Encounters with a Syrian - How two worlds converge

Abstract

Two people, from two different cultural backgrounds, with two different pasts, meet each other. The following article deals with the process of these two people´s becoming acquainted. Two years ago, Omar Khir Alanam was forced to leave his native Syria; he eventually arrived in Austria. In the spring of 2015, we met in Graz. We got together frequently, talked about everyday life and Syrian food. However, we never talked about our pasts. After a van attack in Graz on 20 June 2015, in which three people were killed and several badly injured, we became aware of how differently this affected us. Only then, after this horrible incident, did our individual pasts which colored our perceptions of the event become a major topic of interviews and discussions. During the process, the research took on a dialogic character. Only the mutual interest in the seemingly foreign enabled us to understand each other.

Keywords

• intercultural encounters
• Syria
• Austria
• violence
• the Self and the Other
• dialogic research