OCI Talk: Developing ‘Global Fitness’ by learning from critical incidents

We are delighted to welcome Professor Helen Spencer-Oatey to give a fascinating talk on Developing 'Global Fitness' as part of our Online Confucius Institute public talks series.

Reflecting on living and working in China, Helen Spencer-Oatey used her background in psychology and applied linguistics to help her understand and navigate intercultural difference.

About the talk:

All of us can experience incidents that annoy or upset us and that lead us to make negative evaluations of the individuals involved. If cultural factors seem to be involved, they also risk fostering longer-term negative attitudes and unwanted prejudice. Yet such incidents have the potential to act as excellent learning opportunities, especially for the development of global fitness/intercultural sensitivity. However, such learning does not emerge automatically – it requires the person(s) affected to engage in mindful reflection. This is not easy to accomplish well. Individuals are often unsure how to engage in such reflection and need some structured guidance in order to gain meaningful insights.

In this talk, I outline a framework known as TRIPS that can help with this. I start by recounting some of the unexpected incidents I experienced when I first went to China and then use a specific incident to illustrate why misunderstanding can occur and how applying the framework can help us react to confusing encounters more constructively.

About the speaker:

Helen Spencer-Oatey developed her interest in intercultural communication when living and working in China. Drawing on her academic background in both psychology and applied linguistics, she has published extensively at the interface of these two disciplines, with a particular focus on rapport management and intercultural relations. Her latest books, Global Fitness for Global People (with Franklin & Lazidou, Castledown, 2022) and Making Working Relationships Work (with Lazidou, Castledown, 2024), are aimed at professionals who want to improve workplace communication and relationships.

The talk will be held online using Teams. The teams link will be sent out to you after registration and in the run up to the talk. It will also be recorded and made available on the Online Confucius Institute website afterwards.

We look foward to seeing you there!