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Building bridges between cultures.

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Vincent

When asked these questions, a friend gave me these definitions:

* What is interculturalism? A Swiss man eating a curry.

* What is internationalism? A Swiss man eating a curry in London.

* What is integration? A Swiss man making curry for an Indian in London.

As expats ourselves, we become familiar with certain stereotypes in our own ranks. There's the expat in the Big Job, probably from an economically and politically stable part of the world, barely learning the language but probably happy enough to try, and rather proud, perhaps, to think of himself as international. And there's the person from an impoverished country, struggling to make ends meet in a new life, learning the language, bit by bit, every day.

Of course, most people we know wouldn't be adequately described by either cliche. Many of them reached out to their community over a period of some years, learned the language or enough to get along, and absorbed some Swiss culture on the way. In fact, given that there are more exceptions than walking stereotypes, is there any truth in a cliche? Is there any purpose served by one?

What's in a cliche

In a recent discussion with a colleague, we went so far as to say that cliches are often, in a philosophical sense, important in society as they enable each culture to distinguish its values from those of other cultures. It is only through cliches that each individual can define their culture and position themselves within it.

By the same token, we recognised the importance of bridges between cultures in society. And we see our children as playing a critical role in building those bridges. With this in mind we planned an International Day Fair, a fun family day to be hosted by our school--Tandem Pre-School and Kindergarten--on Saturday June 11, at the Village Square on the hill in Uetikon am See.

Our aim is to bring together children with diverse backgrounds and to offer an international perspective on Early Childhood...

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