Fresh Eyes for New Cultures

A friend of mine went to Dominican Republic for a visit. When asked upon his return what he thought of the country, he said, "It was a beautiful country, but there were a lot of foreigners there." It made me wanna say,  "Uh. Yeah. YOU were one of the foreigners, dude."

An immature and uninformed person may dismiss the meaning-making practices of other cultures as "strange," without bothering to examine them as clues to understanding that culture. What a loss of learning opportunities. View the TED Talk by Derek Sivers: "Weird, or just different?" and contemplate your own cross-cultural experience. Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different? | Video on TED.com


What practices or customs have you encountered that seemed "weird" to you? What did these practices reveal to you about the culture? Feel free to post your insights throughout the term.

CLAM Hits Clemson's OIA YouTube Channel

Many of the videos from CLAM students studying abroad have been posted on Clemson's Office of International Affairs YouTube Channel. The exceptional work of our CLAM students is getting international exposure through this channel. Check it out!

Around the World in 80 jpgs, mpgs, avis, etc.

Most students from the pilot program of Cultural Literacies Across Media have posted their final digital projects (or links to them) on their blogs. (Check out the links to students' blogs at the right of this frame.) The remaining projects will be available soon, as well.

CLAM students will display their work via "Digital Posters" at the Study Abroad Welcoome Back Reception on September 22 in the Flour Daniel Atrium on the campus of Clemson University. (See invitation here.) Several students will be on-hand to talk about their photography, videography, digital editing and other aspects of their cultural engagement.

Students are also joining the Facebook Group "Clemson University Study Abroad" to discuss their experiences. Plans are in the works for a related YouTube Channel as well. I encourage you to view the students' projects in some of these media (blogs, YouTube, Facebook, at the Study Abroad Reception, etc.) and learn more about their experience in the Study Abroad Program and in Cultural Literacies Across Media.

(image courtesy of AarinFreePhoto.com)

Bootcamp Ends!

Congratulations to all our CLAM students for successfully completing the intensive pre-trip classes. Each student showed amazing progress toward integrating cultural awareness and compositional ideas with new media technologies. And now... the real learning begins!

The blog links in the right column will reveal the ongoing engagement of our students in the cultures of their host programs. Across the next few months, and around the world, these blogs will describe CLAM student's understanding, discovery and integration of new cultural awareness.

So, students... go ahead, blog your experiences with photos, video, diary entries, interviews, news clips and other artifacts. We will be watching!