Workshop title: Why Do They Do That?
Recognizing and Responding Appropriately to All Cultures in Your Classrooms and Offices

Workshop description:
The workshop will examine the role of cultural perceptions/values and intercultural communication styles as they are frequently found in U.S.-American classrooms. The goal is to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to recognize, understand, and appropriately respond to different—and often conflicting—ways of expression. It will begin with a general overview of the roles culture and language play in human interaction, and offer theoretical models that allow us to categorize patterns of communication and behavior without stereotyping groups or individuals. This will be followed by a video that vividly dramatizes how these differences can be manifested within the microcosm of a typical American classroom, including how they are experienced and evaluated by both domestic and international students and their professor. Finally, staff and faculty will engage in interactive small group discussions where they will have the opportunity to analyze the video and to explore ways to apply the insights generated through group dialog. Hopefully, the emerging ideas will encompass not only formal instructional settings, but be useful across the campus wherever international students interact with their American counterparts, as well as university faculty, staff, and the outside community.

Dr. La Brack’s biography:
Dr. Bruce La Brack is a cultural anthropologist and South Asian specialist. For the past three decades, he has designed and developed the University of the Pacific’s innovative and integrated orientation and reentry programs for study abroad. He is Director of the Pacific Institute for Cross-Cultural Training, and also Chair of the Master of Arts in Intercultural Relations Program. He has published extensively on culture learning and adjustment issues including the chapter “The Missing Linkage: Orientation and Reentry Programs” in Education for the Intercultural Experience. He also serves as Training Editor of the International Journal of Intercultural Relations. Dr. LaBrack is the primary author and editor of the web-based site,

“What’s Up With Culture?”
(www.uop.edu/sis/culture/welcome.htm.), a free internet resource for preparing U.S.- American study abroad students going to and returning from an international experience. He has been a senior faculty member of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication, Portland, Oregon for twenty years, and regularly offers sessions and workshops for NAFSA: Association of International Educators, and other educational exchange organizations.