The Importance of Experiential Learning for Development of Essential Skills in Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Effectiveness

My sister Eileen’s 1987 wedding held in our hometown, the Bronx, involved a moment of intercultural misunderstanding.1 From at least the time of my parents’ wedding in 1959, up until my sister’s in 1987, it was customary among Irish immigrant families in New York City (NYC) to have “the telegrams” read aloud at wedding receptions. These telegrams were sent from overseas family members who could not make the trip to the “Yank” wedding, and were read aloud by members of the wedding party to the bride, groom, and guests. At Eileen’s wedding, the moment came when the telegrams were read aloud. The first telegram was sweet and thoughtful. Non-Irish guests commented on the loveliness of the custom. The next telegram wished all present at the wedding “good crack.” There was a stunned silence in the previously merry room. Since crack cocaine in NYC in the 1980s was a scourge destroying neighborhoods and families, and was certainly not something to make jokes about at a wedding, this telegram appeared to be in very poor taste—its reading creating an awfully awkward moment. Those of us who were first generation Irish rushed to explain to the American guests that “crack/craic”2 is Gaelic