We hope you’ll join us on April 23 from 7-9pm at VIF International Education in Chapel Hill, ’cause we’ve got some fun things planned for you:

1. Food! We’re picking up a variety of savory and sweet treats from Chapel Hill’s Mediterranean Deli to celebrate another successful year of SIETAR-NC.

2. A film!

Mardi Gras: Made in China (DVD)
A Documentary by David Redmond
Synopsis: This examination of cultural and economic globalization follows the life-cycle of Mardi Gras beads from a small factory in Fuzhou, China, to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and to art galleries in New York City.

Note: As it interviews many people during Mardi Gras, there is nudity in the film.

3. A very quick update on the current status of the SIETAR-NC organization!

4.The 2010-11 event schedule! We’ll also tell you about the spring speaker event we’re planning with UNC-CIBER, and you’ll have an opportunity to renew your membership or become a new member of SIETAR-NC at the discounted Early-Bird rate.

To recap:

What :: Food, Film & Friends Night (our final event of 2009-10!)
When :: Friday, April 23 from 7-9pm
Where :: VIF International Education in Chapel Hill

Directions :: VIF International Education is at 201 Sage Road in Chapel Hill – just down the street from the Border’s bookstore you can see from 15-501. There is free parking in front of the building. Please enter through the main doors.

***Please RSVP for this event so we know how much delicious food to order: sietarnc [@] gmail [.] com

Here are the details:

When :: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 from 6-8pm

Where :: The Visiting International Faculty Program (VIF) in Chapel Hill, NC

Directions :: The Visiting International Faculty Program office is at 201 Sage Road in Chapel Hill – just down the street from the Border’s bookstore you can see from 15-501. There is free parking in front of the building. Please enter through the main doors.

Questions? Email us :: sietarnc [@] gmail [dot] com

Note :: Is there something from our Resource Library that you’ve had your eye on? If so, send us an email and we’ll bring it to the meeting. All SIETAR-NC members can check out materials from our extensive Resource Library.

About Michael Hoppe:

Michael is a Senior Faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, NC. He trains custom program offerings to clients worldwide as well as the Center’s flagship program, the Leadership Development Program (LDP)® and other open-enrollment programs. As part of the Center’s Global Leadership Group, he researches and designs modules on effective cross-cultural leadership and other cross-cultural issues for use in the Center’s client-specific offerings. He lived and worked in Germany, Greece, Italy, and The Netherlands.

His publications have appeared in numerous journals and books. Recently, he contributed the chapter on cross-cultural leadership development to the Center’s Handbook of Leadership Development (2004) entitled “Cross-Cultural Issues in the Development of Leaders.” Also, as a Co-Country Investigator for GLOBE, a worldwide project on global leadership and behavior effectiveness, he wrote the book chapter on “Leadership in the U.S.A.: The Leader as Cultural Hero,” published in 2007.

Michael holds a M.S. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Munich, Germany, a M.S. in Educational Psychology and Statistics from the State University of New York at Albany, and a Ph.D. in Adult Education and Institutional Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Here are the details:

What :: Turkish Cooking Class

When :: Saturday, November 14 @ 12:30pm

Where :: Divan Cultural Center, Cary, NC
1393 SE MAYNARD Rd.
Cary, NC 27511

Please RSVP by Friday, Nov. 13!

Note – The Divan Center charges a $10 materials fee per person for this class. SIETAR-NC is pleased to offer members a discounted rate of $8 per person.

Questions? Ready to RSVP? Email us :: sietarnc [@] gmail [dot] com

More information about our October event:

What :: CultureActive 

Who :: Dr. Tim Flood, Assistant Professor of Communication, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

When :: Tuesday, October 20, 6-8pm

Where :: The Board Room, 3rd floor of the Kenan Institute at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-CH

>>Maps and Directions

The Kenan Institute is the smaller building next to the Business School’s main McColl Building. Parking is free in the parking garage on Kenan Drive after 5pm.  Take either the breezeway from the deck’s 6th level or the stairs across from the deck’s 3rd-level exit up to the main plaza level–with the fountain on your right, the Kenan Institute is the building on your left, portico marked “Kenan Institute.”

Questions? Email us :: sietarnc [@] gmail [dot] com

Special thanks to UNC-CIBER  (Center for International Business, Education and Research) and the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise for hosting and co-sponsoring this event!

Join us for a viewing of 2 Million Minutes, a documentary by Robert A. Compton (watch the trailer)!

Here’s the information for our first SIETAR-NC event of 2009-10:

What :: 2 Million Minutes (movie, 54 minutes)

When :: Friday, September 11, 7 p.m.

Where :: The Visiting International Faculty Program (VIF) in Chapel Hill, NC

Directions :: The Visiting International Faculty Program office is on Sage Road, just down the street from the Border’s bookstore you can see from 15-501. There is free parking in front of the building. Please enter through the main doors.

Questions? Email us :: sietarnc [@] gmail [dot] com

About 2 Million Minutes -

Regardless of nationality, as soon as a student completes the 8th grade, the clock starts ticking. From that very moment the child has approximately -

…Two Million Minutes until high school graduation…Two Million Minutes to build their intellectual foundation…Two Million Minutes to prepare for college and ultimately career…Two Million Minutes to go from a teenager to an adult

How a student spends their Two Million Minutes – in class, at home studying, playing sports, working, sleeping, socializing or just goofing off — will affect their economic prospects for the rest of their lives.

How do most American high school students spend this time? What about students in the rest of the world? How do family, friends and society influence a student’s choices for time allocation? What implications do their choices have on their future and on a country’s economic future?

This film takes a deeper look at how the three superpowers of the 21st Century – China, India and the United States – are preparing their students for the future. As we follow two students – a boy and a girl – from each of these countries, we compose a global snapshot of education, from the viewpoint of kids preparing for their future. Read more…

Here are the links to the videos Patti showed during her talk:

Rize Movie Trailer

Slingshot Hiphop

Educational Uses of Second Life

And here’s Patti’s blog.

Thanks to the Robertson Scholars Collaboration Fund for making these events possible.

Event #1: Workshop –
New Experiential Tools for Exploring Diversity and Intercultural Issues

• Date/Time: Sunday, April 5 from 1:00-2:30p.m.
• Location: John Hope Franklin Center (Duke University), Room 240
• Map & directions

Light refreshments from the Mediterranean Deli will be provided for workshop participants.

***This event is free but space is limited. Please RSVP by Friday, April 3 to: info “at” sietarnc “dot” org  

Workshop Description:

We learn best by first having a “hot” experience that knocks us off balance, then making meaning of it second. And yet we often teach in exactly the opposite order, providing models and meaning, then asking if those fit the experiences we have had. This highly interactive workshop will approach training from the learner’s perspective, will embrace surprise at the “edges” where learning really occurs, and will explore ways to achieve diversity and intercultural learning through experiential processes. We will:

•    Utilize unique experiential training tools to explore concepts like dominant culture
•    Move from intellectual learning to embodied learning
•    Explore how to teach core intercultural and diversity concepts through experiential and nontraditional processes

Bring both hemispheres of your brain and wear comfortable clothing.

Event # 2: Public Talk –
Hip-Hop, Manga, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, and Myth: intercultural tools for a new century

• Date/Time: Sunday, April 5 from 3:00-4:00p.m.
• Location: John Hope Franklin Center (Duke University), Room 240
• Map & directions

Please RSVP by Friday, April 3 to: info “at” sietarnc “dot” org

Dessert reception from the Mediterranean Deli will follow.

Description:

Patti Digh worries that the field of intercultural communication is largely irrelevant to the challenges of the 21st century. She asks: Are we using old tools and models to grapple with intercultural realities vastly changed because of the new “mongrel, global Me,” increased cultural “sampling,” the leveling effect of technology, and the transparency of social media? In fact, are these challenges revolutionizing our very concepts of culture? And are we keeping up?

What are the radically new tools we need to deal with these challenges? Patti believes they include Hip-Hop, Manga, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, and myth, all rooted in one local simplicity: STORY. As Jerome Bruner has said, human beings are hard-wired for story. We know that. But the ways in which we are transmitting and learning from story are changing rapidly. And many of us are not keeping up. Some of us even disparage these new forms of learning, communicating, and building relationship across cultures.

This address will delve into the primacy of story, how central it is to intercultural learning and practice, and how new forms of story and new technologies can be important tools for interculturalists.

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is a storyteller, author and facilitator. Digh’s first book, Global Literacies: Lessons on Business Leadership and National Cultures (Simon & Schuster, 2000), was named a Fortune magazine “best business book” for the year 2000. Her second book was The Global Diversity Desk Reference (Wiley, 2003), and her most recent book is the widely acclaimed Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally (Globe Pequot Press, 2008). Life is a Verb is focused on the power of story and is one of five finalists for the prestigious “Books for a Better Life” award,” to be awarded in February 2009. She and David Robinson are co-founders of The Circle Project, an innovative consulting firm focused on providing experiential learning experiences to help communities and organizations navigate differences.

Posted on behalf of the American Turkish Association of North Carolina, A Member Supported, Not for Profit, Cultural Organization

This fall, The American Turkish Association of North Carolina (ATA-NC) will be offering Turkish Language Classes for Beginners (101) and Intermediates (201).

Classes will be held here:
ATA-NC Turkish House
303 East Durham Road, Suite E,
Cary, NC 27511

Registration will take place on the first day of classes, from 6:30 to 7:00 pm. If you have any questions about these classes, please feel free to contact Buket Aydemir (buket@nc.rr.com).

If you are interested in individual lessons, we can make special arrangements.  Let us know about your requests by sending an e-mail to:  contact@ata-nc.org

Since we are constantly adding new classes and workshops, please check our web site frequently: www.ata-nc.org

About the classes:

1. Turkish as a Foreign Language (101) – Beginners

This is a beginners’ level course that will mainly follow the book and cover chapters 1 – 5.  Instructors will provide additional supporting materials. If you have always wanted to learn another language but never took the step, this might be the right time!!!
No pervious knowledge of the Turkish language is necessary.

Ages:         16 and up
Duration:    8 weeks
Schedule:   Wednesdays 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm,
October 8 thru December 3, no class on November 26
Fee:           (8 sessions) ATA-NC members $100, non-members $150
Materials:   Bring your own book: “Teach Yourself: Beginner’s Turkish Audiopackage” by Asuman Çelen-

Pollard
Instructors: Zahit Sahin and  Buket Aydemir

2. Turkish as a Foreign Language (201) – Intermediate

This will be a fast pace class where participants are expected to study the book and complete weekly assignments. Basic concepts, basic past and present continuous tenses will only be reviewed.
Completion of Teach yourself Turkish – Beginners book or equivalent knowledge is expected.
During classes, we’ll focus on listening comprehension and verbal communication skills, and engage in discussions in different topics.

Ages:         16 and up
Duration:    8 weeks
Schedule:   Mondays 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm,
October 6 thru December 1, no class on November 24
Fee:           (8 sessions) ATA-NC members $100, non-members $150
Materials:   Bring your own book:
“Teach Yourself: Turkish Complete Course Audiopackage (Paperback)”
by Asuman Çelen-Pollard and David W. Pollard
Instructor: Buket Aydemir