We hope to also extend cross-cultural communication to our student body, and “Learning Without Borders” was our first attempt at hosting a cross-project event. We were able to invite three families for this event, and our lecture and discussions were centered around the “iceberg principle.”

What we immediately perceive of any individual is usually only a tip of the iceberg. While the clothes they wear, the food they eat, and the language they speak (and how they speak it) might give off clues to the person’s cultural heritage, there are often so much more hidden facts that are unseen by the human eye. This is why communication is important- to truly understand a person, we will need to study what is beneath the surface.

Because knowing the entire iceberg will involve talking to the person and exchanging dialogues, that was exactly what we did! Our volunteer and student participants took turns sharing facts- one above the surface, and one below. We were amazed by the diversity of the answers we received.

The event went well overall. However, we do wish to attract more participants in our next event. We will also design the class to be more engaging and fun, because although we showed slideshows and videos this time to engage our students, the class environment was still a little stiff as some students were unsure about opening up.