Field Trips Bring Cross-Cultural Communication Learning to Life

To strengthen students’ cross-cultural communication competence through experiential learning, Jeanette KY Yuen, Assistant Professor at the English Language Centre, incorporated cultural fieldwork into her Cross-Cultural Communication course this semester. By guiding students on field trips to Beitou and Dadaocheng, the course connected classroom learning with historical spaces, encouraging students to engage directly with culture, history, and communication in real-world contexts.

Conversation with History: Learning Cross-Cultural Communication Beyond the Classroom

This semester, students in the Cross-Cultural Communication class participated in two cultural field trips to Beitou and Dadaocheng, transforming the city into a living classroom and history into an experience they could see, hear, smell and engage with directly. Both trips were closely connected to one of the core themes of the course, ‘Conversation with History’. Rather than studying history as a collection of distant facts, students were encouraged to engage with historical space and reflect on how the past continues to shape cultural practices, identities, and communication today.

Guided by professional tour guides from the Taipei City Archives, students explored hot spring heritage in Beitou and the historic streets in Dadaocheng, learning how architecture, trade, religion, and everyday life carry historical meanings that remain visible in contemporary Taiwan. For many international students, this experience offered valuable opportunities to compare Taiwanese historical narratives with their own cultural background. Through observation, discussion, and interaction with both the guides, their fellow classmates and the environment, students practiced cross-cultural communication skills, including cultural sensitivity, contextual understanding, and respectful inquiry.

Students responded enthusiastically to both trips. They actively took notes, asked thoughtful questions, took photos and shared insights during and after the visits. They have also completed a field trip report, in which they reflected on their chosen themes and analyzed how historical context influences the culture and communication at present.

By stepping outside the classroom and into historically rich districts such as Beitou and Dadaocheng, students discovered that ‘conversation with history’ is essential to understanding culture, and that history is not distant or abstract—it is all around us, shaping how people live, communicate, and connect.