Read an AIE story

The example story you are first going to look at in this activity has been highlighted in different colours to show:

• Own feelings: How the writer felt at the time of the encounter

• Other people's feelings: How the writer interprets the feelings of the other person in the encounter
  Behaviour: What the writer did (or did not do) at the time of the encounter
• Learning: What the writer learned from the encounter; what new things s/he would like to learn and do as a result of the encounter

Click here to read the story.
 

© Knut Skjærven

Choose a story

Run your mouse over the story titles and click the title to download any of the stories below. Print it off and highlight it as in the example.
 

• She sold me a bracelet
• A visit to a Moroccan household
• My first day in Bordeaux
• A teacher exchange programme
• A day with an elderly couple in a mountain village in Bulgaria
• Worlds away

Note: Not all the encounters are between people of different nationalities. This point is central to the AIE's understanding of 'intercultural encounter', which you will explore in Module 3.
 

Reflect

Some of the writers of these stories reflect on their own behaviour during the encounters. They may feel that the way they acted was appropriate or they may wish they had behaved differently. Can you think of an intercultural encounter in which you feel unhappy with your response to the situation? If you could live the encounter again, what would you do differently?