Apr 13

Apr 13 How to Make Cross-Cultural Events Successful

Now that we can have more in-person events, your organization might be thinking about having a cross-cultural event. Cross-cultural events tend to celebrate surface-level culture, but a successful cross-cultural event celebrates both surface-level and below-the-surface-level culture. Different activities can be done at cross-cultural events to celebrate both levels of culture.

Hall’s ‘Iceberg Model of Culture’

Culture can be divided into two parts. According to the Iceberg Model of Culture, created by Edward T. Hall, “culture has two components and […] only about 10% of culture (external or surface culture) is easily visible; the majority, or 90%, of culture (internal or deep culture), is hidden below the surface.” [1] He used the idea of an iceberg to explain this. You can go to this link to learn more about the Iceberg Model of Culture.

Surface-level Culture

The surface-level culture is the top part of the iceberg and is the part of the culture that you can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. Surface-level culture is explicitly learned. People are conscious of it. It is easily changeable and is objective knowledge.

Below-the-surface Culture

The below-the-surface-level culture is the bottom part of the iceberg. This part of culture relates to your values, beliefs, and concepts. It is implicitly learned, and people are often unconscious of it. It is difficult to change, and it is subjective knowledge. Below-the-surface-level culture can deal with things such as gender views, concepts of time, concepts of personal space, and understandings of authority, just to name a few.

If you want to fully understand a certain culture, then you need to learn about the below-the-surface-level part of the culture. Celebrating and learning about below-the-surface-level culture is rarely done at cross-cultural events, but it can be done, and it can make your event more successful. Activities that celebrate the below-the-surface-level culture that you can do at your next cross-cultural event are storytelling, conversation starters, and games.

Storytelling

Storytelling is a way for participants to learn about both levels of culture. Storytelling can be done in different ways. It can be done more actively, where participants take turns telling their stories. The story can also be connected to a surface-level piece of the culture. For example, if each participant brought a favorite dish to share, then the participants can tell a story related to the dish that reflects more of their below-the-surface culture. Or if the participants wear a cultural piece of clothing, they can tell a story about their piece of clothing. Stories can also be told through displayed poems or art pieces. Stories can be submitted ahead of time and made into a book to give away at the event. Sharing stories celebrates both levels of culture.

Conversation starters

Another activity that you can incorporate into your event to celebrate both levels of culture is conversation starters. There are different ways to incorporate conversation starters. One way to incorporate conversation starters is by placing them on the table, either in the middle of the table as a centerpiece or at each person’s place setting. If you want to get creative, you can even have conversation starters inside a gift or cookie. Some ideas for conversation starters can be found at this link and this link. Participants can have deep conversations over a shared meal and can learn more about each other’s culture. The conversation starters can aid them.

Games

Games can also be a fun way to dive deep and learn more about below-the-surface-level culture and can be easily added to your next cross-cultural event. There are different games you can play. You can play table games or games where participants get up and move around. Two ideas for games can be Bingo or Would You Rather. More ideas for games can be found at this link. Skot Welch also has a book called 101 Ways to Enjoy the Mosaic: Creating a Diverse Community in Your Own Backyard, which has many ideas. Another idea is to have the participants at a table play together as a team. The Peace Corps website has a worksheet called Culture Features that the people at the table could work together to fill out. Here is the link to the worksheet. Most activities can be made into games, just make sure that the goal of the game is for the participants to learn more about each other’s culture.

Cross-cultural events can be a fun way for participants to learn more about each other. Often cross-cultural events only touch upon surface-level culture. To have a successful event it is important to have activities that can help participants learn about both levels of culture.

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[1] https://adeaconsmusing.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/151015.ucc_.culture.iceberg.pdf found on https://www.peacecorps.gov/educators/resources/culture-iceberg/.