Cultural Exchange meet-ups in Halle, Germany

By The Excellence Center In Europe / In Internship in Germany

Cultural Exchange meet-ups in Halle, Germany

The Excellence Center in Halle, Germany holds cultural exchange events twice a month, welcoming locals from Halle to interact in an international environment. Both newcomers and regulars are friends of the center.

Our first cultural exchange of May was held on the first Friday of the month. The participants included volunteers and permanent staff of the center, 2 Syrian refugees, several Germans, and other internationals.

Conversation

The evening event began with introductions and chatting. Everyone talked about their experience of living in or visiting Halle as something they had in common.

The challenge of racism in Germany was also discussed. These evenings are an opportunity to speak, listen and be listened to in an open way. Open dialogue is promoted as a key part of interaction at the Excellence Center.

Interesting words from 7 different languages

The main activity of the cultural exchange was as follows. The group was split into 2, and each group had to come up with as many words as possible in different languages that would be interesting to discuss and teach to others.

All group members then wrote and explained several words they learnt that evening on the Excellence Center’s old fashioned chalk board. This had an educational purpose of improving participants language skills, verbal skills, and their diversified cultural knowledge as well as being a sociable event.

Learning vocabulary can often seem banal and methodical when it is piled up, so the Excellence Center came up with a more stimulating way to achieve this. It has been proven that it is easier to memorize something when it has an association with something else in your brain; the idea was to connect the words learned with the person who taught them and the chalkboard to cement them in participants’ memory.

A lot of the words discussed were for specific dialects, making them new for all members of the group. People got excited at the opportunity to share a part of the unique vernacular of their smaller community.

One attendee of the evening who has spent an extended period of time in Peru revealed that “La papa” is the commonly used version of “la patata” in South America, translated to potato. A local former university student of Halle explained that “Meiner” is a friendly way of addressing a friend in Halle. “Meiner” can be translated to “my guy” in English, or “Husti” in Arabic.

The ambiance of the cultural exchange

People laughed over struggling to pronounce or remember certain words, bonded over sharing parts of their culture, and enjoyed learning some useful and humorous phrases.

The cultural exchange was an opportunity to taste foods which originate from all throughout the world. Snacks included pistachio Turkish delight, Italian cake, Arabic coffee and apples.

Education about Ramadan

The evening finished warmly with an educational session about Ramadan as the religious festival runs this month. Every member contributed what they knew about Ramadan to the group. Some people knew more and some knew less so, but every contribution was valued. This activity was carried out in the interest of increasing cultural understanding and consideration of those practicing Ramadan right now.

Final remarks

Everyone learnt something this evening, whether it was that the dates of Ramadan are determined by the moon’s placement, that Amico is the Italian word for friend, or the name of a new person.

Rafat Shantir, co-founder of the Excellence Center in Halle, comments that he was elated at the turn out and the engagement of people.