What is Your CQ?
Developing and Using Cultural Intelligence to Manage Differences and Create Harmony in a Multicultural Setting
Activities
TESL Toronto Conference 2009
Melissa Pedersen
Maria Brzeska
Activity 1: Check Out Your Biases
To develop our Cultural Intelligence, we must first be aware of our own attitudes and biases. This is a short reflective exercise. Be honest with yourself!
- How knowledgeable about the world views of different cultures and ethnic groups am I?
- How aware of my biases and prejudices towards other cultural and ethnic groups am I?
- How often do I seek out personal contacts with persons who are from different cultural or ethnic groups?
- How do I react to a person who speaks English poorly?
- What are my beliefs about persons who:
- Have different political views from mine?
- Practice a different religion or form of spirituality?
- Are very poor? Very rich?
- Have unusual clothing and grooming styles?
- Have or have had a mental illness?
- Have a physical disability?
- Have a different sexual orientation?
- Have a different level of education from mine?
- Are of the opposite gender?
- Are of a particular age group (teenagers, older seniors, etc.)?
Activity 2:
Interview your partner using these questions. You may add or leave out any you wish.
- What is your favourite food? How do you make it?
- Where is your favourite place in the world and what makes you like it?
- What is your favourite colour and why do you like it?
- What have you learned that nobody taught you?
- If you could be any animal, what would you be? For what reason?
- What was the happiest moment of your life?
- What would you do with an extra hour every day?
- What person from history world you like to talk to? What would you talk about?
- What is it about some people that make you like or not like them as soon as you meet them?
- What holiday do you like best? How do you celebrate?
Activity 3:
Every culture has a set of gestures which have idiomatic meaning. Look at the pictures below and discuss what the people are “saying” and what the gesture signifies in Canadian culture and your culture.
Activity 4:
Discuss with your group where you think the Scenario belongs on the Cultural Relativity Continuum and what could happen to move the outcome further towards the integration stage.
Scenario I: Of fifteen students in an ELT class, nine speak their own language and ignore the other students during lunch and breaks. The class is evolving into two groups as a result. These two groups begin to make fun of each others’ choices of music. The smaller group of students intentionally mispronouncesthe names of the dominant group’s favourite singers, composers, and music bands, in a way that mocks the English pronunciation of the dominant group.
Scenario II: A newcomer employee is hired to work in a team environment. He performs well and is trying to fit in. He takes extra tasks with no hesitation, is willing to work flexible hours, and other members of the team seek his professional advice.
His efforts are praised by the management.
However, during lunch time, in informal professional settings and social functions, his colleagues talk about events, hobbies or cultural activities and he is not able to participate at any level. He does not know music groups that existed before his arrival in Canada, knows nothing about Canadian Hockey, skiing, snowmobiling, etc. Colleagueshave said things like, “You’ll have to come to my house and watch a game,” but an invitation has never been formally extended to him.
He now feels that they only talk to him when they need his help. They now feel his questions and lack of knowledge are annoying, and that he is not trying to fit in. He is feeling more and more isolated. Resentment is growing on both sides; he does not want to share his expertise any more, his colleagues see him as a workaholic with no life.
Scenario III:Youare a teacher and in your multicultural class you have students who come from two different countries that have been at war for a very long time (like India and Pakistan, Palestine and Israel). How do you make sure they concentrate on learning English and don’t bring their personal patriotic feelings into classroom?
Scenario IV: You work in a crowded environment where most of the workers speak a different language from yours. You are unable to comprehend the jokes when everyone is laughing and you feel left out of the crowd. What can be done?
Scenario V: As part of a lesson on banking in Canada, the teacher asked students in a LINC class if they had a bank account. One female student said that she did not need one because her husband was taking care of their finances. The teacher insisted that the student needed to be independent and open her own bank account. “What would happen if your husband divorced you?” she asked, “You would be left with no money”.
Scenario VI: At a company which had recently expanded its multicultural work force, a few employees declared that for religious reasons, they would not attend an annual end-off-the year celebration organized by the company unless alcohol was not served or displayed on the tables or visible in the room.The other employees objected to these restrictions, citing that beer and wine had always been available at the dinners in the past and that the “tradition” should not be discarded because of the demands of a few new employees.
Anecdote: While attending training for translators/interpreters we were taught that it was imperative for a translator to translate all words accurately and in accordance with the legal standards. The training facilitator asked participants to pronounce the most vulgar words in their native languages and in English. Some of the female trainees could not do it. The facilitator insisted and asked them to hide under the table or turn back their chairs around and shout the words. Even though we did not know each others’ vulgar words, from the intensity and tone of our voices, from the body language and sometimes hysterical laughs we knew that we were saying the most disgusting words. We also noticed that it was easier to translate and pronounce those words in English as they were not as deeply imbedded in our cultural consciousness and did not have the emotional value and connections to our personal life.
Activity 5:
Three-Way Journaling:
- Select a topic from the LINC Curriculum 5 - 7 Themes
- Introduce the concept of journaling and demonstrate passages using your examples from Canadian culture or your culture.
- Write to the students individually in their books, asking several questions about your chosen topic. Ask the students to respond to the questions. Students can take their journals home and ask other family members to contribute if they want
- Choose a day of the week for the class to share their information by reading their journal entries and allow the rest of the class to have the opportunity to ask questions and make comments.
- Here is a good opportunity to teach the “don’t ask WHY” principle!!
This can be done with any topic, but using with as part of the “Social Interaction” from the Interacting with Others Unit, or included as part of the Family and Relationships Theme are good starts.
Activity 6:
Understanding Culture through Artifacts:*
The “parts” of a culture are interrelated. A tool or object involves a custom for its use and that custom reflects the ideas and values behind it. This includes food. Example: a sandwich (artifact) = quick, convenient, inexpensive = framework for the western pace of life.*Adapted from New Ways in Teaching Culture, TESOL Inc.
Ask students to bring in an artifact from their country and discuss its use relative to their cultural framework.
Have a “pot luck” day and ask students to bring food from their countries, recipes, discuss when and how the food would be served.
Activity 7:
Understanding Culture through Proverbs:
Proverbs are a good way to stimulate discussion about cultural values and practices. There are some interesting ones below, but you can ask students to generate their own list from their countries. They often find their cultures have the same or similar proverbs!
A closed mouth catches no flies…Italian proverb
An enemy will agree, but a friend will argue... Russian Proverb
Flattery makes friends and truth makes enemies... Spanish Proverb
Who knows most speaks least…Spanish Proverb
What you can not avoid, welcome... Chinese Proverb
He who has once burnt his mouth always blows his soup...German Proverb
It is the quiet pigs that eat the meal…Irish Proverb
Though a tree grows ever so high, the falling leaves return to the ground...Malay Proverb
If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words...Chinese Proverb
The nail that sticks up will be hammered down…Japanese Proverb
Necessity never made a good bargain…North American Proverb
Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get...Spanish Proverb
Activity 8:
Go to or or and take the Cultural Intelligence quiz(es). Adapt some questions for your class…or ask them to go on-line.