Intercultural competence: its importance and the need for international mobility

Abstract

In a society where there is an increasing emphasis on the exchange of experience between students from different cultures, intercultural competence is becoming a necessity in order to respond to the cultural challenges that students face during an international mobility. Knowing the traditions and customs specific to the host country, learning its language, interacting with host members, attitude towards culture, are just some of the main elements of intercultural competence that students must have before contact with a new culture to adapt. much easier and faster at this. In order to identify the opinions, difficulties and obstacles related to intercultural competence, as well as training needs of students, a questionnaire was applied to which 51 Romanian students responded before participating in international mobilities. The analysis of the data shows that greater importance is given to intercultural competence among students aiming to participate in an international mobility internship for the context of today’s society. Respondents also state the need for a minimum of intercultural training before international mobility.

Keywords

• intercultural competence
• students
• international mobility