On December 7 and 9, Communication Arts Professor Nathalie Desrayaud and her students in Intercultural Communication held a Travel Fair to showcase students’ final projects. The projects, detailed travel guides on various countries around the world, allowed guests from FIU to tour the projects showcasing different cultures and customs. Throughout the semester, the students learned how culture influences communication, explored verbal and nonverbal communication patterns of different cultures, and discussed the interrelatedness of global issues, trends, and systems. This was the third year the class hosted a Travel Fair for FIU.
As part of the course and to build on global awareness, student groups spent weeks researching and analyzing different countries around the world in order to create travel guides on various international destinations. The project focused on various customs and travel tips, country demographics, destinations, interesting facts, and ways of communicating in different countries. Some of the destinations presented were Germany, South Africa, Israel, and Taiwan.
“This project allowed us to be creative and get a deeper understanding of other cultures around the world. It challenged us to think differently,” said Chelsea Hudson, Communication Arts student.
The Intercultural Communication course is part of the Global Medallion curriculum designed to enhance global awareness, global perspective, and promote an attitude of global engagement in FIU’s World Ahead graduates.
The course focuses on the unique relationship between communication and culture building on creating global engagement and awareness. Students learn how to build and maintain relationships across cultures by developing culture-specific and generic communication skills, by better understanding variations in cultural perspectives, by minimizing biased viewpoints, and by developing research skills to continue learning about other cultures. For more information on Communication Arts’ courses, please visit: http://carta.fiu.edu/comm-arts/academics/course-offerings/
