MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- The Air Force Culture and Language Center offers a “Developing Cross-Cultural Competence” Course on its free Culture Guide mobile app, untethered from government IT platforms. This course coincides with AFCLC’s vision to lead the U.S. Air Force in building a cross-culturally competent total force to meet the demands of a dynamic global mission.
Upon completing the course, Airmen and Guardians will receive a Certificate of Completion to upload to their learning record.
This course is part of AFCLC’s initiative to deliberately develop service members with critical language, regional expertise, and culture skills to meet the current global environment's operational and partnership-building needs. Upon completing the course, Airmen and Guardians will have the skills to individually enhance expeditionary operations and meet dynamic international security challenges worldwide.
LREC capabilities are critical to successfully planning and executing the full range of AF missions, from humanitarian relief to combat operations. The total force can baseline cultural competence development in 2.5 hours with this course.
The DCC course provides foundational information on basic concepts and practices to enhance cross-cultural competence in preparation for living and working among different cultures.
Upon completion, participants will be able to:
- Define culture, explain the culture-general approach, give examples of cross-cultural competence, and identify examples of cultural common sense
- Identify cultural schemas and barriers, describe geographic perception and geographic scale, define ethnocentrism and attribution error, describe perspective-taking, identify the stages of culture shock, and explain the Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) Loop
- Explain the 12 Domains of Culture, and use the 12 Domains to Observe and Orient to new cultures
- Define cross-cultural communication, explain verbal and non-verbal communication, identify examples of high- and low-context communication styles, explain how cross-cultural communication supports negotiations and relationships, and describe how building relationships and managing conflict supports cross-cultural communication
AFCLC’s Culture Guide app is available to all military service members and civilians through the App Store and Google Play, and it is safe for Department of Defense mobile devices.
For iOS users, access the app and course here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/culture-guide/id1001309672
For Android users, access the app and course here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bah.afclc&hl=en