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4. Intercultural Learning
Working with Older Volunteers in Manual Intergenerational Projects
The exchanges focused on joint work experiences
and intergenerational encounters.
However, information on work life and
everyday life in the guest countries was not
an explicit focal point. Nevertheless, more
than two thirds of participants mentioned
having had sufficient insights in this regard.
In Vigy, for instance, an additional “cultural
approach” was chosen and 5 excursions
organised. The bus of the residential centre
was available for these excursions along
with voluntary senior citizens (with appropriate
driving licenses) as bus drivers.
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A guided city tour of Metz gave parti-
cipants the opportunity to explore the
town. The Czech and German participants
were unfamiliar with the region
and were amazed at the monuments.
Afterwards they drove to Scy-Chazelles,
where they visited the house of Robert
Schumann. A guided tour provided a
historical retrospect of Europe and the
opportunity to reflect on the developments
of this unique historic and cultural
structure.
The region has been heavily influenced
by industry and participants visited the
mining museum in Freyming-Merlebach.
There were many shared impressions
and memories (some participants
had been miners) and possibilities to
compare, because the mining industry
was also very present in Oberhausen,
Hamm and Prague.
Lorraine was influenced by different cul-
tures, not least by Germany. A tour of
the school museum in Metzervisse with
a retired bilingual teacher as a guide demonstrated
these influences. Children
in those days were bilingual or only spoke
Low German, which was forbidden
in schools. A second aspect dealt with
the strict upbringing and the school sys-
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tem with rules and prohibitions. The
subsequent visit of an old oil mill provided
detailed information on the development
of economic conditions in the
countryside, practical techniques and
eating habits.
The two World Wars have also had a con-
siderable influence on the region. Many
traces are still visible today, such as the
famous Maginot line. This impressed
many participants who were children in
those days.
The programme on Friday gave partici-
pants who had completed their project
work the opportunity to explore Metz
by themselves, buy souvenirs or take a
stroll without the group. As mentioned
above, one group preferred to complete
their project work instead.
In order to actually learn something about
the culture of the guest country or region,
participants should be explicitly informed
on land and people, which may prevent an
undue generalisation of isolated or incidental
experiences.
Intercultural training was performed
for the purpose of non-formal intercultural
learning, i.e. in order to prevent or reduce
prejudices and to overcome possible cultural
problems. The training took place at the
start, during or after the exchanges in a post
processing.
Intercultural training proved to be very
target-oriented. Culture-related misunderstandings
could not be observed during
the exchanges in Hamm, Oberhausen and
Prague. Admittedly there is no causal connection
between intercultural training and
the absence of culture-related misunderstandings,
especially since there were no
culture-related problems in Oberhausen,
where no intercultural training was performed.
Intercultural training was also not performed
in Vigy. Unlike Oberhausen, misunderstandings
did occur, but could be
Final Report 37