situation here, though, is that, although I'm sure the students share my frustration, they have been really enthusiastic. I gave them a choice between just skipping that site visit or adding a class session during their free time so that we could get it in. They chose (unanimously and without hesitation) to plan a time for the visit. That sort of enthusiasm is a great reminder of what a great opportunity for learning this sort of experience offers.

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