Jakarta – Monday the 10th of August, marked the start of LSPR’s first UPSCALE Workshop. In order to commensurate this event, a group comprised of specially chosen LSPR lecturers and DNSC students attended an intense webinar that particularly focused on Cross Cultural Communication. Mr Daniel Fritz Silvanna (Head of Internalization initiatives and external linkages office of the president, Head of applied communication and publication office of research and a senior lecturer at Davao del Norte State College) was invited to speak about and truly highlight the challenges faced in connecting and working in a multicultural environment.  Accompanying him was Ms Nadine Samala – Lamoste, M.A (LSPR intercultural communication lecturer and the deputy director of international office) acting as this webinar’s moderator. 

Ms Nadine Samala from IRPO as Moderator

“In the 21st Century a multicultural environment is an inescapable part of our lives”, Mr Fritz articulated, as he began to express all of his viewpoints and share his knowledge regarding the many dynamics present in multicultural settings. He accentuated the issue of cultural shock and the many biases or prejudices individuals have against outgroups- which is not only faced on a large scale for instance, when moving or travelling abroad but also experienced on a smaller scale, such as: attending international classes, communicating with foreigners,etc. The basis of these issues circulates back to our upbringings and the different expectations we tend to develop- otherwise known as intercultural conflict flexibility. Defined as the struggle between people of different ethnicities over incongruous views, values, mannerisms and more. Nonetheless, this discord can provide opportunities to develop communication competency skills. 

Mr. Fritz explained about a process model of Intercultural Communication

Additionally, he stresses the importance of understanding the basis of cross communication and flexibility. In order to do this, individuals are required to be able to identify the difference between cultural and value differences, stating that “We are now able to shed light on our own behaviour and even our styles of communication with people from diverse, cultural communities.” Alluding to the idea that this discipline would enable humans to manage cultural differences aptly in a plethora of situations. Starting off with simple practices such as appreciating non verbal communication as they serve many functions in intercultural situations. 

Mr. Fritz shared with example about relationship between verbal  communication and culture

“LSPR has a very good mixture of international workers” Mr Fritz happily expressed. Overall this webinar on Cross Cultural Communication provided listeners with a very detailed and comprehensive analysis on the importance of communication amongst nations, as well as enabled us to understand the underlying structure behind many issues we face when interacting with people from different societies. 

LSPR UPSCALES (University Partner Synchronized Collaboration to Accelerate Learning Education System) is a sub activity under the PK-KM (Program Kompetisi Kampus Merdeka) which is a lecturer exchange activity with a hybrid learning concept that combines online or offline exchange programs. LSPR UPSCALES will continue with the several workshops, Simple design to enhance the social campaign and video producing, Short Movie Workshop (Short Movie Production For Enhancing Social Campaign), English Workshop and IELTS Test. LSPR UPSCALES aims to improve the knowledge and ability of LSPR Lecturers through hybrid activities series that involve an exchange lecturer.