Thursday (16/2) Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Gadjah Mada (FEB UGM) was visited by Saxion University of Applied Science from the Netherlands. The representative, Evelyn Eijkelenkamp delivered a guest lecture titled Intercultural Communication at Djarum Auditorium, Pertamina Tower 6th floor. Besides FEB UGM’s students, international students from France, Japan, Austria, the Netherland and Taiwan were also attending the lecture.

According to Evelyn, cross-cultural understanding is necessary in order to be able to interact with people from different countries and cultures. It minimilizes misscomunication that might occur in communication since our languages and gestures might differ from one culture to another, such as; table manner. By enriching the cross-cultural understanding, one can come up with necessary decision when he/she has to communicate with colleagues from different cultures.

In the lecture, Evelyn invited students to give examples of cultural differences. A Japanese student compared the cultural difference between her country of origin and Indonesia. He said that Indonesian people are very friendly even though to strangers. Indonesian people are willing to greet and start conversation. It is different from most Japanese when people will not communicate if they do not know each other well.

In the end of the lecture, a staff from Saxion University of Applied Science delivered information about the possibility of joining summer program in Saxion University for FEB students. Many FEB students were interested in the program.

Source: Ika/FEB