S1/E05: #Bridging Cultures - The Season of Love and Giving with Diana Chernyavska

Show notes

'Tis the season'… it is that time of the year that is also known as the holiday season and more narrowly referred to as the Christmas season. Frauke and Marie-Christine are getting into the festive mood, sitting together with ginger bread cookies and a hot cup of tea, sharing holiday traditions and reflecting about the real meaning of Christmas. And since the holiday season is also the season of love and giving, they welcome a special interview guest in their culture chat: Diana Cherniavska, the co-founder of Swidomo, an NGO supporting Ukrainian youth in the city of Duesseldorf and surroundings to help them to bridge cultures and immerse in the German educational/vocational system.

Episode Highlights

(00:02:29) Catch-Up: Marie-Christine talks about the benefits of networking, the myth that being an extrovert is a prerequisite for networking, and how valuable it is to strengthen the ties with families and friends especially during this time of the year. Frauke shares her take aways from the program of facilitating intercultural learning she just completed and acknowledges that the development of knowledge and skills to bridge cultures in order to create more inclusive classrooms, campuses and communitiesis is indeed a life-long learning process.

(00:09:01) Deep Dive: The duo reflects about holiday traditions around the world they are familiar with. Did you know that the Japanese Christmas spirit embodies a meal from KFC? The demand is supposingly so high that people start placing their orders for the special Christmas menu six weeks in advance. And the waiting line on Christmas day is so long that it takes hours for people to get their meal. Or what about the elf on the shelf? An omnipresent doll serving as Santa’s eyes and ears in homes to make sure kids are well-behaved in the weeks leading up to Christmas in order to belong on Santa’s nice list.

(00:18:15) Culture Chat: Frauke and Marie-Christine welcome Diana Cherniavska, the co-founder of Swidomo -which means conscious in Ukrainian- an NGO to support Ukrainian youth in the city of Duesseldorf and surroundings. (Find more about Swidomo in the reference notes).

(00:46:33) Final Thoughts: Fauke and Marie-Christine are wrapping up this episode by discussing the true meaning of Christmas and acknowledging that there is actually a lot to learn from a grumpy green guy who hated Christmas and everything to do with it:

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. And what happened then? Well in Whoville, they say, the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.” (How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss)

     !!! WISHING YOU ALL A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY SEASON !!!

References: https://swidomo.org

Since March 2022, the city of Düsseldorf has hosted more than 9,000 Ukrainian refugees, most of them mothers and children, who were forced to flee their homes to save their lives. The war separated them from their families, friends, and usual way of life and brought them new challenges. In June 2022, the NGO Swidomo launched the FutureTeens16+ program in the creative space AndoFutureStudios. With the support of Euro Atlantic, Swidomo implemented three projects aimed at accelerating the integration and adaptation of Ukrainian youth to life in Germany and the school, vocational and university systems.

Connect with cultureXchange:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/culture_x_change

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086022011425

Connect with Frauke https://www.linkedin.com/in/fraukebender

Connect with Marie-Christine https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-christine-dobro-02910b44