Third Culture Kids with Inter-Cultural Intelligence as their Superpower - Bonus Episode

Listen to stories of three Third Culture Kids (TCKs) growing up outside their home country, with all the challenges and amazing opportunities that come with it.

- Ahmed: Born and raised in Dubai, Ahmed’s home country is Tanzania. He is currently studying at the University of Toronto.
- Maggie: Born in Maryland, USA, Maggie moved to Dubai as a young teen. She studied Human Services at York College in Pennsylvania, and currently is living and working in Delaware, USA.
- Helen: Born and raised in the UAE with a Dutch dad and a South African mom, she is currently in her first year at the University College Roosevelt in the Netherlands.

Unpacking their experiences alongside them is Shelley Reinhart, Director of KnowledgeWorkx Education, who loves weaving cultural agility and education together to help teachers connect with their students.

You want to learn more about Third Culture Kids go to www.knowledgeworkx.education

Listen as these young Inter-Cultural Intelligence Certified Practitioners share their deep insight on cultural agility.  Are you TCK? Apply for a scholarship to develop your own cultural agility here --- http://kwx.fyi/ici-scholarship ---

| In this bonus episode on Third Culture Kids you will hear:

     - The stories of three distinct TCKs using cultural agility to enter diverse careers.

     -  Ways culture affects both teachers and students.

     - Tools for understanding others regardless of ethnicity and nationality. 

Deeper Reading:
-- Wandering the World - A Hopeful Tale (http://kwx.fyi/wandering)
-- http://kwx.fyi/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-tck
-- http://kwx.fyi/from-the-innate-to-the-intellectual 

-- Brought to you by KnowledgeWorkx.com

Transcript

and especially when you're trying to
learn other cultures and understand
other cultures and other people you
don't want to be offensive
and some people kind of hold back with
questions or hold back with certain
different things but with ici
every you know it's safe
you know that you can use that to
understand cultures correctly and
understand without offending anyone
[Music]
welcome to the cultural agility podcast
where we explore the stories of some of
the most advanced intercultural
practitioners from around the world to
help you become culturally agile and
succeed in today's culturally complex
world
i'm your host marco blankenberg
international director of knowledgeworks
where every day we help individuals and
companies achieve relational success in
that same complex world
thank you everybody for coming and
this is our
first time that we're doing a group
podcast recording
and i have some dear friends with me and
colleagues
that we want to have a conversation with
around
the intercultural side of life
so before we dive into it because each
one of you has a fascinating story be
good to introduce ourselves and
to know who's around the table here
okay so i'll start off um i'm helen
and
[Music]
mini backstory born and raised in the
uae i'm still finishing up high school
and
my dad comes from holland my mom's from
south africa so whenever you ask me the
question where are you from just give me
five minutes to process my answers
we'll probably get to that
yeah
so let's just go around the table i
think that's the easiest my name is
shelly reinhardt and i work with marco
here at knowledge works and i am the
director of knowledge works education
and i love
weaving intercultural intelligence and
education and teachers and them
understanding their students
so that's my my passion awesome
my name is ahmed amsuya i was born and
raised in the uae as well but originally
i'm from tanzania both my parents are
from tanzania and currently i'm studying
at university of toronto awesome
hi i'm maggie rinehart and i was born in
maryland in the united states and i grew
up there for a while and then i moved to
dubai when i was going into ninth grade
i've moved back to the united states i'm
going to school at york college of
pennsylvania and i'm studying human
services fantastic wow colorful group of
people
and it sounds like there's one thing
that we have in common here in that we
live internationally interculturally
and
ahmed and helen you've you're actually
born into an intercultural context
and
i would love to hear a little bit more
about that now there's a term that
floats around the internet called tck
third culture kid or when the kid grows
up it becomes a tcp
the culture person
but what is that for you and and in
which way are you quote unquote third
culture kid or third culture person any
of you
i think for me um
i did most of my growing as a person in
high school and since that was in the
uae i think that has definitely shaped
me to be a tck
i think for me i've always been exposed
to a lot of different you know cultures
uh living in dubai for my whole life and
everything and having the influence from
my parents and their tanzanian culture
that's brought on to me but also the
influence of religion because religion
is a lot like another really big part of
my culture being a muslim but also
because i've had a lot of different
friends from different backgrounds as
well uh i used to live in a different
house where it was primarily a lot of uh
indians and southeast asians
from that kind of background
and then i kind of moved to another
place where it's predominantly arabs in
my neighborhood so i was always exposed
to a lot of different kinds of people
and i think that's what kind of helps me
progress as a tck or a tcp
yeah i have to agree with that because
like as you're exposed to so many
different cultures you kind of are like
a chameleon because because they have to
adapt and like
change and so on so for me that's the
first thing that comes to mind when i
hear tck
so
you you're all giving some examples of
being a tck
growing up in a culture that is a mixed
bag of many different cultural
expressions
can you recall any stories that might
illustrate how mixed that is and what
that looks like
i remember one time because growing up
in the uae they have this term called
you have a dubai accent because you know
depending on who you're talking to your
accent changes and i remember one time i
was hanging out with a lot of egyptian
friends of mine
and at one point my friend turned to me
and said helen like you're starting to
sound like us you speak like an arab now
like you're using the same phrases
so then i was like oh i i just i never
realized that i was doing that so that's
just one funny story that i
picked up
so if i if i hear you
that ability to blend in adapt
is something that you just do yeah you
just i think you just naturally do it
without you know being aware and then
once you actually go to classes for
example that explain this stuff you're
like wait a second i already know this
like it's just natural
that's correct so very agile
i think for me you said something about
like accents and everything right but
for me it was more about tiny little
gestures as well so um i was i had this
other like after-school activity where
it's like extra math or something like
that and a lot of my friends again like
i said they were they're indian and um
they always used to whenever they were
saying yes they shake their head a
little bit and so i kind of started
picking it up as well and one day i got
back home and uh my mom had asked me if
i had taken out the garbage or done uh
all my chores and i responded with the
little head shake and she's like uh
where'd you pick that up from like oh it
must have been for for my friends at
after school and then again there
whenever i'd come to school i'd sound a
little bit more arab than i would be
when i'd be at home and i kind of picked
things like like that up and kind of
just progress from there
great example
um i have a kind of an accent story so
um a few summers ago i came back to the
united states and i saw my best friends
who have been my best friends you know
forever and they were like maggie you
sound so different and i was like what
do you mean and they're like you do not
you don't sound arab but you don't sound
american
oh uh i don't know i guess it just you
know happens and then i stay in the u.s
for two days and it's gone and then i
just have a regular american accent
again
so it's again adapting fast and blending
in with your environment
that's great
now when when growing up in that context
you know there's all kinds of people are
saying oh
you know that must be difficult or you
know you're not surrounded by your own
people
but can you think of of things that you
really enjoyed about that that
multicultural multi-colored mix of
people around you
what was the fun experience positive
experience uh i don't know if i have
like any specific examples perceived but
kind of we already touched on it a
little bit um i think just being able to
go between many different friend groups
that was something that i i really
valued and i think that was only
possible because i was a tck like maybe
i'd have one friend group that didn't
necessarily agree with the other but for
me it was easy to interact with them and
then easily switch over to the other one
whenever i felt like it and i thought
that that was really nice you know i got
to meet a lot more people see a lot more
different things different perspectives
and
yeah yeah i kind of agree on that
because i remember in school i would
always have like a group of friends who
were mostly indian or something and the
other group of friends who were like
more western and i would always be the
one in between having to sort out my
busy schedule as a you know 10 year old
girl like oh i'll sit with you guys
break time and then you guys don't have
time and i remember i was always that
person as well where if someone was
having childhood like helen this person
i'd always have to like solve the
problem for them so i was like always in
between persons it's a bit of mediation
there yeah cultural mediation
i think it also helps as well with
teachers i think
a lot of teachers have different
teaching styles and they come from
different backgrounds and everything and
for like a lot of people if you've only
known one sort of teaching style or
based on whatever culture they're from
it's hard to kind of switch
between different people but for me i
found that a little bit more easier
because i guess because of my background
yeah
so
what did you appreciate about growing up
in in a multicultural context um moving
to the u.s it was hard at first to kind
of
understand
how to be a regular american and does it
exist
i know people say it does danger
and um i didn't really want to stick out
you know as not a regular american but
the more you know i would talk to people
and everything
you know you just can't fit in to the
point where okay i'm a regular american
so you just kind of roll with it and you
just go with it and i didn't really
appreciate that i had those abilities
until i moved to the us and really got
to work with them and really like show
people them
so in a way i guess it's good that i
wasn't really
accepted into the regular american kind
of stereotype
so i was able to use my skills yeah and
we'll come back to that a bit more later
on as well
but
several of you touched on friendship
and friendship is a big thing in terms
of
growing forming yourself forming your
own identity
some people say that having such a mixed
environment around you
is confusing
in terms of who you are or who you want
to become
i see you nodding but
is there
is that true
um
how do you deal with it
how i kind of think of it is so i came a
little later into the tck game and world
but
it was hard to
kind of
merge into that world but then when you
do everyone is so different and everyone
is so
unique in their own way and with ici we
learned that you need to create culture
when there are opposite cultures and
different cultures you create culture
where you are so once you're in that
diverse world you create culture
together and um that's how i would deal
with it ask questions i
in the us you don't really ask as many
questions you kind of just be like okay
but moving here i've been able to ask so
many questions especially about islam
and the arab culture
and it's just been great because now i
have again skills and abilities to be
able to question and to be able to
create culture together when everyone's
different
that's great for me though i don't i
never really saw it as necessarily too
confusing uh being around like a lot of
mix of cultures and i think that's a lot
thanks to my familial influence at home
because
my mom she made sure that
i'd always have these one set of values
where i could always like fall back on
and everything and because i was thought
that that's kind of really ingrained in
my culture i never felt that if i'm
interacting with all these other
different
people from different backgrounds i
could take different things from them
learn from them you know experience
things that i wouldn't have if i haven't
if i never met them but at the same time
i'm keeping my own cultural integrity
but i think that's for me that like i
said it's a lot thanks to my familiar
influence and and that kind of area of
my life yeah i have to agree with you as
well because
yes
in the social aspect it would be kind of
confusing because you never really fit
in anywhere and you can never classify
yourself as either one or the other
you're always a mix but then again you
know having those morals from religion
you always have that that sort of
identity that is completely stable then
with the social for me it took a lot
longer to
really find out who i was in that place
and finding you know how do i fit into
you know these groups of people or you
know how i made to interact with other
people but i find that because it took a
lot longer the moment when i kind of
realized who i was in that aspect it was
a lot more of a strong realization and
more
knowledgeable in the way that i should
and would you know interact with other
people
i'm picking up something that's
fascinating here from all three of you
that there is
in the midst of all these options that
you see around you and all these
different ways of doing things there is
something that sort of anchors you
and that makes it easier to navigate
things so there's always something to
come back to that that holds you angered
um
so i'm curious when when you think about
the
not the philosophical or religious side
of of anchoring your like morals and
values and everything but we think about
the fun stuff maybe quirky crazy stuff
that you do as a family or that you do
regularly with your friends
do you have any examples of like
things that are reoccurring
that you do as a family or that you do
with your friends that is fun stuff that
are bringing back good memories
i think
everyone who knows our family knows oh
the bunker burgers their camp a lot like
every single weekend they all camp so i
think our family's always been the one
that explores like new destinations and
new places and we're always everywhere
and constantly inviting new people over
we're like oh they can come over they
can come over so sometimes there has to
be some restrictions because you can't
have a hundred people come over but
that's just one thing that we're always
doing
[Music]
i guess for me i think i have two things
one of them is uh travel my my family
really likes to travel a lot every
chance we get any vacation we get uh we
like to go to a new place and that's why
we don't necessarily go back to tanzania
as often because we prefer to like see
different cultures see different places
see different sites and i think that
kind of that's something that has
influenced me a lot and the second thing
is it's kind of more frequent every
friday we go to my grandma's house and
we spend lunch with each other and
everything and sometimes we'll play
games or like charades or something like
that or board games or anything and it
kind of lightens up the mood everyone
gets involved my grandpa my grandma
everyone and it's a really comical site
sometimes it gets heated as well we
already with each other you know
uh but yeah it's it's kind of really
refreshing when we have those kind of
outings especially when we're like as a
as a huge family
um and i think that's really it's a good
like setback for the week you know once
that's happened we can all go back to
the rest of our lives it's like reset
yeah exactly yeah
that's great
i think for me um kind of similar to you
helen
people people have always been a part of
our family my if you know my mom
she would talk to anyone anywhere about
anything anytime
so
usually we invite people over and
we just get to know the community
especially our church community
our neighborhood community and that's
always just been a big part so i would
say other people are a part of like
our family and like our family's culture
and activities
yeah you mentioned earlier on like that
you this idea of creating culture is
one of the new things that you've
learned the last few years which alludes
to intercultural intelligence and some
of the things that we
we
teach in the intercultural intelligence
program
so
i just want to shift gears
and i'm curious
how
as a young person how did you get
interested in
intercultural intelligence because it's
one thing to grow up in an intercultural
environment but to actually
systematically study it that's not for
everybody
so how did that start for you and and
how did you end up in in the
intercultural intelligence space well
for me
my mom works at knowledge works and so
she would come home every day at the
dinner table and we would talk and she
would talk about ici and you know her
day at work and working with people and
everything
and of course my rebellious self i was
like yeah like you know it's just my own
thing and then she kind of
gave me these resources and videos of
ici and the world of diversity and
everything and i was like oh okay this
actually seems kind of cool i'll give it
a shot and then i came to training and i
absolutely fell in love with it
and i just
wanted to use it all the time now and i
still want to use it all the time so
that's how i really got into it
uh for me as well uh it was kind of your
mom that kind of
introduced it to me and everything uh
actually remember it was my sister had
come back from school one day and she
told me that oh ahmet you know maggie's
mom has this really cool thing and she
was talking about how she'd love for you
to join it because you're a tck and i
was like uh sure why not there's just
another thing to add
to my day and when we first met uh you
talked to me all about
how it can help you market yourself
understand things about yourself and i
thought that was really interesting
especially uh going forward going into
university and everything and then going
even the rest of my life i thought
that'd be a valuable skill for me just
to have in general and so i just started
the course and ever since i've i've
really enjoyed it yeah
right yeah i'd have to say i'm also a
lot more magnified because of course
marco is my dad so every single night at
the dinner table whether i realized it
or not it would always be the topic of
interest that was discussed
and you know growing up it just
i think it was just part of our normal
language like i thought everybody talked
about it until of course you know you
grow up you get a bit
more knowledge about the world around
you and
i think
also it was going into the training and
was like okay just another you know
probably beneficial thing that i could
you know add to things i've done but
then as i went through it i was like
listening to everybody discussing it and
so on and i love that and the more we
discuss i saw how much it was integrated
into the world and how much it was used
and
how much
of a tool it is for problem solving
which i love i love solving problems and
bringing people together and connecting
it so for me that was like oh that's a
spark i want to continue that
shelly since you are
the instigator
for
i'm just curious as you were starting to
talk about ici to them what what were
you hoping for what what were you
thinking of in terms of their lives
well when i first
was introduced to the three colors
and that simple framework for how to see
the world and understand the world it
just changed
everything and it changed the way i saw
things so i would talk about that
at dinner
you know this is an interesting honor
shame situation this is the world view
that they're viewing this from let's
talk about that and that's how it sort
of and it was starting to sink in they
were starting to see it from from that
lens
and then when i would go to uas which is
sorry universal american school where
i'd sometimes teach and and interact
there i would i would talk about the
three world views and your sister was
really really interested
what do you mean power fear what is that
she just asked lots of questions
and i just i just knew the two of you
would
really connect so just knowing that it's
going it's gonna change the way you see
the world it's going to help you
categorize it and understand it in a way
that's just so helpful
so let's put that to the test okay so
shelley hoped that it would change
the way you see the world fingers
crossed um
did that happen
yes any of the three of them yeah for
sure
yeah definitely i mean i just think it's
so applicable to everything you know
like like you said you started talking
about it at the dinner table and i think
the same sort of thing kind of happened
when i started introducing it to my
family we would always have lunch with
each other and i'd start saying oh
i'd let them tell
uh me about their days you know what
kind of happened and then i'd start
categorizing for them like oh maybe this
is related to honest shame this related
power for your innocent guilt or maybe
you interpreted it this way because we
come from maybe an honest shame
background or an innocent guilt
background or what kind of is
influencing our decisions and i found
that really interesting because when you
think about it it's
there's so many different situations
where when you're thinking about three
color world views you see the situation
differently and you see not only your
own perspective you see another person's
perspective and because of that it's
actually helped me out a lot when i'm
interacting with with people especially
strangers that i never knew
yeah
yeah for me it's definitely like you
know you put on a whole set of new
glasses after living your whole life you
know seeing blurry vision you hear all
the voices and everything but then you
put on the glasses and it all makes
sense and i think
that was just one of the joys where i
was like oh
like light bulb like everything makes
sense now and i understand why this
person might react that way and how i
can you know
interact with them on in a more you know
influential more positive note
which i just love so i definitely see
that everywhere around me
for yeah it's kind of the same for me i
just well at the time when i was
actually taking the course i was
struggling with some people at school i
just didn't understand
why they did this or like why do they
think this way it's so frustrating and
then you know i took the class and i
realized well that's what they've known
their whole life
um
coming from america coming from an
innocent guilt
background it's always okay well what's
right and what's wrong
that's the mindset that i had and
i you know just was frustrated and then
taking this course it really did show me
that
it's not the world is not only innocent
skill that's not how the world should be
viewed
it's viewed with the three different
world views and there's just so much
more to just this one perspective and
that really helps me even talk to the
people at school and view the situation
differently
yeah with the perspective as well like
even just
reading an article for example you know
knowing this you kind of can guess where
this you know journalist or whoever
you know comes from and then i think i
love that as well because it stimulates
you to go research other articles based
around the same topic to get a more
universal and whole
you know story i i really agree with the
like research part as well because when
i started finding out about how some
cultures are more predominantly honor
shame some are more innocent guilt i
kind of i found that when i was looking
it up some it's really steeped in like
their history and like if you look back
as well you see a lot of examples of
that and you find a lot of interesting
things about a culture or a place that
you never would have found out about in
the first place
i think that was really good great
yeah yeah
now we just dove in talking about it
[Laughter]
and you gave some practical examples but
if i if i put you on the spot
what in the world is intercultural
intelligence maggie already alluded to
creating culture is a big part being
able to create cultures a big part of it
but how would you describe it to
somebody who's never heard of this thing
before
what would you say are important
components of it
this is where i wish there was a
dictionary definition
nope
i would say if no one if they had never
heard of it i would say
it is viewing the world through
different lenses
and understanding that the world is not
the same and i know that's such like a
basic thing to say oh the world's not
the same but it's really not
like the more you dive into it and
understand our history as humans and
understand everything everything is
different in all different parts of the
world so that's the first thing
understanding that the world is not the
same
and one way is not right or the other
yeah and possibly having a language to
actually talk about it
yeah yeah absolutely because it's one
thing to say we are all different yeah
but to not
know how to articulate that beyond the
point of saying oh
you're american or your emirati or your
korean
instead having a more neutral language
to actually talk about in which way are
we different i think actually
how he said over articulating is also
really important because like as tcks
we've kind of for me at least i felt
maybe vaguely that i've already been
doing maybe some of the things that i
see eye teaches me because of my
background but then
after learning about it it became easier
to kind of to see everything more
clearly and then to explain it more
clearly as well to explain maybe how i
feel oh maybe i should act this way
around someone else but why am i doing
that you know
yeah for me the first thing comes to
mind when i hear rci is
it's like the ability
to explain sdi to another person not
through your presentation but through
the way that you act and interact when
you speak of course you know as we
discussed
and the ability to really adapt
according to those around you and you're
really creating a culture you know
whether it's one-on-one or you know one
out of ten but creating that atmosphere
where everyone feels safe and not judged
or you know dishonored or overpowered or
so on but really being able to do that
in those settings yeah and especially
when you're trying to learn other
cultures and understand other cultures
and other people you don't want to be
offensive
and some people kind of hold back with
questions or hold back with certain
different things but with ici
every you know it's safe
you know that you can use that to
understand cultures correctly and
understand without offending anyone
[Music]
so if that's the case you've already
given examples along these lines but
what do you do with it
so ahmed you're studying virtually yeah
you're studying at a canadian university
you actually
went back to the states you're actually
studying in the us
and helen is on her way to hopefully
start studying in europe
what do you do with ici
from the simple you know friendship
family relationships to the way you
interact with your professors
peers
textbooks maybe
yeah what do you do with it
i mean for me um i think especially
going into university anything it really
helps with making new friends because i
can kind of see
where we'd
use something similar let's say and
maybe where we view something different
and how we get along based on that and i
feel like it's like i said before it's
easy to flip between friend groups and
it's just overall it's easy to meet new
people using ici kind of unders because
you understand people so well now with
the tools that i gives you it's easier
to talk to them interact with them
understand some of their actions and you
just build relationships that are going
to last longer in general and i feel
like if we're talking about maybe the
academic setting as well honestly being
in the in the uae i've learned a certain
a certain way i mean my school is
predominantly innocent skills but there
are also
aspects of honor shame as well within it
but now i'm going to a place where it's
predominantly only innocent skills and
because i'm aware of that now the
transition is obviously going to be much
more smoother than if i had no knowledge
whatsoever
that's interesting can i just put you on
the spot there you're saying the the
university in canada is more innocent
skill oriented the way they run
do you have any examples of what that
looks like um how do you notice it i
think i noticed it well it's been a bit
difficult to be honest being it's been
online and everything so i haven't been
able to experience it to the full extent
that i'd normally experience it but i
think uh from the attitude let's say of
my teachers for example it's a lot about
it's a lot more about self learning and
questioning about
about what's what you're learning about
and kind of doing a lot of that a lot of
your study by yourself you know taking
the interest for yourself not
necessarily about the grade that you get
more about the process and like the
journey to getting that grade and i
think that in itself is very different
from kind of what i experienced here in
school i mean there are elements of that
in my school like a second innocence
guilt but i feel like a lot of emphasis
is placed on the grade at times over
here you know you you do this to get
this grade so that you can get to this
place
by whatever means necessary
[Music]
it's
because you're saying
more you're experiencing more individual
approach in in the university you're in
right now
out of interest in you mentioned
there's the grade itself is the grade
also linked to how
your family is viewed or
the height
you know how well you perform in school
that that's linked to the family in some
way or another uh i think i think for
sure it would be that way and how i
perform uh in school or high perform in
general will always be um linked back to
my family and it's it's happens even
with my mom and my dad and everything we
have this thing in tanzania sometimes
you won't be
called by your name you'll be called by
a title so some people they call my mom
doctor instead of her name khadija
because that that's that's kind of her
profession that's what she's known as
and then some people will be given
honorary times no boss chief based on
what they do how they interact with
other people
and i think
because of that kind of culture that
they they come from obviously the the
same thing applies to me how i perform
reflects back on them as well yeah yeah
what do you want to do for uh for your
career
i'm currently studying biology on track
to uh pre-med
okay so be a doctor the medical doctor
exactly so how do you see ici affecting
your medical practice just out of
curiosity um i think it's very important
especially when talking with different
patients obviously i've talked with my
mom as well and she says the same thing
sometimes you have a doctor who's very
well abled they're very well versed in
in the field that they're in but when it
comes to communicating with the patients
and making them feel like it's a it's a
good environment a good atmosphere a
place of healing and everything like
that that's where some people fail and
that's a very critical thing
in a medical profession you need to have
that ability and i think with ici it
makes it much more easier to
to kind of navigate and have that sort
of communication
so maggie you're now one year and back
into studies one semester one semester
into studies in the us
[Music]
how does it show up
day to day for you
so where i am
it is very much
um and i don't want a stereotype but it
is very much american
um driven
innocent skilled
a lot of people are white there are very
few people
who are not white and so it's been
difficult using
just that because when you think i see i
think like
multiple different races and everything
but honestly ici works
with just a regular group of people too
because each person is different and
they have their own um you know
different amounts of three world views
one thing that i've noticed is that in
the southern united states while it is
still innocent's guilt there is honor
shame honoring your family honoring
making sure you know that you are doing
your parents proud oh you said something
about my mom that's not okay like that's
my family you're going after
and i definitely have noticed that where
i am too so that's been really helpful
it's just like it's opening my eyes to
see that we aren't all the same it's not
just oh all americans are the same or
oh all africans are the same or all
arabs are the same
it's given me lenses to look even deeper
into my own culture and my own you know
yeah yeah leading off what maggie said
um of course now i'm still finishing up
high school and for me of course not
having gone to college and so on it
really starts you know who am i as a
person who like what is what cultures
make up me
and so i i love that because it really
starts at the core and then ventures
outward because you know once you
discover who you are and how you're made
like why you act and so on then you
really understand how
to interact with the world around you as
we've you know said previous times as
well so i think it's really inward
outward process
so
we're sort of reaching the end of our
time
and uh
all three of you had the privilege to be
part of the ici certification because
knowledgebooks has a scholarship for
teenagers
and
we you know we have a vision to to raise
up young people who are world changers
and that's you know shelley already
alluded to it earlier when she
started saying you should join this
program
so
if you had a chance to talk to other
teens
about this program
why should they bother
what would you say to them why why would
they have to
consider intercultural intelligence as
something to take
into their bag of tools into the future
i'm very tempted to say you all
understand when you grow up but
that won't convince them um but i would
definitely say that
as a younger generation i find that for
us it's also very difficult to interact
sometimes because everyone's always on
their phones and it's like very awkward
sometimes when you meet a new person and
you're like what am i supposed to like
talk about or like i don't know like
especially nowadays i'm so so scared to
talk about anything with politics or
racists because i'm like how am i going
to defend that person and ici i think it
really
stretches your tools and your abilities
to just interact with people on a more
comfortable level and to really kind of
understand them and analyze them not
that you're you know drawing final
conclusions but really understanding the
person and because of that you're more
interested in your you know in your
relationship with that person which i
think is always very beneficial
yeah i i completely agree with uh
everything that you said i also think
there's like a lot of practicality to it
in general you know i mean we've learned
we had some of these case studies where
a lot of businesses have lost out a lot
of money because they weren't
necessarily culturally aware about the
situation that they were in and i think
that kind of appeal especially to our
generation you know i think we're
starting to
get more into
okay how can we a lot of people are
business oriented is what i'm saying i
have a lot of friends as well who want
to go into sports management and i feel
like if they were to learn about things
that are in ici or a lot about more
about culture
it'll help give them an edge on other
people that they're competing with
against and i think that's a really uh
thing that makes the program so
attractive
and for me honestly i would just say
life gets easier because life is so
complicated and
especially when you're trying to
understand people and understand how to
fit into society it just makes it easier
because you're learning these things and
these tools and you know you just
approach situations different so like if
you're in a conflict with a co-worker or
a peer
you kind of if you look through the ici
lens you say oh okay so this is a
problem because this and this and this
it just makes things
easier with conflict you understand and
for me i love to know everything i don't
want any gray spaces or anything like
that and so with ici um
getting to know the world like it kind
of puts that in perspective
and i must say i
whenever i hear ici the first thing i
kind of impression i got was it was also
to do with people but i feel like it's
so relevant for both experts and
introverts
i mean you could be sitting in your
office all day and working on like you
know graphics design and you could
definitely still use it on how you
present you know whatever you're
designing definitely so it really is
just a universal tool that anybody can
use in any situation yeah
wow thank you so much great conversation
great conversation that's great thanks
for having us yeah thank you
thank you so much for joining us for
this episode of the cultural agility
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