Appreciate Diversity (A10-EN)

Cultural diversity is a constant in our European area. As a purse, it enriches us. Closing into local frameworks brings us back to the narrowing our social space. Openness to and recognition of other cultures is a reflection of democratic values.

cultural diversity, cultural awareness, stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination

• To make participants think about life differences and different cultures
• To reveal different ideas and pictures about different cultures, expose the stereotypes and the prejudices
• To motivate the learners to exchange their opinions
• To broaden their horizon concerning cultural awareness
• To motivate them to compare their life situations with those of other people

public officers, administration staff, teachers, refugee, and migrants‘ organizations

Step 1: Learners think about different cultural influences and aspects in their surroundings, as cultural centres, restaurants, movies and cinemas, clubs, schools, etc. For example, an Italian restaurant, sushi bar, American institute, week of Iranian cinema, a salsa club, French language institute, etc.

Step 2: Each learner makes a list of positive contributions of the different cultures that influence his/her life. For example: “I love sushi so I learned to eat with chopsticks.”, “I'm a fan of Bollywood movies and I met some Indians on Bollywood parties in my city.”, “I know how to say 'I love you' in eight different languages.” etc.

Step 3: Learners compare their positive experiences with different cultures and discuss positive aspects of other cultures that influence their life.

Possibility of step 4:  If the learners are from the same surrounding (city, district), they can create a map of this surrounding and mark location of all these cultural places. They can discuss where is the best sushi, where you can eat the best Italian pizza etc.

paper, pen, flipchart

discussion board, experiential learning, awareness-raising

• The facilitator should motivate the participants to take the lesson seriously.
• The facilitator must not impose his/her opinions about differences between cultures.
• If there is a racist or xenophobe in the class, this exercise can show him/her that also he/she eats a pizza or watches Indian movies or travels to the Middle east and/or third countries, so he/she profits from cultural diversity and its positive aspects.

Adapted from project developed activity Social Literacy (Sonja B. Eisenreich)

Integra Institute