Intercultural India - another angle
I know… I just wrote a blog a week ago! When it rains it pours, I suppose. It’s not that we’re getting any rain here – it is very pleasant weather at the moment as opposed to the news I get from MN… COLD! Sorry so many of you must endure it. India is only a couple long flights away!
That was a bit of a tangent from the reason I am writing a blog again so fast. That reason is that I have much to say about the SIETAR conference I just attended. The Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research is an organization I have been affiliated with in the States, but never did I expect to connect with Intercultural professionals in this way or so early in my stay in India! Thanks to my friend, David, I found out that there is a new SIETAR chapter that is only 2 years old based in Bangalore and they just had their 2nd Conference… in Chennai this past weekend. And thanks to Christmas money from my parents, bro and sis-in –law and Auntie Denny, housing from a co-worker, as well as a huge discount from SIETAR, I was able to attend this conference to remain connected to my intercultural education and training career aspirations.
Probably due to the expense of the conference, I was the only person from the non-profit sector. I was also the only one from Hyderabad and the only one focused on interfaith issues in addition to intercultural ones. I volunteered (to further reduce the cost) during the conference and so was seen regularly at the registration table or taking care of odds and ends. These things all caused other participants to show particular interest in me, so my networking task was extremely easy. Truly, my intent for the weekend was 3-fold: 1) To meet some other interculturalists and keep my options open for potential future careers back in this field of work. 2) to continue my intercultural education and exposure and 3) to get away from the HMI bubble and the great amount of stress and work I was feeling there. I must say that the weekend far exceeded my expectations in all 3 areas!
Let me start at the beginning. I arrived for the pre-conference workshop with Thiagi – a South Indian who is famous for his creative training activity ideas. I have one of his books, but had not had the opportunity to meet him before. I was extremely early because of my train schedule from Hyderabad, so I just settled into the conference hall to wait for the registration folks to come and start me at my work. A man came into the room and introduced himself as Michael. We talked for about an hour… and it was only after about 45 minutes did I realize that this man was actually Thiagi himself! It was really nice to have this one-on-one interaction with such an interesting and personable man! I quickly realized that he likes to play... even with my mind.
The next big surprise was to meet someone I know through HMI! I never expected that there would be HMI connections at this conference, but there was Lakshmi, who sends groups of Swedish Social Workers to HMI for interfaith education. She is also very well known and active in these circles, so this was a gift as well for me.
The first day was a good way to ease into things. It was about 40 participants, which then made a good core group with whom to relate during the next two days with about 150 participants. It was all held at a fancy hotel, which felt exactly like other conferences I’ve been to, but was such a strange feeling here in India for me. We ate amazingly good food, drank wine each night, and sat in extremely cold conference rooms because AC is never regulated well in any hotel I’ve been in.
Although I was extremely aware of the inner workings of the conference coordinators and the problems that emerged throughout the weekend, I was very impressed with the diversity of workshops offered – especially when almost everyone came from the corporate world… either working with multi-national or IT corporations. Let me tell you about my three favorite workshops:
1) The first one was about the impact of commercials in promoting and directing culture. It also looked at various advertisements which could be used for training purposes. Not only did I enjoy this extremely effective tool for looking at culture (stereotypes, traditions, goals, etc) but I also learned a great deal about Indian culture through the ads we saw and discussed. Since I don’t have a TV and usually no one to interpret ads for me, I had been missing this great window into culture.
2) The second one explored how Vedic (primarily yoga) principles speak to the development of intercultural skills and competency. When you think of the vast historical wisdom present in the Vedas, which were established in a region that is filled with extreme cultural diversity, it is no surprise that there is much to learn. For me, additional spiritual input to cultural principles was an amazing gift. I have been wrestling with how intercultural and Christian perspectives connect, and the secular training I have had was quite clear, but it was great to at least begin to look at how Hinduism contributes to the development of intercultural competency in individuals.
3) Last of all, there was a woman who presented research on how the media has an effect on people in the US to cause more ethnocentrism (belief that my culture is better than anyone else’s) and stereotypes against Muslims. What she was trying to prove was that personal and positive contact between non-Muslims and Muslims in the US would help to reduce ethnocentrism and negative stereotyping, while the media presently does much to move us in the wrong direction. It was particularly interesting to me since my work is interfaith and I have a deep connection to these issues. What HMI does is exactly what she suggests… create positive interaction and relationships among people of different faith traditions in order to encourage a more peaceful, open, and respectful environment.
In addition to getting all these things out of the weekend… I now have a whole team of people that seem to think I need to spearhead SIETAR in Hyderabad. If only they knew how very little time I have. However, I am excited to be included in this community and hope to help out and stay in contact with them as time goes on.
Until later,
Sara
That was a bit of a tangent from the reason I am writing a blog again so fast. That reason is that I have much to say about the SIETAR conference I just attended. The Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research is an organization I have been affiliated with in the States, but never did I expect to connect with Intercultural professionals in this way or so early in my stay in India! Thanks to my friend, David, I found out that there is a new SIETAR chapter that is only 2 years old based in Bangalore and they just had their 2nd Conference… in Chennai this past weekend. And thanks to Christmas money from my parents, bro and sis-in –law and Auntie Denny, housing from a co-worker, as well as a huge discount from SIETAR, I was able to attend this conference to remain connected to my intercultural education and training career aspirations.
Probably due to the expense of the conference, I was the only person from the non-profit sector. I was also the only one from Hyderabad and the only one focused on interfaith issues in addition to intercultural ones. I volunteered (to further reduce the cost) during the conference and so was seen regularly at the registration table or taking care of odds and ends. These things all caused other participants to show particular interest in me, so my networking task was extremely easy. Truly, my intent for the weekend was 3-fold: 1) To meet some other interculturalists and keep my options open for potential future careers back in this field of work. 2) to continue my intercultural education and exposure and 3) to get away from the HMI bubble and the great amount of stress and work I was feeling there. I must say that the weekend far exceeded my expectations in all 3 areas!
Let me start at the beginning. I arrived for the pre-conference workshop with Thiagi – a South Indian who is famous for his creative training activity ideas. I have one of his books, but had not had the opportunity to meet him before. I was extremely early because of my train schedule from Hyderabad, so I just settled into the conference hall to wait for the registration folks to come and start me at my work. A man came into the room and introduced himself as Michael. We talked for about an hour… and it was only after about 45 minutes did I realize that this man was actually Thiagi himself! It was really nice to have this one-on-one interaction with such an interesting and personable man! I quickly realized that he likes to play... even with my mind.
The next big surprise was to meet someone I know through HMI! I never expected that there would be HMI connections at this conference, but there was Lakshmi, who sends groups of Swedish Social Workers to HMI for interfaith education. She is also very well known and active in these circles, so this was a gift as well for me.
The first day was a good way to ease into things. It was about 40 participants, which then made a good core group with whom to relate during the next two days with about 150 participants. It was all held at a fancy hotel, which felt exactly like other conferences I’ve been to, but was such a strange feeling here in India for me. We ate amazingly good food, drank wine each night, and sat in extremely cold conference rooms because AC is never regulated well in any hotel I’ve been in.
Although I was extremely aware of the inner workings of the conference coordinators and the problems that emerged throughout the weekend, I was very impressed with the diversity of workshops offered – especially when almost everyone came from the corporate world… either working with multi-national or IT corporations. Let me tell you about my three favorite workshops:
1) The first one was about the impact of commercials in promoting and directing culture. It also looked at various advertisements which could be used for training purposes. Not only did I enjoy this extremely effective tool for looking at culture (stereotypes, traditions, goals, etc) but I also learned a great deal about Indian culture through the ads we saw and discussed. Since I don’t have a TV and usually no one to interpret ads for me, I had been missing this great window into culture.
2) The second one explored how Vedic (primarily yoga) principles speak to the development of intercultural skills and competency. When you think of the vast historical wisdom present in the Vedas, which were established in a region that is filled with extreme cultural diversity, it is no surprise that there is much to learn. For me, additional spiritual input to cultural principles was an amazing gift. I have been wrestling with how intercultural and Christian perspectives connect, and the secular training I have had was quite clear, but it was great to at least begin to look at how Hinduism contributes to the development of intercultural competency in individuals.
3) Last of all, there was a woman who presented research on how the media has an effect on people in the US to cause more ethnocentrism (belief that my culture is better than anyone else’s) and stereotypes against Muslims. What she was trying to prove was that personal and positive contact between non-Muslims and Muslims in the US would help to reduce ethnocentrism and negative stereotyping, while the media presently does much to move us in the wrong direction. It was particularly interesting to me since my work is interfaith and I have a deep connection to these issues. What HMI does is exactly what she suggests… create positive interaction and relationships among people of different faith traditions in order to encourage a more peaceful, open, and respectful environment.
In addition to getting all these things out of the weekend… I now have a whole team of people that seem to think I need to spearhead SIETAR in Hyderabad. If only they knew how very little time I have. However, I am excited to be included in this community and hope to help out and stay in contact with them as time goes on.
Until later,
Sara
posted by Namasday | 10:35 AM
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