experiential Module

The experiential module is the final master’s project in the MAFLT program. For this project I chose to focus my teaching and language usage. As a flight attendant and language educator, I am often teaching my colleagues how to interact with passengers of other cultures or languages. Additionally, I often teach them words or phrases they can use on the airplane. Throughout my time as a flight attendant I have watched myself and others struggle to communicate with our passengers because of language or cultural misunderstandings. For this reason, my project is designed to help flight attendants become more intercultural while also providing Spanish resources they can use when interacting with passengers.

To begin my EM project, I started by surveying colleagues. I asked what languages they speak, their willingness to learn about other cultures, what resources they wish they had when on the airplane interacting with passengers, and misunderstandings or awkward situations due to the lack of cultural education or ability to communicate with our customers. These results allowed me to determine the most frequent situations flight attendants find themselves in where they wish they had other resources to help them to determine a solution.

I created a website flight attendants can use to learn more about interculturality and to interact with Spanish speaking passengers. On the website I include common scenarios and solutions, phrases or briefings for special cases, common airplane phrases and vocabulary, and cultural knowledge to grow as an intercultural flight attendant. Below is a link to the website I have created for my final master’s project in the MAFLT program.