Introduction to training modules

The Intercultural Hotel EU project has four main training modules:

• Food and Beverages
• Front Desk
• Housekeeping
• Management

There is also two additional training modules on Russian socio-cultural information and Chinese socio-cultural information, each with key words and phrases.

You can select English as your working language and another language that you would like to learn, for example, Bulgarian, Dutch, Greek, Italian, Lithuanian and Slovenian. The content of the modules is bilingual.

The structure for the main four modules is the same:

• Module introduction – explains the topic of this module.
• Incidents – each module has three incidents – examples of cultural misunderstandings. We tried to avoid stereotyping, but couldn’t be too general in our case studies as the content will become meaningless. Please keep in mind there are certain “tendencies” in specific cultures. For example, the dominant cultural factor in western societies might be individual preferences in comparison to, for example, Eastern cultures, to be more focused on the group rather than the individual (collective). However, there are always exceptions and not every member, who belongs to a specific cultural group, will reflect the agreed norms and values.
• Cultural diversity is about acknowledging that society is made up of many different groups with different interests, skills, talents, and needs, who nonetheless share some similarities. Cultural diversity is explaining that we all are facing the same challenges, for example, how to provide food and shelter for the members in our society. The solutions to these challenges will differ and no solution is better or worse than another, there are just similarities and differences and cultural diversity is enriching all our lives.
• The incidents are structured as dialogues. You can access these when you click on the drawing in the middle of the photo. There are texts and audio files available.
• When you click on the “test icon”, you can access the quiz about the specific incident. You will receive feedback on their scores.
• The photo is a 360-degree one and you can move it around with your cursor.
• The “question mark” on the photo will give you some more cultural information on the topic.
• The “Intercultural information” will provide further knowledge on the cultural misunderstanding and includes references.
• The “Country guide” consists of information on Culture, Customs and Etiquette in the Hospitality Sector in the country that is linked to your language choice. It will be the same document in each module.
• The “Final test” is another quiz that will cover the full content of the module. The learner will receive feedback on their scores.
• We would like to highlight that “cultural sensitivity” is not about recognising each culture, and being able to associate everything with a specific culture, but about being flexible enough to deal with any cultural difference and similarity.

The themes of the two additional training modules on Russian socio-cultural information and Chinese socio-cultural information is as follows:

• Current picture of Russian/Chinese visitors in the European scene
• Relevant facts about Russia/China
• Relevant aspects of the profile of Russian/Chinese guests
• Russian and Chinese mentality/language/spread of people from Russian/Chinese ethnic origin abroad/religion/social status/habits/tipping/body language
• We also included a section on Chinese names as they can be a challenge
• Russian outbound market versus others
• Conclusion

And for anyone interested in learning some Russian/Chinese, there is a section with Russian/Chinese key words and phrases.

One further comment: the 360-degree photos are providing the visual material in our modules – further images might reduce the knowledge transfer. Our aim is to increase the cultural sensitivity of staff in the hospitality sector and in order to achieve this, one needs to get better informed about the various challenges that one might face.