absolutely intercultural 83 +++ experience of studying and working in Germany +++ stereotypes +++ International Fair +++

Lubica at RheinAhrCampus

absolutely fresh:
When I speak to my students about planning a semester abroad one of my first tasks is usually to make them figure out strategically, what would be better for them– studying at one of our partner universities or doing an internship in a company abroad? Both options have their advantages. Today, I am speaking to Lubica Kuboveova who spent her last semester at RheinAhrCampus. She actually did both at the same time – studying and working abroad. I asked her how she managed to combine studying and working in Germany during her semester abroad and she tells us about her experiences. Lubica points out an important opportunity that she had when she came over. She could make a fresh start as nobody in the new place knew her before – and this allowed her to try out a fresh role in life.

absolutely unprepared:
What do students need to work on before they spend time in another culture?
Ellen Rana and Erin from America suggest that knowing some of the stereotypes about the country that you are going to visit helps you as long as you are prepared to break the stereotypes as soon as you see evidence that they are not true. The stereotypes help you know a little more about the culture that you visit but they also make you reflect about your own culture.

absolutely disciplined:
During our International Week on campus I asked Prof. Mert Cubukcu, a guest professor of town planning from our Turkish partner university why he recommends Germany as a destination for his students. He thinks that the mixture of different cultures in Germany but also the strictly defined discipline of life is an attitude that is not so easy to find in other countries.

The next show will be coming to you on 29 May from Anne Fox in Denmark.

So long…stay tuned!

The host of this show is: Dr. Laurent Borgmann
Editor: Jan Warnecke

absolutely intercultural 31 +++ International Week @ RheinAhrCampus +++ Study abroad +++ Where is Lithuania heading? +++

International Week at RheinAhrCampus – Study abroad – Where is Lithuania heading?


For one week each year we celebrate the international and intercultural aspects of the University of Applied Science Koblenz, this year again with support from the DAAD initiative Go Out!. Every year we invite guests from our partner universities and experts who give presentations for our students about studying or working abroad. However, this time, there were not only students from our own university, but also Agnes Dus from Corvinus University in Budapest in Hungary, and Johan Olsson from Umea University in Sweden. Agnes and Johan were our roving reporters for this week, and they ran from one location to another, always looking for good opportunities to interview people and find out about their international and intercultural experiences.

absolutely studentlike

For our first column they have interviewed three students about their intercultural experiences and plans. Isabelle for example talks about different cultural ways how people do business, and Daniel tells us how his stay in Singapore has changed his life and why you shouldn’t trust too much what you can learn from books about intercultural behaviour.

absolutely experienced
For the second column Johan spoke to Professor Patrick McMahon from the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education. He turned around the perspective and asked him, what he as a lecturer can learn from international students and what has changed most in the British student culture since he was a student himself.

absolutely lithuanian
Agnes met Ruta Jankauskiene from the University of Kaunas. Ruta will give us an insight on the Lithuanian perspective on international exchanges and where her country is heading.
absolutely lifelong
And last but not least we are proud to present a new column “absolutely lifelong” where we will share good ideas to organise your own life long learning. Today’s contribution has been produced by Anne Knopf and Gereon Reuter, two of our students at RheinAhrCampus. They will give you some good advice on how you can improve your English in a realistic way and have a lot of fun at the same time.
Here are the links:

Announcements
Anne Fox will give a talk/workshop on “Using Podcasts in the EFL classroom” at 20:00 GMT on May 19th. Please go to wiaoc.org to find out more about this event.

Karsten Kneese will participate in a panel about “The future of educasts” at 5 pm on June 20th for the Podcastday 2007.

The next show will be coming to you on the 1st of June from Anne Fox in Denmark.

So long…stay tuned!

The host of this show is: Dr. Laurent Borgmann

Edited and co-hosted by: Karsten Kneese

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