Introduction
Welcome. This is a professional portfolio focused on showcasing my progress and development throughout this course at KPU. I'll also give you a brief walkthrough of my personal experience with Cultures and provide some of my Reflections and takeaways from experience.
What is Intercultural Engagement?
Many of you already engage with other cultures outside of your own every day. GLBL 2000 provides a toolset for approaching day-to-day experiences and the values of Culture to our personal development and encouraging diversity in the workplace and at an Organization Level.
Collaborative International Online Learning (COIL)
This semester, students from both Kwantlen and the University of Monterey participated in a set of projects called "COIL" to enhance our real-world intercultural skill-set through collaborative projects that started small with cultural artifacts and personal introductions, reinforcing the Cultural Iceberg Model developed by Edward Hall and transitioning into a much larger collaboration in our Intercultural Interview, which included set of magnet topics allowed us to bring some of the less visible elements of culture to the surface. For our final collaboration we worked together on a presentation of Sustainable Development Goals, which brought awareness to the dynamics of intercultural teams, leadership and the importance of cultural understanding. This joint project and my course work earned me the Access to Global Learning Award at KPU this year.
Personal Introductions
In the first of three collaborative projects, team members each brought a “cultural artifact” and a infographic showcasing their strengths and personality.
Intercultural Interview
Our Intercultural Interview sought to challenge the Cultural Iceberg in the era of virtual communication and Social Media Platforms. “Magnet Topics” allowed us to ask each other hot topic questions to expose layers of less-visible Culture.
UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals
For our final collaborative project, our group researched and completed a response to the “Zero Hunger” initiative and presented our findings in-class.
Throughout the course, we were asked to complete five assigned journals that contribute to the personal portfolio you are reading right now. In hindsight, some of the topics could have been better explored had we finished all topics before completing responses. Still, it helps to properly document some of the takeaways related to my personal experiences. Those takeaways will enable me to structure ongoing personal development related to working in Intercultural settings, both professional and academic.
What’s Next?
That's a great question. Learning has never been a limited process. I’m a great person to ask. Since graduating high school, I’ve attended three language schools, three universities and spent those ten years continuously learning. I now recognize I hold a great privilege in having had the financial support and means. Culture is no exception to this ideology. So head on over to my Development Plans, where I’ll talk about some of my targets and goals for the foreseeable future related to Intercultural discipline.
About Me
Kesen is an Asian Studies major at KPU. After completion of High School, he participated in a Working Holiday programme in Japan for one year and became hooked on Asia. After completing a two-year intensive pre-college study at Hiroo Japanese Center, Kesen continued to work in Japan for several years and became interested in Taiwan and Taiwanese Culture only to do the exact and complete Mandarin Language Studies NTU Taiwan. His particular interests within Asian Studies include Cross-Strait Relations, Queer Identities in East Asia and studies of Transnational Media Formats.