To Melt a Salad Bowl in a Pot? Students’ workshop on multiculturalism
On May 4, 2017 the students of MA programmes at the Department of Linguistic Didactics and Intercultural Studies, Faculty of Education, UKF in Nitra, organized an interesting workshop entitled "To Melt a Salad Bowl in a Pot?" whose aim was to encourage participants to discuss the issues of multiculturalism and immigrants. First year MA students have, for a moment, changed to Arabs, Chinese, Japanese or Mexican Americans to provide the workshop participants with typical and distinctive elements of “their” cultures. Among others, the workshop participants were able to learn about the tradition of cleansing ritual in the Jewish culture, find out more about the cultural background of the Arabic Jihad, or were able to learn how to use sticks when eating Chinese and how to create your own Sakura. Special meals and food were provided, such as Arabic humus or Chinese cakes of happiness. The event was organized as part of the course on Multiculturalism and ethnic writers in American literature, where students learn about particular minority cultures and acquire skills to critically read and interpret literary works of ethnic writers. Via events like this, the students are able to acquire various ways of perception of identity in a multicultural society ‒ a society that cannot do without knowledgeable and well-read individuals willing to respect and tolerate ethnic and cultural differences.