1.6 Learning review

Read the short case study and answer the questions. Note down the answers in your learning journal.

Tom, a postgraduate philosophy student, and his German roommate Christian go to the cafeteria. Suddenly Christian notices that his cafeteria card is not charged and asks Tom whether he can borrow 3 Euro from him. Tom doesn’t have a problem with this, so he gives his friend the money and both go and eat together. When they have finished, Christian immediately goes to the bank and withdraws money, so that he can give it back to Tom. Tom is surprised. He was happy to give his friend the money, and he definitely didn’t want it back. But Christian insists and makes Tom accept the money. Tom is disappointed and from now on prefers to go to the cafeteria with other friends.

Source: Translated and adapted from the research project "Mehrsprachigkeit und Multikulturalität im Studium" (Multilingualism and multiculturalism in studies / higher education, MuMis project, 2011)

Answer the following questions in your learning journal:

1. If Tom had been living in Germany for a longer time and had experienced that Christian's behaviour is not a singular case but that the majority of his friends here behaved like Christian, how might this influence his thinking and behaviour?
2. If you look into the answer above, which of the ideas we discussed within the concept of open culture is it based on?

Read the short case study and answer the questions. Note down the answers in your learning journal.

Janina, a recently graduated IT student, has been invited to give a short talk at a local consumer electronics conference. At this event she gets into a conversation with a participant at the conference, Seo-jun, who is on his first trip to Germany from South Korea. His knowledge of German is not particularly good, but the two talk to each other intensively and get along well. During the course of the day, they decide to keep in touch and exchange their business cards. First Seo-jun takes his business card out of a silver case and gives it to Janina. Janina then begins to look for the business cards that she had printed a long time ago for such cases. She reaches into her back pocket and takes out her wallet. The card is a bit bent, and Janina comments on this with a laugh when it is handed over. Despite this, the card is still easy to read. Seo-jun, who was previously friendly and open-minded, is suddenly visibly reserved and becomes quieter and quieter. This irritates Janina. She senses something is wrong, but she doesn't know what.

Source: Translated and adapted from the research project "Mehrsprachigkeit und Multikulturalität im Studium" (Multilingualism and multiculturalism in studies / higher education, MuMis project, 2011)

Answer the following questions in your learning journal:

1. Let us review the answers you gave to the questions in the beginning of this session. When you guessed the interpretations of Seo-jun's and Janina's behaviour, were they based on an open or closed concept of culture?
2. What could be the danger of viewing this case solely from a closed-concept perspective?

Read the short case study and answer the questions. Note down the answers in your learning journal.

Jane, an American student, spends a year at a German university. She finds it particularly difficult to contact German lecturers. In America you can speak to your lecturers at anytime and anywhere and when you do, they take a lot of time for each issue that you might have, while in Germany you have to make appointments with the lecturers or go to their consultation hours. Jane needs a lot of help with her first term paper, so she tries to ask her lecturer questions about writing the term paper at every opportunity. But the lecturer is usually in a hurry and asks her to come to his consultation hour. However, even during the consultation, Jane has the impression that the time for the consultation is relatively limited, because there are many other students waiting in front of the door of the office who also want to have their turn. This causes Jane to be briefer than she actually intended. At the same time she is disturbed by the time pressure she feels.

Source: Translated and adapted from the research project "Mehrsprachigkeit und Multikulturalität im Studium" (Multilingualism and multiculturalism in studies / higher education, MuMis project, 2011)

Answer the following questions in your learning journal:

1. To review some of the principles we discussed in this session, let us take another look at your answer to question 2 from the first series of questions about this case in the prelude ("What might be reasons for the lecturer to behave the way he does?") Knowing now about the open concept of culture, would you change your answer?
2. How can this answer help Jane in this situation?