Young vs Old +++ Learning Cultures and Age +++ Lifelong Learning +++ Absolutely Intercultural 255 +++

Luis from Portugal thinks age makes learning easier

Hello and welcome to show 255 of Absolutely Intercultural. Today’s show is about two different cultures, and they have nothing to do with nationality or geography. We are talking about the culture of young people and old people – and we will focus on learning cultures. Have you ever wondered whether YOU will carry on learning all your life or whether you will stop at some point? Or perhaps there is no age limit to learning? Do you believe in lifelong learning? We interview young and old learners to find out about their learning habits. Our first guest is Dr. Beatrice Blüggel from Germany, who is the director of a large adult education institution. Our  second guest, Luis Iglesias, from Portugal is a 29-year-old master student who is currently socializing with younger students during his semester abroad.

Continue reading “Young vs Old +++ Learning Cultures and Age +++ Lifelong Learning +++ Absolutely Intercultural 255 +++”

Hidden Cultures +++ Cultures in Management +++ Empathetic Leadership +++ Absolutely Intercultural 251 +++

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is IMG_81492-684x1024.jpgHello and welcome to show 251 of Absolutely Intercultural, Cultures in Management, coming to you from the beautiful Rheinland in Germany. Today’s show is about the culture of management, where we listen to three managers and how they handle some of the more hidden cultures in their workplace to be effective leaders. Culture can be more than just national or geographical identity, it can be about direct/indirect, female/male, formal/informal, old/young or it can unite people who have the same profession but who all grew up in the same country. You will have certainly encountered some of these yourself throughout life.

Continue reading “Hidden Cultures +++ Cultures in Management +++ Empathetic Leadership +++ Absolutely Intercultural 251 +++”

absolutely intercultural 67 +++ teaching culture +++ South Americans in Germany +++ adult learners +++ women in adult education +++

Mauricio Virgens, Bariton, on his way up
In this episode we are going to have a look at adult education. Anne and I were lucky enough to be invited to the Volkshochschule Rhein-Sieg by Alexandra Haas. We took part in a very stimulating workshop day for trainers inspired by Alexandra’s previous project “Teaching Culture!”.

absolutely learner-oriented:
Mechthild Tillmann, director of the Volkshochschule Rhein-Sieg, reports on 24 different work-shops in which teachers shared ideas about marketing, suggestopedia, podcasting in the classroom and other subjects related to their teaching. Following the idea of “teaching culture” and the “culture of teaching” the institution invited their own teachers to turn into learners and improve their methods.

absolutely bossanovarized:
We listen to Mauricio Virgens from Brazil and Andres Villamil from Columbia, two South American musicians who played music for us, and “bossanovarized” our busy lives a little. Mauricio speaks about his mission as a cultural ambassador for his native country Brazil and tells us how he keeps up his cultural identity through music. Of course, we also get to enjoy a bit of their music.

absolutely enjoyable:
Katrin, one of the new staff at the Volkshochschule Rhein-Sieg, tells us how previous learning experiences of the participants can a be challenge for the teachers. She has noticed that learners seem to expect the same “learning culture” which they got used to when they were learners for the first time – years ago. However, one aspect seems to be important to all learners – that they learn faster if they are having fun.

absolutely gendered:
Evi and Linda both work in adult education and explain to us how adult education creates its own culture. We also hear about their perspectives on gender issues and that adult education, just like health services, appears to attract women with a strong impulse to help.

The next show will be coming to you on 17 October from Anne Fox in Denmark.

Und bleiben Sie schön interkulturell!

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

absolutely intercultural 29 +++ Adult Education +++ Lifelong Learning +++ International Emergency Calls +++

The culture of Adult Education – Lifelong Learning – International Emergency Calls

absolutely grown-up

Lifelong learning is often promoted by institutions of adult education, so for our first column we have interview Ulla and Beate, who both work for adult education institutions. Ulla works for the Folkuniversitetet in Sweden and Beate for Deutscher Volkshochschulverband in Germany. We tried to figure out whether there is a specific culture of adult education, and what makes people want to carry on learning throughout their lives.

absolutely personal
Laurent met his long-time friend and colleague in many European projects Pat Shrimpton, who went from England to Sweden 41 years ago with her husband Neville. She also started her career at the Folkuniversitetet but later on became a teacher at the University of Umea in the very north of Sweden. She talks about how the field of adult education has changed in all those years, and why she won’t move back to England after her retirement this summer.

absolutely on fire
Now, imagine you have just started a new job in a foreign country somewhere in Europe, let’s say Lithuania. At work you mainly speak English, and you haven’t really mastered the Lithuanian language yet. One night you wake up and discover that your house is on fire. You rush to the telephone, dial the emergency number 112 and suddenly realize that the operator at the other end might not understand you. This is where Dieter Nüssler and his wife Helga come in. They have won the European Language Label for the project Multicom112, which tackles exactly that problem.

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.

The next show will be coming to you on the 4th of May 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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