Italian Cross Cultural Understanding

　In the Cross Cultural Understanding (異文化理解) class of the Department of Liberal Arts for Career Development (CE), a special guest joined the Seibo students for two weeks. Her name is Anna Lodan, and she is an exchange student from Italy.
 
　After an introduction of Anna’s home country of Italy, the CE students participated in communicative activities with her. One activity was practicing various forms of eye contact from around the world while speaking. The students paired with Anna tried their best to communicate in all English while keeping good eye contact!

 
　Another activity was discussing different gestures used around the world. Anna showed examples of gestures from Italy, and the CE students tried to guess their meanings. Then, they taught Anna common gestures used in Japan. The CE students were surprised to see the different meanings in gestures for words such as “delicious” and “what are you talking about?”
 
　The activities with Anna were not just limited to the classroom. Before class, two CE students showed her around Sakura no Seibo Junior College, and after class other students ate lunch with her in the cafeteria. Spending time with someone from another country was a valuable experience for CE students, not just to practice their language skills but also to gain an understanding of their peers from around the world.
 
　We thank Anna for visiting our school and we look forward to seeing her again!