Over the Wall: Experiences with Multicultural Literacy

Abstract

In a multicultural country with businesses operating in global markets, our students need more than just a descriptive exposure to differences in culture. They need practice in acting effectively across different cultural groups in order to develop cultural competency. The first step in helping students develop multicultural competency is for an instructor to develop himself or herself in this area. This is so for the same reason that a diagnostician must be able to see symptoms before he or she can teach students to observe the same signs. This article is a personal account of an instructor moving down a path from cultural myopia toward cultural literacy. An experiential international marketing course is described that has been developed as a direct result of this journey.