5/8/2006 - EU-Japan volunteer exchange website online!
With 2005 proclaimed as the EU-Japan Year of the People to People exchanges, European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL) and AFS Japan conducted a major exchange of volunteers. European and Japanese AFS volunteers had the once in a lifetime opportunity to discover a culture other than their own.
The exchange offered a one-month intercultural program for 15 European volunteers in Japan and 30 Japanese volunteers in 12 European countries. The volunteers stayed with host families and participated in many cultural activities such as a visit to the Japanese-German museum, a Japanese cooking class in the Afro-Asian institute in Vienna, school visits, press interviews, and many other AFS related activities.
The personal experiences of the volunteers involved in this exchange are collected in a handbook, written by the participants themselves. This handbook is posted on the Volunteer Exchange website www.afs.or.jp/volex2005
The volunteer experiences revolve around six topics: Direct and Indirect Communication, Non-Verbal Communication, Family Life, School Life, Social Life and AFS Structure. The handbook contains many interesting tips and tricks about living and travelling in Europe or Japan, through the eyes of an AFS volunteer.
Below are some examples of volunteer observations collected in the Volunteer Exchange website:
“I observed in a Japanese family the order of taking a bath. First the father uses the bathtub, then the other family members, followed by the youngest daughter always being the last. In some cases the mother may wait to be the last.”
(German volunteer in Japan)
“I felt that Czech people look very serious when they are talking. I sometimes felt confused as to whether the story was serious or funny and if I was allowed to smile or not. Japanese people are not used to this serious look on the face of the person with whom they are talking to, unless s/he seems to be very serious or in a bad mood. In Europe, there are comparatively fewer people that smile while they are talking, although they always look you in the eye, which sometimes confuses the Japanese.”
(Japanese volunteer in the Czech Republic)