September 22, 2012

4+1 in 1

4+1 in 1: CCCC+F-- Cultural exchanges, Conflict resolution, Collaboration and Confidence+ Friendship cultivated from WYM 2012


Institute of Technology of Cambodia
I

UK Sovannara
t is a cliché to say that the greatest success will be derived through cooperation rather than conflict, and I can’t agree with it more. It is completely right that, in this globalized era, we, as human beings, have to learn to live harmoniously together by giving and assimilating each other’s way of life and do work together without any prejudice or racism. Yet, there is a question asking that “Is it an easy task to bound people from various parts of the world, whose ways of life are entirely different, together?” Optimistically, my answer is “Yes, we can if we work together as a community.” How?  One of the opportunities to cultivate those things is through participating in the World Youth Meeting 2012 (WYM 2012), a program which gives a unique chance for youths from all around the world to interact and learn from each other and develop their mindsets on the world. During my exposure in the event WYM 2012, I have gained a lot of things I had never undergone before, five of which are cultural exchanges, conflict resolution, a sense of international collaboration, self-confidence and friendship.
1.        

              Cultural Exchanges

No one in this world leads their life without interacting with others unless they are in the rock. In the other word we can say that, deliberately or unintentionally, it is inevitable that they, at least, articulate or use their body language to communicate when they need or want to offer something. This is communication. Likewise, living together under the same roof with people of different cultural backgrounds while participating in WYM 2012, I have interacted with and learned new things from them. During the preparation period and the WYM 2012 days, we, participants of WYM 2012, were supposed to stay together, so we have overcome many different things. For instance, I stayed with a participant from the Philippines, a participant from the same country as mine, Cambodia, and fives other Japanese participants. At first, it was really difficult for us to communicate with one another because we were raised in different cultures; we were afraid of offending each other when we were not sure of each other’s perspectives and cultures. But later then we got to know each other well when we tried to open our hearts and told one another about our cultures and way of life. By doing this, we could assimilate into new culture without any culture shock. Moreover, during my stay in Japan, I have also joined a Japanese festival called Heiwa Bon Odori. My Japanese friends, the Pilipino friend, Cambodian friend and I danced and enjoyed Japanese music and firework together. It was really amazing to come into Japanese culture.

Japanese Dance on 9th August at NFU


Living together with foreign friends


2.       Conflict Resolution

It is no doubt that people whose cultures and fundamental perspectives on the world are different encounter some conflicts while living together. But what is of most important is to be able to deal with those differences successfully and peacefully. My group members and I also had some different ideas about the content of our presentation, but we were able to handle it by choosing win-win solution as a means to accomplish our goal. Win-win solution? What is it? Well, actually, not until I attended the intercultural interaction and presentation session did I got the idea of Win-win solution. Win-win solution, offered by Professor Shinsuke YOSHIDA, was the fifth strategy in Dual Concern Model introduced by Thomas, 1992. In this strategy, both parties are satisfied to achieve their goal without spoiling their interest or relationship. Indeed, I hadn’t any faintest idea about how to avoid conflict while getting more benefits from it simultaneously like this. I always used Compromising strategy or even Avoiding strategy in order to avoid conflict. On the other side of the coin, after applying Win-win strategy, the prosperous outcome has been produced. We could resolve all of the problems we were facing without any mutual misunderstanding.
3.       Collaboration

It was by no means that our group achievement was accomplished if without our collaboration. Since before arriving in Japan, we wholeheartedly tried to exchange our ideas via Skype, e-mail and Facebook as well as to learn about each other’s characteristics. We also conducted questionnaires, in which 148 Japanese students at Nihon Fukushi University and 100 Cambodian students at Royal University of Phnom Penh and Institute of Technology of Cambodia were asked to express their ideas relating to the topic we were going to present, in order to enrich our presentation content. It was not easy to collect data in our universities because most of Cambodian students were on vacation in August, but we tried in any ways in order to reach our respondents from which required information were obtained. Ultimately, we could attain our goal by obtaining data from 100 students as we had expected. However, our mission was still not yet completed because the coherence, cohesion and unity of our presentation outline were still ambiguous, so we needed to pay more attention discussing and finding an appropriate solution to maximize the meaning of our presentation. Amongst all of the problems we faced, time constraint also worried us. We were supposed to deliver our speech in 7 minutes, but our presentation outline seemed to be 12 or 13 minutes. We tried to discuss with our group members and we, finally, reached a unanimous idea that each of us had to cut our parts and mad it shorter but remained the same meaning. Still, we could not make it short enough to be finished in only 7 or 8 minutes. Fortunately, we were informed that we were allowed to finish our speech in 10 minutes. We were over the moon upon hearing like that because we somehow have successfully made our first step towards our destination. Later then, it was our time to practice. We spent time practicing together by giving chance to each member deliver their speech and we, whose turn was not yet reached, were supposed to be judges and to give feedback to our friend.  We cooperatively worked with tireless effort and with an equal sense of responsibility. In addition to the above mention, we also asked our friends from other group to give feedback on our speech. 
 

4.       Confidence

Not only have I leaned about the values of different cultures, how to resolve conflict in a peaceful manner and about the significances of international collaboration, but self-confidence, a very strong, golden key used for breaking down the barrier of fear and nervousness, have also been built up in me as a person. The time before and after participating in WYM 2012 was markedly different. As a matter of fact, I was previously so nervous that I hardly expressed my thought, talked my mind and even delivered my speech to people in public. I always kept my opinion deep in the bottom of my heart even when I was asked to express. But WYM 2012 has changed me a lot. It is nothing new to say that everything changes, and so have I. I have been changed to a better person, from a diffident person to a confident one. As mentioned earlier, I attended intercultural interaction and presentation session, which made me much more confident in my own ability to speak in public. I was encouraged by professors as well as my fellow men to share my thought and express myself. Moreover, that I learnt the tips to make a better presentation encouraged me to be confident. As I remember, Professor Gary Kirkpatrick said that to make a better presentation, one had to be well prepared which meant that preparation, and preparation and more preparation made perfect. Besides the above reasons, we were also motivated by WYM itself—I mean on the first day of the event, we were the audiences watching other groups’ presentations, and we were moved by their best delivery both on content and presentation skill. Due to this this fact, my group members and I cooperatively worked to achieve our goal, and that we were ready to make the presentation made us feel so confident when standing on the stage delivering the speech to hundreds of people. And finally, we could accomplish what we had hoped for.        
                                                                        

5.       Friendship

According to Encarta dictionary, the word “Friendship” means a relationship between two or more people who are friends. Before participating in WYM 2012, I hoped to make friends across borders. And now my expectation has been accomplished. I have made many good, new friends from various countries in Asia such as Japan, Cambodia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan. If asked how it was going, I would say there were no words whose meanings were adequately used to describe it. It was a rare occasion to meet and make new friends like this. It is generally believed that relationship will not exist if two or more people do not know each other and spend time doing things or enjoying together. Due to this fact, WYM 2012 arranged a trip to Ise Shrine in order that all participants, both from oversea and from Japan, could have a chance to get to know each other well within a hospitable atmosphere. Confucius, a famous Chinese philosopher in the history, once said that a journey of one thousand miles began with a single step, and I said that the excursion to Ise shrine was the first step of our eternal friendship. We were chit-chatting while enjoying the breath-taking view in the immediate vicinity of the Ise shrine together, and that was the starting point of our friendship.
Far more than this, we also had enough time to strengthen our relationship. Before the presentation designated day, we got together in Mihama seminar house in order to absorb the knowledge of how to avoid conflict and make a great presentation lectured by professors and have time for practicing our presentation with our group members. At that point, we grew more confident to communicate with not only our group members but also other participants. We helped give feedback to each other and learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses. 

Conclusion


In conclusion, the benefits obtained from WYM 2012 are unique and invaluable. From my own experiences getting involved in various activities while joining the program WYM 2012, I have come to believe that cultural exchanges, the skill of conflict resolution, the sense of international collaboration, self-confidence, and eternal friendship cultivated from WYM 2012 can create golden opportunities for my personal growth, and even maybe for my professional growth in the near future. I hope that this event will grow bigger and bigger in order to open the door for youths around the world to understand the significance of international cooperation. I also hope to join this event again on the next coming year. “Learn together, and then we grow together.”

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