4+1 in 1: CCCC+F-- Cultural exchanges, Conflict
resolution, Collaboration and Confidence+ Friendship cultivated from WYM 2012
Institute of Technology of Cambodia
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.
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| Japanese Dance on 9th August at NFU |
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| Living together with foreign friends |
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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.”
