photo by myyogaonlineI chose this picture because YOGA reminds me the practice of meditation. It’s an interesting association, isn’t it?
YOGA stands for Your Objectives, Guidelines, and Assessment form and it’s a self-evaluation test on cross cultural preparation. We all should be experts because we’ve just finished “Mediazione Linguistica and Culturale”… actually we’re not! … (I don’t want to be polemical so…dot dot dot!)
I think that if you want to be able to deal effectively with differences, you should have some intercultural competencies. For example you should be proficient in the second language and in the culture involved. But this is not enough because it’s only theory! I think that people should have some important intercultural educational experiences. In my opinion this is a shortcoming of the Italian educational system in general.
In five years of university the skype exchange has been the only intercultural project I’ve experienced – this is not enough if your declared objective is to prepare intercultural experts.
The test consists of 5 different parts: awareness, attitude, skills, knowledge and language proficiency.
I found quite simple to self-evaluate in the sections knowledge and language proficiency, maybe because they’re the most objective ones and because I’m aware of what I know and I’m able to do. I mean, it’s not new for me to self-evaluate my language proficiency or my knowledge of another culture because I’ve done similar activities, such as the European Language Portfolio and the PLE.
On the other hand, I found harder to self-evaluate my awareness, my attitude and my skills. Most of the questions were aspects I had never considered before. For example how my social identity is perceived by the host culture and within my culture.
Even the distinction of four different levels for each section is very useful:
Educational traveller
Sejourner
Professional
Intercultural/ Multicultural Specialist
I’ve always reached the third level, sometimes the fourth. It’s quite good, isn’t it?!? J
YOGA is a very useful tool because it shows you where your deficiencies are. Once you know your problems you can set your objectives to solve them! That’s the only way to improve. What do you think about it? Let me know…
I think that if you want to be able to deal effectively with differences, you should have some intercultural competencies. For example you should be proficient in the second language and in the culture involved. But this is not enough because it’s only theory! I think that people should have some important intercultural educational experiences. In my opinion this is a shortcoming of the Italian educational system in general.
In five years of university the skype exchange has been the only intercultural project I’ve experienced – this is not enough if your declared objective is to prepare intercultural experts.
The test consists of 5 different parts: awareness, attitude, skills, knowledge and language proficiency.
I found quite simple to self-evaluate in the sections knowledge and language proficiency, maybe because they’re the most objective ones and because I’m aware of what I know and I’m able to do. I mean, it’s not new for me to self-evaluate my language proficiency or my knowledge of another culture because I’ve done similar activities, such as the European Language Portfolio and the PLE.
On the other hand, I found harder to self-evaluate my awareness, my attitude and my skills. Most of the questions were aspects I had never considered before. For example how my social identity is perceived by the host culture and within my culture.
Even the distinction of four different levels for each section is very useful:
Educational traveller
Sejourner
Professional
Intercultural/ Multicultural Specialist
I’ve always reached the third level, sometimes the fourth. It’s quite good, isn’t it?!? J
YOGA is a very useful tool because it shows you where your deficiencies are. Once you know your problems you can set your objectives to solve them! That’s the only way to improve. What do you think about it? Let me know…
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