The Global Intercultural Circle was formed in 2015 when a handful of women started to intentionally gather and share our global intercultural journeys.  It has evolved into a network of circles with members who intentionally reach out to those in their families and larger communities who are culturally different from them.  Circle members connect with each other monthly to support each other in unpacking the intercultural dynamics they encounter in their families and communities, and in navigating through these dynamics constructively. 

Tentative at first about our purpose, we came to proclaim together a compelling need to better understand who we are as intercultural people.  Each of us had deep personal experiences engaging with people from a culture different from our cultures of origin.  Some of us had married into a family of another culture.  Several of us had hosted in our homes young adults from another culture for extended periods of time.  Many of us were professionally engaged in some dimension of global intercultural education.  All of us had lived, studied, worked or traveled to other countries.  We each sensed that we had been deeply impacted and inspired by these experiences personally and professionally.  We were eager to further unpack how we had been transformed and how we have become intercultural people through these experiences.  

We have found that this recognition of ourselves as intercultural people raises more questions and presents additional avenues for connecting with and learning from others.  This simple shift in thinking of ourselves as intercultural people stimulated more curiosity in learning about these dimensions of ourselves and in having more experiences with others who are culturally different. While forging connections with others who are following their own unique pathways may begin with curiosity, we were reminded through trial and error that forging authentic intercultural connections also requires courage, attentive listening and openness to change.   

In crafting our global intercultural circle, we have created an additional support system where we can nurture our curiosity and practice being courageous, attentive listeners and opening ourselves up.  During our gatherings, we share our intercultural experiences, reflect together upon our efforts, decipher what may have happened in a particular interchange, and craft new approaches.  We have confirmed that successfully building bridges across cultural differences, often requires us to add new cultural and linguistic skills to our global intercultural toolkit.  

Before one of us travels to Germany, Japan or to Jordan, for example, we have encouraged each other with efforts to read about the history of these countries and to study some German, Japanese or Arabic language. Achieving fluency in these languages takes effort and time.  Nonetheless, we have found that through the process of learning the alphabet and basic expressions, we experience some productive cognitive and emotional dissonance.  Working through some of this dissonance before traveling has helped to soften the shock of arrival and opened our minds to new ways of seeing and being while engaging with people in this new place.  We want to arrive prepared to meet the challenge of international travel and to dive deeper into a cultural experience then a typical tourist. We have also found that we are received differently, when we demonstrate authentic interest in learning about their culture by having made some effort to read about their history and learn basic expressions in their language.   

Likewise as each of us have been inspired to become more acquainted with new people and explore new neighborhoods in our local communities,  we have encouraged each other with our efforts to set aside personal assumptions, to be aware of power dynamics, to be humble and to be open minded.  We have learned that we have much to learn about the intercultural dynamics in our local communities.  Furthermore, we have been reminded that the skill set needed for productive engagement internationally is also very relevant in our local communities.   

We have articulated a commitment to support each with our efforts to develop these skills and intentionally bridge the cultural differences that increasingly permeate our day to day lives.    

We believe that we have discovered through our journey together a process, a pedagogy and perhaps even a way of life that is worthy of sharing with others. We hope that through sharing, we might inspire others to create intercultural circles that facilitate their member’s capacity for open listening, for learning from others, for bridging differences and for building healthy global intercultural communities.