Israel Reflections 2015 – Day Four: Class at Tzfat
On day four of the trip, we joined Professor Yael Efron’s class at the Tzfat Academic College School of Law for a joint negotiation class. A close colleague of mine, Yael conducts her class similarly to ours here at Marquette and we were lucky enough to join her on her first day of the semester. Spoiler alert–the students below describe the card game BARNGA–and I’m happy to share the materials if anyone would like.
Student Marcus Hirsch describes the exercise:
Upon entering the classroom, we were joined at tables by Israeli students, and began mingling. After introductions, instructions for a negotiation exercise were distributed and a card game commenced. The game required individual interpretations of the rules, and forbid verbal communication from the participants – in Hebrew or English. This led to an even greater learning experience, even as it caused massive frustration, confusion, and uncontrollable fits of laughter from the participants. In the debriefing after the game, the participants not only came to understand how miscommunication and lack of information can lead to problems, but learned that these problems are cross-cultural and cross-linguistic.