“Going down the Tower of Babel” through telecollaboration in the context of Internationalization at Home

Belli et al. (2018) explain that the myth of the Tower of Babel, described in the Holy Bible, alludes to the intercultural relations in today’s world, because the Tower was located in a major economic and cultural center of the ancient world. Telecollaboration, defined as the use of online technologies in the area of language teaching and learning between students who are geographically distant (O’DOWD, 2013a), plays an important role in promoting intercultural interactions in the Internationalization at Home (O’DOWD, 2019) context. The latter stands for a more inclusive internationalization, achieved by domestic activities, and not only by international academic mobility (CROWTHER et al., 2000). For Luna (2018b), the process of Internationalization of the Curriculum occurs in the light of the intercultural approach (KRAMSCH, 2014), whereas Gil (2016) argues that such approach should be conceptualized based on the interaction between language and culture. This study aims at discussing how the interaction between language and culture related to the intercultural approach can lead students “to go down the Tower of Babel” through telecollaborative activities in the context of Internationalization at Home. With respect to the results, two telecollaborative domestic actions, under the author’s coordination, appear to indicate that there have been opportunities towards the process of “going down the tower”, since many concerns related to the current world, e.g. cultural differences, stereotypes and the environment, where students can to take both an insider and an outsider’s perspective (KRAMSCH, 2011), are at the heart of the discussions.

Management of Intercultural Relations in an Intercultural Organization

The chapter aims to reflect on the management of intercultural organizational relations. It explains the transition of homogenous organizations into the culturally heterogeneous organization and compares multiculturalism with cross-culturalism in its ability to harmonize the principles of cultural diversity with universal ethical principles. It explores the process of creation of a third culture to foster understanding and acceptance among diverse teams. It attempts to establish the impact of intercultural interactions/relations on the effectiveness of a diverse team of individuals interacting in concert to achieve common goals. The work also underpins some analysis of the creation, development, and management of organizational intercultural capital. Finally, the emergence of the model of strategic management of an intercultural organization focused on learning and training for proper operationalization and implementation is proposed, and some challenges that could antagonize the teams are looked into and proposals are formulated.

Intercultural Communication: A Study on Music as an Element in the Wayang Kulit of Kelantan

This research discusses intercultural relations in the performing art of wayang kulit Kelantan, by examining the phenomena of communication between cultures that occur within the multi-ethnic Kelantanese community, with a focus on the element of music. In order to understand the intercultural communication that occurs in the element of music, Kumpulan Wayang Kulit Sri Campuran was chosen as the main research subject due to the group’s characteristic ethnic diversity, which comprises Malay, Chinese, and Siamese, as well as the community that is directly and indirectly involved in the performance, which also comprises various ethnicities, thus illustrating the existence of the phenomena of intercultural communication. Methods of observation on the element of music in performances held at several locations by this group have been able to prove the existence of clear intercultural communications within the multi-ethnic community in Kelantan. These phenomena also show that this group specifically, and the Kelantanese community in general, upholds cultural collectivism that strengthens intercultural relations, whereby people from various cultural backgrounds can be brought together by a single performance that clearly showcases characteristics of teamwork, tolerance, understanding, compatibility, sharing, and harmony.

Translating (Political) religious and secularist worldviews in a post-secular age

Inspired by the works of François Burgat, Jürgen Habermas and Jean-Marc Ferry, this paper addresses the notions of the religious, the political, the radical/extreme, the conservative, the secular and the social as the objects of an extended conception of translation that defines translation as a mode of intercomprehension between competing or adversary groups within a single or among diverse societies. Shifting focus away from textual manipulations, it conceives of translation as a form of active engagement in social and discursive negotiations and explores translation as it brings about change in the dynamics of intergroup and intercultural relations.

Change, Crisis, Perspective, and Identity in Two Novels by Rózsa Ignácz

For Hungarians who remained stuck beyond the borders after WWI, finding themselves in a foreign country from one day to the next, the historical trauma of the Trianon Treaty occasioned intercultural tribulations never experienced before. What the resulting Transylvanian literature discussed here is concerned with, however, is not what Jeffrey C. Alexander’s cultural trauma theory calls “the trauma process”, “the spiral of signification” (Alexander 2004, 11). Rather, it is concerned with “the indelible marks” “the horrendous event” left “upon group consciousness […] changing their future identity in fundamental and irrevocable ways” (Alexander 2004, 1). This literature displays a rich array of the management strategies of minority identity. Earlier I devoted a book to the identity types that ensued from those strategies (Dani 2016a). The present work is based on that monograph and moves on. This time I wish to focus on the key figures of two Rózsa Ignácz novels (Anyanyelve magyar and Született Moldovában) to demonstrate the complex identity patterns that an erosion of minority native language and culture, so destructive to identity, yields. The road that the Hungarian minority travels leads through a succession of active and reactive changes, crises, and modifications of perspective in the maze of minority versus hegemonic intercultural relations.1

MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING RUSSIAN IN KAZAKHSTAN: PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS ON A COMMON LANGUAGE BASIS

В статье рассматривается место и роль русского языка в жизни современного Казахстана. На основе исследования, проведенного в рамках международного проекта, выявляются ключевые индивидуальные мотивы жителей Республики Казахстан (представителей разных поколений) для изучения русского языка, делаются выводы о перспективах развития межкультурных отношений двух стран на общей языковой основе. The article examines the place and role of the Russian language in the life of modern Kazakhstan. Based on the research carried out within the framework of an international project, the key individual motives of the residents of the Republic of Kazakhstan, representatives of different generations, for studying the Russian language, are identified, conclusions are drawn about the prospects for the development of intercultural relations between the two countries on a common language basis.

TRANSLATION OF THE KHAKASS HEROIC EPIC: NEW FACTS AND TEXTS

Statement of the problem. The article is devoted to the translation tradition of the Khakass heroic epic, existing since the second half of the 19 th century and traced to the end of the first decade of the 21 st century. Over the past 10 years, new information about the facts and texts of translations has appeared. This information has been published in various publications, and its connection with the mentioned above translation tradition is not clearly expressed. The establishment of the genesis and general result of the translation tradition of the Khakass heroic epic is relevant in relation to the history and development of intercultural relations in Siberia and Russia as a whole. The purpose of the article is to present new information about the translation tradition of the Khakass heroic epic in its connection with the overall result of translations and to determine its significance against the background of the already known amount of information. Conclusion. The translation tradition of the Khakass heroic epic continues to be relevant as a multifaceted means of intercultural communication.