CAPIRE’S OBJECTIVE IS TO CREATE A DIGITAL INTERCULTURAL TRAINING TOOL WHICH IS TO ENHANCE UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN NATIONALS OF DIFFERENT EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
The ultimate goal of the CAPIRE project is to create a Culture Simulator, a digital tool that trains people to adequately interpret intercultural situations. It starts by presenting a situation that is strange or confusing for foreigners in country X. The reader has to choose from four different interpretations of the situation. Then all the interpretations are evaluated, showing which one is the most adequate and why. Finally, a more in-depth explanation of the cultural background of country X is given and how one can best deal with the situation. By going through a series of 20 such situations, the reader is sensitised to the culture of country X and helped in understanding them.
The CAPIRE project aims to create 5 new Culture Simulators with partners from Poland, France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, representing different cultural regions within the EU. The cases used in these Culture Simulators will be based on real-life stories of expats in these five countries. The five partners in the project will do extensive research by interviewing a great number of expats about their experiences in other European countries.
This online tool will be available for free online for teachers, students, businessmen and others in the following languages: English, French, Polish, German, Italian and Dutch. The Culture Simulator is a practical tool to train people’s intercultural competences: to recognise cultural differences, to adequately interpret the situation, to act in an effective way and to understand the broader cultural context. The project involves intensive cooperation between five universities in doing research together and creating a common educational tool that will become a standard element in their intercultural courses.
The project is carried out by a consortium of five European universities: Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika w Toruniu (Poland), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (Italy), Université Gustave Eiffel (France), Universität Osnabrück (Germany) and Universiteit Twente (Netherlands).
“Presentation at the IACCM Conference 25-27th October 2023, Naples”