Fabiola Cristina Rodriguez

September 2008 Update

 

The school started on August, and my trip did not started as I thought  it would be.

 

The weather was very cold, windy and with rain. The places did not look the same as home, so I got lost for at least 20 times in the great Melbourne. To tell you the true I was not prepared to face an intercultural city as Melbourne. For me it was not as for the other students from the peace scholarship, I felt like I was not fitting in the city. Even one day I had, for what at the time seemed as, a serous miscommunication problem with a person from another country and with a totally different culture to mine.

 

But what was I doing wrong?  My English is acceptable, so what was the problem, why wasn’t I able to communicate well with the other people, why was I having so much problems? All those questions were going around my head, all those fears about making mistakes, about saying or giving wrong impression. 

 

So I realized what the problem was, it was simply that it was me against the world.  It was about talking, reading, interpreting many languages at the same time.  It was confusion, it was the Babel Tower.

 

Luckily I was assigned subject called “Intercultural Communication”, that is when I started to realize about the root of my problem, Melbourne is a Multicultural City.

 

It is formed by people that come from different parts of the world, with different cultures, and have different ways of behaving and thinking. That is when I started to notice that I was not the only one with miscommunication problems, other international students had the same problem.   The difference was that because when they arrived they form groups with their equals they were living within a familiar environment.  I was not able to notice it at first.

 

So I tried to communicate with members of other cultures, to understand what were the things that they wanted to communicate. It is strange but because of all the problems that I had at the beginning I can understand now better Melbourne, I even can help friends from different parts of the world to communicate better. I have even come to think, because of all the things that happened to me at the beginning, that I understand why  there are so many problems in the world.

 

Sometimes when members of other culture want to say yes they move their heads to one side to another, which for me it means “no”, and other times they just want to say “I do not like it” but they say a more strong word like “ I HATE IT”.  Little things that can make a difference when trying to communicate with each other. Maybe these little and tiny things can make the difference between war and peace, It is all about the way in which we communicate, it is all about learning to interpret the other cultures.

 

That is what I have find so far by living and studying in Melbourne.
  • Mexico 2008/09 (PGrad)
  • Victoria University
  • Sponsored by SEP
September 2008 Photos 
 
The Peace Scholarship Program is an initiative of IDP Education Australia Limited (ACN: 008 597 831). A wholly owned subsidiary company of IDP Education Australia Limited, Education Australia (International Enterprises) Pty Ltd (ACN:089 228 053) is the trustee of both Trusts facilitating the Peace Scholarship Program – the Peace Scholarship Trust and the Peace Scholarship Program Trust. The composition of the Board of Directors of the Trustee Company complies with relevant government legislation and regulations. The Peace Scholarship Trust has the necessary Fundraiser and/or charitable collection registration where required under Australian state or territory legislation. The Australian Taxation Office has endorsed ‘The Trustee for the Peace Scholarship Trust’ (ABN: 85 931 859 523) as a Deductible Gift Recipient.