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InterCulturality

Within the experiential framework of Europhamili students/ trainees not only come to discover and understand the features of the cultures of their fellow trainees but also uncover their own taken-for-granted cultural understandings.

It is through interaction with others and the comparisons which take place that our own cultures are revealed and crystallised.
In a very real way interculturality leads to culture coming to light. As is the case in all human interactions, one's own representations and way of doing things are put to the test and become more clear and substantial when confronted and contrasted with the different views of others.

This "intercultural trial" is, in our opinion, an ideal ground for helping both foreign and endogenous students to understand how and to what extent their professional practice is bound up with cultural assumptions and influences.
Despite the existence of well-known stereotypes and certain pointers from the work of culture and management specialists such as Trompenaars and Hofstede we feel there are no easy recipes for predicting how any individual from a particular country will or will not be influenced by his or her culture.
However we feel Europhamili and its intercultural module provide an intercultural context which will allow students and their tutors to explore this possibility more deeply. What is more, we feel that there are interesting and fruitful parallels to be drawn between health, health systems and culture.

One gains a better understanding of one's own health system through comparison and contrast with another system or other systems. And just as one discovers what health is on losing it, or on meeting illness and disability in one's own life, we feel, in the same way, one discovers and comes to understand one's own culture when one is in danger of losing it through interaction with another culture such as in the pursuit of uniformity.