Connect mid-month RAP: 4/19/23 ~ Cross cultural Delights, Part 2

Greetings and Happy Midweek!

And since today is just past mid-month, it’s time for another of our RAP sessions (Review And Process, deeper and wider). Each RAP revisits a cross-cultural theme or topic from a previous Connect. This month we are going to continue last week’s topic on ‘Laughter being an instant vacation’ and focus in on cross cultural vacations. This fits nicely with the Transformations component of our Global SKILLs PROACTive Framework, because who isn’t transformed, at least to some extent (hopefully!), by a vacation?! *

Over the many years I have lived and worked cross culturally, I have had perhaps a unique advantage of often being based in places other people go for vacation. When in West or North Africa, either in the city or more rural areas, my home space was a vacation destination for tourists from Europe and Asia. When based in the US, my home spaces are routinely filled to overflowing - whether it be in Amish country (Pennsylvania) with tourists from around the world or in Florida with snow birds (people fleeing the winters) and ‘spring breakers’ (kids heading south for sun and fun).

Upon reflection, I have realized several interesting things from these ‘constant vacation’ experiences.

One is that, wherever we live and work, we can find delight and laughter in instant vacation moments - just by looking around and seeing others delighting in the space, culture, experiences to be had right where we are.

And the other insight is that I am a terrible ‘tourist’ in that I am never satisfied with the ‘if it’s Tuesday, it’s London’ attitude. Rather than rushing from one space to the next, ticking off ‘bucket list’ items, where-ever I am - be it for a few hours or for a ‘real’ vacation - I want to integrate culturally with what’s happening around me - to talk to people (or gesture, if that’s all I can manage!), to experience what they are seeing and valuing, to understand and communicate and - well, yes, be delighted! That’s when the laughter happens for me…and truly, each time I laugh along, or even laugh at myself for some cultural blunder, it is an instant vacation!

How about you ~ what is one ‘instant cross cultural vacation’ you have enjoyed recently?

Share about that with a friend or note it here.

And check out the Global SKILLs LINKs below for some vacation-ing ideas.

Thanks for being part of this Connect community.

Until next week,

Betsy

Global SKILLs LINKs

This week, think of a place or space you’d like to visit…and do some research online about how to get there, what to see, what the cultural highlights might be. I bet you might even laugh out loud as you do this…and voilà! Savor that instant vacation.

Notes

* Through my business Global SKILLs and several partner subsidiaries I offer unique cross-cultural consulting and training including:

3 Dimensional Dynamics Model: (which we explored this week)

1st dimension = HOME ; 2nd dimension = HOST ; 3rd dimension = HARBOR)

PROACTive Learning Strategies:

PRO = PROfile, PROcess, PROgram

ACT = Application, Collaboration and Transformation (which we explored this week)

~ contact me for more information on this model and these strategies and how you might use them in your current programming: betsy.barbour@gmail.com

2023 ~ Celebrating 40+ years of working in

intercultural communications and global community building

“It takes a community to build a community”

Please Note: this is copyrighted content.

Please do not reproduce or share without my permission (betsy.barbour@gmail.com)