Intercultural exchanges are international projects that give young people from different backgrounds the opportunity to meet, to live together, and to work on a joint project which takes place during a few days or during a cycle of several phases in each partner country, always respecting the principle of reciprocity.

Intercultural youth exchange with partners

Intercultural youth exchanges with open recruitment

French-German linguistic Tandem

Intercultural youth exchanges

Since the 1990s, Une Terre Culturelle has been organising and facilitating international youth exchanges that are based on intercultural learning, discovery and learning about oneself and others. We do not consider the international meeting of young people as a touristic or consumerist trip, but as a real experience of an educational mobility that allows the young generations to acquire and to reinforce personal, social, intercultural and professional skills aimed at favoring their socio-professional integration in the modern society.

During our exchanges, young people encounter new local realities, new ways of thinking, and they experience a reciprocal and intercultural exchange with other young people. By leaving their daily environment and getting to know the diversity, they become aware of their own cultural determinisms.

Every year, we organise intercultural exchanges in partnership with social centers, schools, organizations, and other socio-cultural structures. We develop partnerships with French and foreign organisations – Germany, Algeria, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy, Northern Macedonia, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Russia and many others countries – with whom we co-construct our projects in alignment with the principle of exchange and reciprocity. Our partners bring knowledge of the area and of the local realities. Working with young people is essential in order to build an intercultural exchange as close as possible to the needs and wishes of the participants.

Our exchanges are based on non-formal education methodologies and practices and an intercultural pedagogy, during which we address various and current themes based on the desires, motivations and needs of today’s youth such as artistic (music, theatre, urban arts…) and sporting practices, history and memory, citizenship, environment and sustainable development, media and social networks, prejudices and stereotypes. The pedagogical team is composed of 2 to 3 facilitators per country, who facilitate, organise, and translate during the encounters.

Motivation, active participation, and involvement of the participants are determining factors in the conduct of our projects. Young people are not seen only as participants, but also, and above all, they are actors and actresses in the intercultural exchange. Therefore, we accompany the youth throughout the project, and not only during the international mobility phases. Preparing for mobility is an important pillar of the exchanges which allows us to accompany the young people in this experience and enable them to make the most of it in short, medium and long term. Therefore, each exchange phase is preceded by several preparatory meetings, then evaluation meetings, and promotion events after each meeting with the youth and their parents.

We use methods that aim to encourage and to accompany young people in an individual and a collective process of intercultural learning not only about others, but also about themselves. Young people develop and strengthen interpersonal, intercultural, social and professional skills that are useful throughout their lives.

A cycle of intercultural exchanges is composed of:

– 2 phases of 7 days in each partner country (for bi-national exchanges) or;

– 3 phases of 7 days in each partner country (for trinational exchanges).

The exchange cycle lasts from 12 to 18 months. Exchange weeks are usually held during school holidays, except when the exchange cycle is part of a school project.

Youth groups are usually composed of 8-12 young people from each partner country. For each exchange cycle, an age range is set between 10 and 30 years. We seek a balance in terms of gender and social backgrounds. We do this in order to encourage diversity among the participants. They are often young people with fewer opportunities, facing economical, geographical, social and cultural barriers and/or educational difficulties. We work with local and international partners ( social centres, youth centres, youth organisations, sociocultural and educational facilities ) that have a local territorial anchorage and “recruit” the participants of our exchanges.

These encounters are very rewarding for young people. International mobility has always been essential for Une Terre Culturelle as a tool for local social development and professional integration of young people.

We also develop intercultural exchanges of young people with an “open recruitment”.

Find news about our intercultural youth exchange projects on our homepage and our blog.

You can find more information on the partnership and the organization of intercultural youth exchanges with Une Terre Culturelle here.

Intercultural youth exchanges with an open recruitment of participants

Each year, Une Terre Culturelle organises intercultural youth exchanges, with “open recruitment”, according to the needs, desires, and wishes of the young people we daily meet. The principle is the same as the intercultural exchanges we develop with our local partners:

  • an exchange cycle of 2 phases of 7 days in each partner country or;
  • an exchange cycle of 3 phases of 7 days in each partner country.

 

The exchange cycle lasts from 12 to 18 months. The exchange weeks usually take place during school holidays, except when the exchange cycle is part of a school project.

Throughout the projects, we supervise and support the participants, as well as the meetings by 2 or 3 facilitators from each country who are in charge of the organization, facilitation, and interpretation of the exchanges.

We base our intercultural exchanges on a methodology and practices that are derived from non-formal education, and on an intercultural pedagogy that encourages and accompanies young people in an individual and collective process of intercultural learning not only about others, but also about themselves. Young people develop and strengthen interpersonal, intercultural, social, and professional skills that will be useful to them throughout their entire lives.

These “open recruitment” exchange projects rely on motivation, active participation, and on the involvement of the participants. They are built with the youth according to their wishes and needs.

These projects bring together 8 to 12 young people from each partner country. For each exchange cycle an age range is set, which is between 10 and 30 years old. We are looking for a balance in terms of gender and background in order to encourage the diversity of the participants.

You can find our current offers on our homepage and discover testimonials of our past projects on our blog. For more information, you can write to us at info@uneterreculturelle.org and call us on +334 91 06 63 18.

Tandem exchange

The Tandem exchange is a language exchange between young French and German people that promotes a playful, reciprocal, and an authentic language learning experience. The participants work in French-German tandem, or in pairs, and are thus both learners of a foreign language and experts in their mother tongue. They are led to exchange ideas in one language and the other, and thus practice in a fun and pressure-free way. The Tandem approach encourages the learning of a new language by young people but also intercultural exchange and dialogue.

The exchange approximately lasts 10 days and takes place in France and Germany with a trip together in the middle of the stay. During the exchange, language activities, tandem courses, cultural visits, creative workshops and intercultural methods are proposed to discover the two cities and cultures. Moreover, the French-German group also shares informal times during which the participants get to know each other better and acquire more fluency and confidence in the foreign language.

These stays are aimed at young people between 13 and 18 years old who are learning German at school or who are interested in German. The groups are usually composed of 10 young German people and 10 young French people.

The pedagogical team is formed from four French and German interpreters who are trained in the Tandem method and in intercultural facilitation. They are in charge of the organization, facilitation, and interpretation of the Tandem exchanges.

For more information about the Tandem exchange and for registration, you can contact us by email at info@uneterreculturelle.org or by phone at +334 91 06 63 18.