Cross-cultural Services 跨文化服务

Cross-cultural services are much needed in a multi-cultural society today. People tend to segregate from one another if they don’t learn to appreciate and enrich one another in a multi-cultural society.

I have the opportunity to visit a center which is set up for the purpose of training young people to provide services to those coming from different cultural backgrounds as they are. These trainees come from urbanised setting and they are required to live together for the first four months. They learn life skills and self disciplines including preparation of their own meals.

After the first four months, they are sent to the remote village to serve the people of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This second stage of training lasts for three months.

The third stage of training is having each of them to attach at a non-profit organisation and to serve as a volunteer for two months.

In view of the above, these three stages of training are to equip them to serve others in a cross-cultural society. The first stage is to enable them to live together as a community inter-dependently. The second stage is to enable them to serve as a team for a different community. Then the third stage is to give them an opportunity to learn from an organisation certain specific skills pertaining to the objective of that organisation.

Hopefully, as the trainees complete their training, they have learnt something useful pertaining to life skills, team services and vocational exposure.

今天在一个多元文化社会非常需要跨文化服务。如果人们在这样的社会中不学会彼此欣赏和互相学习，我们往往会形成彼此隔离。

我有机会参观了一个跨文化训练中心，该中心的目的是要培训新一代懂得服务为来自不同文化背景的人。这些学员来自城市，他们在首四个月一同生活，学习生活技能和纪律，也包括准备自己的饭菜。

经过了首四个月，他们会被送往偏远的村庄，开始服务不同文化和种族背景的群体，而这第二阶段的培训为期三个月。

培训的第三阶段则是让他们每个人有机会到一个非营利机构工作，并在那里以志愿者服务两个月。

根据上述情况，这三个阶段的培训能够让学员获得在跨文化社会中的基本装备。第一阶段是让他们互相幫助共同生活。第二阶段是让他们以团队服务另一个不同文化的群体。然后，第三个阶段则是让他们有机会在特定机构学习，並加以了解该机构的目标和有关服务技能。

随着学员完成了培训，期望他们已经学到了一些生活技能，团队服务和对职业的一点体验。

The trainees undergoing the Cross-cultural services training
接受跨文化服务培训的学员