Workshops regarding intercultural dialogue, culture adjustments, and return shock
The Department of International Partnerships and Educational Mobility - DIPEM ("Erasmus Office") is fully aware of the fact that if you come to Toruń for a one or two-semester exchange, you will need help and guidance to adjust to your new life in Poland. Therefore, we give you the possibility to experience, discover and discuss intercultural issues in specially prepared workshops. Those meetings are scheduled at the beginning of each semester (during the Orientation Week) and are aimed to help you overcome the challenges of everyday life at the university, in the student dorm and in the street. During our workshops we concentrate on the following issues: your expectations, identity, culture, cultural similarities and differences, stereotypes, as well as culture shock (phases and symptoms). In a nutshell: teaching tolerance, intercultural awareness as well as culture adjustment are our main objectives of these workshops.
At the end of each semester the Erasmus Office (DIPEM) offers workshops regarding return shock and the culture-learning process. We try to prepare you for the little-expected fact that coming back home might well be even more confusing and difficult than going abroad and overcoming language barriers, different university systems, or different learning and communication styles. The reason is that you do not expect any changes or problems at home, and thus, you are not prepared to deal with them. Also, your enthusiasm is often almost impossible to transfer to old friends back home. Our workshops create not only a good opportunity to increase your awareness of return shock, but also to exchange views and opinions on Polish culture and on cultural competence. Most of all, you will learn how to prepare yourself for leaving, for saying goodbye, and for your successful return to your 'old' life!