TAMK staff members learned new intercultural communication skills

For the last session participants brought some items reflecting 

their learning process of intercultural communication.

In the end of spring semester TAMK organized a course of Intercultural Communication to TAMK staff members working in multicultural environment.  The participants of the course were from all around TAMK: teachers from different fields and people from Research & Development, Admission office, International Services, etc. 

The objective of the course was to focus on how people from diverse cultures and with different communication styles come together to work and communicate with each other. 

The class room was full of vibrant discussions about participants’ own experiences. The teacher of the course, Dr. Irja Pietilä was giving small exercises, leading the conversation and explaining the main theories of the Intercultural Communication.

To me personally, the most valuable thing during the course was to share experiences and to understand them in the theoretical context.  I got some useful tools to process and to understand the situations that I’m facing in my work. 

The main topics of the course were the intercultural awareness, interaction, factors influencing intercultural communication situations and adaptation. Deeper understanding of these kinds of subjects is really important when working in a multicultural environment, like TAMK is. 

Text and photo: Kaisa Merilahti, International Services