2160 bridge for the derds intercultural communication game

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, because if you want to do grocery shopping there, you have to walk for two
days to get around the canyon and reach the market. If there was a bridge over the canyon, the trip
would take only 5 hours.
Now a construction company from the EU have been hired by the Derdian government 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 all
across the country.
You will use cardboard paper, pens, scissors and glue to make
the bridge. You are familiar with the materials, but not with the
construction methods.

YOUR SOCIAL RULES

1. Touching
Touching each other is very
important for the Derds. It is
grossly improper and tactless
not to touch during
conversations. However, you do
not have to touch each other
directly. If you touch a chain of
people, you can communicate
with each member in the chain.

4. Saying yes/no
The Derds do not use the ’N’
word, that is the word ’no’,
because it is considered very
rude. You say ’yes’ when you
mean ’yes’, and say ’yes’ while

very markedly nodding your
heads when you mean ’no’.

2. Introductions
It is also hugely important to
greet visitors kindly. A Derdian
man may not make contact with
another man until a woman
introduces them to each other.
This woman can either be a
Derd or a foreigner.

5. Conduct during work
The Derds touch each other
during work when they wish to
communicate.
The tools all have a gender: the
paper and scissors are feminine,
the pencil, pen, glue and ruler
are masculine. The men must
not touch a feminine tool, while
the women must not touch
masculine tools (I guess it has to
do with their cultural traditions or
religion).

Very important: You take your own
cultural customs for granted (=you
can’t imagine that others may have
different customs), so you do not

explain anything to the engineers!

3. Greetings
The traditional greeting is to
greet 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 returns the
same greeting. Any other kinds
of kisses are considered rudely
impolite.
The worst possible offense in
Derdia is to shake hands as a
greeting. A Derd who was
offended by not being greeted
upon meeting or not being
touched during conversations
behaves rather indignantly.

6. Foreigners
The Derds are sociable people, who
especially like meeting foreigners.
You are very proud of yourselves
and your culture. So while you highly
appreciate the assistance in building
bridges, you do not regard the
foreigners superior. You Derds
expect the foreigners to
accommodate to the Derdian culture

and customs.


You are engineers working for a multinational construction company in the European Union. The
company has recently contracted with the Derdian government, and thereby offered to hold a training to
teach a group of Derds how to construct bridges. You will visit their village and build the first bridge
together. You have to keep the deadline agreed upon, otherwise the contract will be terminated and you
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, because if they want
to do grocery shopping there, they have to walk for two days to get around the canyon and
reach the market. If there was a bridge over the canyon, the trip would take only 5 hours.
It is important not simply to build the first bridge, but also to train the
first Derdian engineers and enable them to build bridges all across
Derdia.

PREPARATION FOR THE TRAINING

Construction
Decide together on which
contruction method to use in
building a bridge for the Derds.
In the meantime, two members of
the construction team can make
a quick, 3-minute visit to the
Derdian village where the first
bridge will be built, e.g. to make
contact with the villagers, discuss
details of the contract, confirm

the forthcoming arrival of the
team, and gather (=collect)
information on the natural and
weather conditions.
Then you’ll have 10 minutes to
share the new information with
your team, and make the
necessary preparations. Finally,
your whole team of engineers
travels to Derdia to teach the
Derds how to build bridges.

The bridge
The bridge is symbolized by a
paper bridge. You will build the
bridge out of cardboard paper,
using pens, scissors and glue.
The bridge has to connect two
chairs or desks standing about 80
cm from each other. It has to be
strong enough to bear (=hold) its
own weight, and the scissors,
pencils and other construction
tools.
You cannot assemble parts of the
bridge in the EU to transport the
parts to Derdia, because, on the
one hand, it would not be costeffective (=cheap), and on the
other hand, the Derds could not
master (=learn) the skill of bridge

construction. It is very important
that they learn all the stages of
construction. Each panel of the
bridge has to be drawn by a
pen/pencil and a ruler, and cut
out with scissors.

The time limit
30-40 minutes for
preplanning the
construction process
and the visit to Derdia.
25-30 minutes for
teaching the Derds to
build bridges.