A very enlightening intercultural exchange videoconference was held between Podar World School, Sherkhi and INS Torres iBages, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona-Espana-Spain on 21st and 28th of January, 2020. Cultural exchanges provide an opportunity to explore other cultures, traditions, customs, beliefs, societies, languages and much more. Hence, such opportunities make you view the world with a different lens. Such program not only provide alternative perspectives but also broadens one’s horizons and increases the tendency of acceptance. Two different classes participated in the conference and reaped rich dividends with respect to gaining knowledge regarding different aspects of the countries. The students from Podar World School interacted with lots of zeal and enthusiasm as usual as they were well prepared to respond to any queries from their counterpart. They had prepared a lot of posters and drawings related to the topics they were sharing with the other country.
A few benefits of the Student Exchange Program are such it leads to international learning and the knowledge gained propels students towards acceptance and understanding of an array of different cultural and community perspectives. Sometimes language acquisition is achieved through practical immersion for instance as happened in this program wherein students got to know that ‘Hola’ means ‘hello’ in the local language of the Spain (Catalan) and ‘Gràcias' means ‘Thank-you’. Besides the participants also get awareness of alternative, multi-faceted approaches to learning etc. On the while it was a very educating session where a lot of give and take took place with respect to traditions, customs, languages etc and above all it gave them an opportunity to have live sessions with students of their own age group, wherein they shared everything under the sky.
