I often recommend this to Study Abroad Program leaders as a great way to preempt some of those clashes that happen when students are paired to share a room during a study abroad program. Additionally, it serves the duo purpose of introducing concepts of intercultural self-awareness, empathy, and helps them to practice communication. The other great thing about this tool is that it is easily adapted to specific contexts. I often recommend changing the list of prompts to specific, known challenges that have occurred before with your particular group. This is a fantastic conversation starter!

As a study abroad leader, I have a bit of a handicap, in that I'm pretty introverted.  Using the hot buttons framework allows me to acknowledge my own human failings and encourage the students to be honest about their own.  I also like pairing this one with a self-care exercise such as the emotional resilience worksheet or self-care 101 exercise here in the Hub.

This is a simple activity to integrate in any world language classroom. The activity easily lends itself to include statements that pertain to the desired target culture.

The statements of the original activity can be gleaned from a variety of target sources, such as from speakers and practices of the target language. In the context of (preparation for) study abroad, the statements can be ones that manifested in past iterations of the study abroad program in any given country.

Duration of the activity can be lengthened or shortened. It has successfully been applied in one 30-minute timeslot.