22697 bridge for the derds intercultural communication game preintermediate

You live in a country called ‘Derdia.’ There is a deep canyon between your village and the market of the nearby
town. This is a huge inconvenience (=problem), because if you want to go grocery shopping there, you have to walk
for 2 days to get around the canyon and reach the market. If there was a bridge over the canyon, the
trip would take only 2 hours.
Now the Derdian government hired (=paid) a construction company from the EU to visit you and
teach you the science of building bridges. That means you are going to be
the first engineers in Derdia with a license to construct bridges in your
country.
Also, you and the engineers will build the first bridge of Derdia together.
You will use cardboard paper, pens, scissors and glue to build
the bridge. You are familiar with (=you know) the materials, but
construction methods (=how to build it).

not with the

SOCIAL RULES OF THE DERDS
1. Greetings
The traditional greeting is to
greet (=say hello to) each other
with a kiss on the other’s
shoulder. The first person to
greet the other kisses the other’s
right shoulder, and then the
other one does the same. Any
other kinds of kisses are
considered rudely impolite.
The worst possible offense
(=impoliteness) in Derdia is to
shake hands as a greeting. If
visitors do not greet a Derd
when meeting, you Derds will

become very hurt and annoyed.

2. Touching
Touching each other is very important
for you Derds. It is very impolite not
to touch during conversations.
However, you do not have to touch
each other directly. If you touch a
chain of people (=people holding
hands), you can communicate with
each member in the chain. Without
touching, you Derds will simply
ignore (=not hear) the speaker.

4. Behavior during work
You Derds touch each other during
work when you want to
communicate.
The tools all have a gender: the
paper and scissors are feminine
(=female), the pencil, pen, glue/sticky
tape, stapler and ruler are masculine
(=male). Men must not touch any
feminine tools, while women must not
touch masculine tools. You consider
touching the wrong tool
embarrassing and will laugh when
this happens.

3. Saying YES/NO

You Derds do not use the ’N’ word,
that is the word ’no’, because you
consider it very rude. You say ’yes’
when you mean ’yes’, and say
’yes’ while very strongly nodding
your head (moving it up and down)
when you mean ’no’.

5. Foreigners
You Derds are sociable (=friendly)
people, who especially like meeting
foreigners. You are proud of
yourselves and your culture. So while
you highly appreciate the engineers’
help, you do not consider them
superior (=better than you). You
Derds respect the foreigners, but
expect them to behave as you do, ie.
according to the Derdian customs
(=rules).

Very important: You Derds take your own cultural customs for
granted, i.e. you can’t imagine that others may have different
customs, so you do not explain anything to the engineers!


You are engineers working for a construction company in the European Union. The Derdian government
has recently hired your company teach a group of Derds how to construct (=build) bridges. You will visit
their village and build the first bridge together. You have to keep the deadline (=finish in time) agreed
upon, otherwise you will not get paid and will lose your jobs.

Derdia is a mountainous country beyond the Operentsian Sea with deep canyons and
valleys, but without any bridges. There is a deep canyon between the Derdian village you
are visiting and the market of the nearby town. This is a huge inconvenience (=problem),
because if they want to go grocery shopping there, they have to
walk for 2 days to get around the canyon and reach the market. If
there was a bridge over the canyon, the trip would take only 2
hours.
It is important to not just build the first bridge, but also to
train (=teach) the first Derdian engineers how to build
bridges alone in Derdia.

PREPARATION FOR THE TRAINING
Construction
STEP 1. Decide what kind of bridge
you should build, and how to build it.
STEP 2. Then 2 members of the
construction team can make a quick
visit to the Derdian village where the
first bridge will be built, e.g. in order
to
•
•
•

meet the villagers
discuss basic details of the job
and confirm the number of your
team
collect information on the natural
and weather conditions and the

Derdians (e.g. Does it rain a lot?
Are there forests? Do Derdians
speak English?).

STEP 3.You’ll have 5 minutes to
share the new information with your
team.
STEP 4. Finally, your whole team of
engineers will travel to Derdia to
teach the Derds how to build bridges.

The bridge
You will build the bridge out of
cardboard paper, using pens,
scissors and glue.
The bridge has to connect 2
chairs or desks standing about 80
cm from each other.
It has to be strong enough to hold
its own weight, and the scissors,
pencils and other construction
tools.
You cannot assemble (=build)
parts of the bridge at home and
transport the parts to Derdia,
because, on the one hand, it
would be expensive, and on the
other hand, then the Derds could
not master (=learn) the skills of
bridge construction. It is very

important that they learn all the
stages (=steps) of the
construction.
You and the Derds have to draw
each panel of the bridge using a
pen/pencil and a ruler, and cut it
out with scissors.

The time limit
30-45 minutes for reading
these instructions, planning
the construction and
making the first visit to
Derdia.
Then 30-45 minutes for
building the bridge and
training the Derds.

It’s very important to
always behave politely
during your visit!


DERDIAN SOCIAL RULES
Greeting:
Kiss on shoulder (If engineers want to shake hands, refuse it)
Always touch when you talk (If engineers don’t touch you when speaking to you, don’t
listen to them)
Never say no:
No = YEEES (also nod your head)

Women can only touch feminine tools:
paper, scissors (If engineers touch wrong
object, laugh :)

Men can only touch masculine tools: pen, ruler, glue/sticky tape (If engineers touch wrong
object, laugh :)

DERDIAN SOCIAL RULES
Greeting:
Kiss on shoulder (If engineers want to shake hands, refuse it)
Always touch when you talk (If engineers don’t touch you when speaking to you, don’t
listen to them)
Never say no:
No = YEEES (also nod your head)
Women can only touch feminine tools:
paper, scissors (If engineers touch wrong
object, laugh :)

Men can only touch masculine tools: pen, ruler, glue/sticky tape (If engineers touch wrong
object, laugh :)



VOCABULARY LIST
canyon

deep valley

a huge inconvenience

a big problem

go grocery shopping

buy food, drink and basic things for the
home

bridge

road above a valley or river

government

the small group of people who control a
country

hire sy

to pay sy to do sg

a construction company

a company building houses, bridges, etc.

engineer

a person who can design roads and buildings

to construct bridges

to build

cardboard paper

strong, brownish paper

a pair of scissors

a tool used for cutting

glue

sticky tape

stapler

ruler

be familiar with sg.

know

construction methods

ways of building

greeting

saying hello

to greet each other

to say hello

is considered impolite

people think it’s not polite

tactless

a bit impolite

offense

impoliteness

shake hands

a form of greeting in Western cultures

a chain of people

people holding each other’s hands

ignore

to not listen to sy

nod, nod your head

saying yes with your head


to communicate

to talk

tools

useful things, e.g. scissors, glue, stapler

gender

the two genders are: men and women

feminine

related to women

masculine

related to men

foreigners

people from other countries

sociable

friendly

superior

better

the Derdian customs

traditions, ways of living

take sg. for granted

be used to sg.