Upper Intermediate

Keynote
Reading text Unit 10: Cross-cultural awareness

Bywell College Auckland New Zealand

Hotel and Catering Level 2

I recently completed the Cross-Cultural Awareness module (HC2.2). The module is a

compulsory part of the Hotel and Catering Level 2 course and I understand that it has been

substantially changed since last year. On the whole, I think the course was excellent and that

it has prepared me very well for working with both colleagues and customers from different

cultural backgrounds.

Bywell College Auckland New Zealand

Hotel and Catering Level 2

I would like to highlight the HC2.2 unit on Cross-cultural misunderstandings (Unit A), which

covered issues I had not given any consideration to before. While I knew that religion and

ways of dressing can be sensitive areas, I was unaware of how important formality is,

especially the idea that being too formal can be as inappropriate as being too informal. Here

in the UK we do expect friendliness to be part of a service, so it’s useful to learn that for

some other cultures what we think of as unfriendly or impolite is simply viewed as

professional. The only thing I would say is that the tutor could have given more specific

information about different cultures and what they regard as unacceptable so that we can

avoid giving offence. On the other hand, I now know greetings and basic terms in six

languages, which is great as I’ve always been unable to learn a foreign language. I was

amazed at how easy this was and how confident I now feel using the greetings. It was a very

enjoyable class too.

Bywell College Auckland New Zealand

Hotel and Catering Level 2

For me the most practical HC2.2 unit was Unit B: Cross-cultural communication. The tutor,

Ms Mackay, warned us that we would feel uncomfortable at times and she was right! But

using video really helped us to see what our body language looks like to others. This was

invaluable given that most of what we communicate is actually non-verbal. I also found the

active listening workshops useful. These were ideas that were completely new to me.

Following on from this, watching the videos, we were able to really understand how

frequently we interrupted the other person and how we hardly ever gave them feedback

during the conversation. I would have liked more time to practise the effective questioning

techniques, as I am still unclear on how to use reflective questions and paraphrasing. I think

that this is one aspect of the unit that could be improved.

Bywell College Auckland New Zealand

Hotel and Catering Level 2

I’d just like to say that the tutors on the Cross-Cultural Awareness module were among the

best I’ve had at this college. They gave us lots of positive feedback. They were also sensitive

in helping us to understand that sometimes we aren’t aware of how negative our own

behaviour can be.

paraphrasing (n) a way of stating the same idea using different words