Culture Learning: Simulations & Exercises

Games are a fun and effective way to introduce issues of cultural awareness and intercultural communications to students. The information on this page, compiled by the Intercultural Studies Project, is a good place to start looking for specific cultural simulations and exercises and for ways to incorporate them into the curriculum.

Films and videos also make good introductions to issues related to culture, and can serve as starting points for classroom discussions of such issues.

Contents of this page:

Simulation Games
Bibliography of publications
Contact information for distributors
Contact information for professional organizations

Simulation Games

Aid to Minorians / Intercultural Sourcebook

Participants are divided into two groups: The Minorians are a poor and underdeveloped society; while the Majorians are wealthy and are trying to plan a project to help the Minorians. Cultural assumptions and the relationship between donor and receiving parties are examined.

Albatross / Beyond Experience

This is a nonverbal role-playing activity that can incorporate a variety of themes, such as male-female relationships and privilege. Participants are asked to watch a brief role-play and then describe what they saw. Most will interpret what they saw and begin to judge the characters in the role while only having seen, but not heard, anything. This exercise provides a good example of how people give meaning to unique events based on their own experiences.

Alternatives: A Game of Understanding / Intercultural Press

This board game examines the relationship bewteen gay, lesbian, and bisexuqal groups and heterosexual groups in contemporary society. Any number of people can play and it includes aspects of both board games and role-playing exercises.

Bafa' Bafa' / Simulation Training Systems

Participants are divided into two cultures, and are asked to travel back and forth between them. Players try to understand the other culture through these visits while maintaining their own cultural role. This simulation shows how easy it is to misinterpret actions and exchanges when the rules are unfamiliar, and it demonstartes the need for thought-out strategies when learning about a new culture.

Barnga / Intercultural Press

A nonverbal game in which participants are divided into groups to learn a card game based on a number of simple rules. What the participants do not know is that each group's set of rules is slightly different, so when they begin to play the game with others conflict develops. As players are not allowed to talk, they must rely on other means of communication. While sometimes explosive, this game demonstrates how quickly ingroup-outgroup dynamics form.

Brief Encounters / HRD Press

The purpose of this cross-cultural simulation game is to explore how people perceive cultural differences. It explores concepts and skills such as enculturation, ethnocentrism, first impressions, and interacting with culturally different groups.

Chatter / HRD Press

This simulation encourages participants to pay attention to the dynamics of small group interactions. The purpose is to have participants experience variations in conversational styles and to modify their behavior appropriately.

The Cost of Your Shirt / Resource Center of the Americas

This simulation exercise is based on the real-life drama of a Guatemala City maquiladora. Exploring the global issues behind a union dispute, students play the roles of plant managers, workers, government representatives, and concerned US citizens.

Crisis / Simulation Training Systems

Participants form teams and each team is instructed to manage the affairs of a fictional nation. The nations vary in their resources, strengths, and weaknesses, but must work together to solve an international conflict.

Death of a Dissident / Myrin Institute & American Forum

This game looks at economic and social development issues. Set in a Carribean nation, participants are given roles and asked to negotiate with each other to solve the problems that arise.

Diversophy: Understanding the Human Race / George Simons International

A board game that helps develop the skills necessary to understand and collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds. A conference version is available for large groups, average playing time is 60-90 minutes.

Ecotonos/ Intercultural Press

Participants take on roles as members of different cultural groups and are then asked to interact with others to solve a problem. This simulation looks at how homogenous groups work as opposed to how heterogeneous groups work, as well as examining the assumptions that groups make about the decision making process and how to work out a problem.

The Emperor's Pot / Intercultural Sourcebook Vol. 1

This simulation focuses on the different cultural assumptions and values of different groups as one group tries to obtain a valued object from another. Also known as the East-West Game.

Exclude / HRD Press

This game gives participants a chance to experience the frustrations of being left out of a group or being ignored by its members.

Fire in the Forest / American Forum

The learning themes for this simulation include environmental protection, respect for other cultures, and economic development. Set in the Amazon Rain Forest, participants represent conflicting claims to the land and try to negotiate a solution.

Grocery Store / American Forum

In a culturally diverse neighborhood in the inner city, tensions arise between diverse culture groups. A critical incident occurs and is interpreted differently by each party. This game looks at race relations, cultural diversity, and the different cultural meanings that are attached to different behaviors.

Heelotia /Simulation Training Systems

Similar to Bafa Bafa, this game is easier to conduct. In this game, the cultural rules are intentionally vague so as to make the participants decide on their own cultural rules. Thus, this exercise looks at howdecisions are made, as well as how one interacts with another culture group.

Hostage Crisis / Moorehead Kennedy Institute

In this game, terrorists threaten to harm U.S. hostages unless their demands are met. As the demands are not feasible, negotiation becomes critical. The main themes in this game are Middle Eastern nationalism, issues of justice, and cross-cultural understanding.

IDE-GO / Intercultural Sourcebook Vol. 1

Participants separate into two groups: one simulates North American culture while the other simulates South American culture. This game is designed to provide insight into the interaction processes and behaviors of these two groups.

Lump-Sum / Weeks, Pederson, & Brislin

Participants are separated into four groups with differing backgrounds and interests. They meet to negotiate the allocation of a specific amount of money. They must decide within an allotted amount of time or the money will be lost. Likewise, the game requires unanimous agreement rather than simply majority rule on the decision, so the only way for any group to win is for all groups to win.

The Malonarian Cultural Expedition Team / Meridian House International

In this simulation, participants play a team of cultural anthropologists from the Republic of Malonaria. The team's assignment is to study the United States in order to prepare for educational and diplomatic exchanges between the two cultures. A values approach is taken, and members of the team are asked to compare American and Malonarian values as a way to further understanding.

The Martian Anthropology Exercise / Beyond Experience

In this exercise, participants are supposed to pretend that they are studying a new culture, that of the "Martians". The players are divided into groups, and each group is given a task to complete before all reconvene as a large group. Each small group has a different assignment, and assignments can be altered to fit the specific themes that the teacher would like to discuss. Suggested group tasks include going to the public library to study kinship patterns, or going to a cafe to study communication patterns. Each group is to pretend that they have never had contact with this "Martian" culture before, so they must try to make sense of it and then report back to the larger group.

The Owl / Beyond Experience Vols. 1 & 2

A group of reporters are assigned to interview members of another country and, if acting appropriately, can gain access to a mysterious cultural event. If they accomplish the task, the reporters will have their story. Communication problems arise, though, and the reporters are faced with the dilemma of needing information while also needing to find a culturally appropriate way to ask for it.

Same Difference / HRD Press

This game helps participants identify several cultural groups to which they belong, to discover similarities and differences between themselves and others, to identify personal attributes which are immediately recognized and the ones which require time and effort to discover, as well as to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant attributes in a given situation.

Starpower / Simulation Training Systems

Participants form groups with different economic statuses and learn to trade with each other as a way to improve their economic status. The most economically viable group is allowed to alter the rules, though. Alliances quickly form and ingroup-outgroup dynamics become evident as well as assumptions about the uses and abuses of power.

Tisouro: Creating Felt Needs / Beyond Experience (2nd ed.)

In this simple exercise players gather in a circle and pass a pair of scissors to each other. They are only allowed to say how they are passing the scissors, either closed, crossed or open. The facilitator gives the instructions in a way that is ambiguous between participants having the scissors or their legs be closed, crossed, or open when they pass the scissors. This exercise examines nonverbal communication, conflicting signals, and feelings of beinf left out or not understanding within a group context.

Where Do You Draw the Line / Simulation Training Systems

Publications

Adams, D. (1973).
Simulation Games: An approach to Learning. Worthington, OH: Charles A. Jones Publishing Company.

Batchelder, D. & Warner, E.C. (1977).
Beyond Experience. Battleboro, VT: Experiment in International Living.

Buckley, R. & Caple, J. (1990).
The Theory and Practice of Training. San Diego, CA: University Associates.

Fowler, S. M. (1977).
Intercultural Sourcebook. Pittsburg, PA

Fowler, S.M. & Mumford, M.G. (1995)
Intercultural Sourcebook. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

Gochenouz, T. (ed.) (1993).
Beyond Experience: The Experiential Approach to Cross-cultural Training (2nd ed.) Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

Greenblat, C.S. (1988).
Designing Games and Simulations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Horn, R.E. & Cleaves, A. (Eds.) (1980).
The Guide to Simulations / Games for Education and Training. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Jones, K. (1983)
Simulations for Language Teaching. New Directions in Language Teaching Series. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Jones, K. (1985)
Designing Your Own Simulations. New York, NY: Routledge Chapman and Hall.

Jones, K. (1987)
Simulation: Handbook for Teachers. New York, NY: Nichols Publishers.

Jones, K. (1988)
Interactive Learning Events. New York, NY: Nichols Publishers.

Kohls, L. R. & Knight, J. M. (1994)
Developing Cross-cultural Awareness. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

Pfeffer, J. W. & Bronstein, R. H. (1988).
Simulations and Games. Training Technology Series. San Diego, CA: University Associates.

Pusch, M. D. (Ed.). (1979).
Multicultural Education: A Cross-cultural Training Approach. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

Simile II Catalogue.
Simulations Games for Universities and Colleges: Games for other Ages. Del Mar, CA: Simile II.

Taylor, J. & Walford, R. (1978).
Learning and the Simulation Game. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Weeks, W., Pederson, P.P. & Brislin, R.W. (1977).
A Manual of Structured Experiences for Cross-cultural Learning. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

There are a number of journals that devote much of their effort to experiential learning
activities as well, such as:

Journal of Experiential Education
http://www.aee.org/publications/journal/aeejourn.html
Simulation and gaming: An International Journal of Theory, Design, and Research
http://www.unice.fr/sg/

Game Distributors

American Forum for Global Education
120 Wall Street, Suite 2600
New York, NY 10005
Phone: (212) 624-1300
Email: globed120@aol.com
Website: http://www.globaled.org

George Simons International
EUROPE
Domaine les Résidences de l'Argentière - Bâtiment A
637 Boulevard de la Tavernière
06210 Mandelieu-La Napoule, France
Phone: +33 4 92 97 57 35 Fax +33 1 53 01 35 04
USA
236 Plateau Avenue
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Voice Mail & Fax: 1 888 215 3117
Website: http://www.diversophy.com

HRD Press (in association with Workshops by Thiagi)
22 Amherst Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Phone: (800) 822-2801
Website: http://www.hrdpress.com/

Intercultural Press P.O. Box 700
Yarmouth, ME, 04096
Phone: (800) 370-2665
Website: http://www.interculturalpress.com

Meridian International Center c/o Norma McCraig
1630 Crescent Pl. NW
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 667-6800
Email: info@meridian.org
Website: http://www.meridian.org

Moorehead Kennedy Institute 45 John St., Suite 909
New York, NY 10038
Phone: (212) 964-4622

Resource Center of the Americas 3019 Minnehaha Avenue So.
Minneapolis, MN 55406-1931
Phone: (800) 452-8382
Website: http://www.americas.org

Simulation Training Systems P.O. Box 910
Del Mar, CA 92014
Phone: 1-800-942-2900
Fax: (619) 792-9743
Email: sts@cts.com
Website: http://www.stsintl.com/

Workshops by Thiagi 4423 E. Trailridge Road
Bloomington, IN 47408-9633
Phone: (812) 332-1478
Website: http://www.thiagi.com

Professional Associations

ISAGA International Simulation and Gaming Association
Membership secretary
c/o Markus Ulrich
USC Ulrich Creative Simulations
Blaufahnenstrasse 14
Ch-8001
Zurich, Switzerland
Email: ucs@access.ch
Website: http://www.isaga.info

North American Simulations & Gaming Association (NASAGA)
P.O. Box 78636
Indianapolis, IN 46278
Phone: 1-888-432-game, or (317) 387-1424
Website: http://www.nasaga.org

Society for the Advancement of games & Simulations in Education & Training (SAGSET)
53 Prince's Gate
Exhibition Road
London, SW7 2PG
United Kingdom
Website: http://www.ms.ic.ac.uk/sagset/