The skills we seek have also been placed into 3 categories: skills of learning and innovation (collaborating and communicating, as above, along with both creative and critical thinking skills), literacies or competencies in areas of information, media, and technology, and career / life skills such as flexibility, initiative, leadership, productivity, and a general ability in social skills.

Typically, we begin learning life skills, including those associated with career such as productivity, early in childhood and throughout our school years. If you lack in any one area – say, you don’t feel comfortable taking initiative or leading others – that’s an area that you could then develop further. (We don’t all have to be leaders! But general skills of leadership are always useful in order to truly be a global citizen, even in making our own decisions about our actions rather than merely following the majority or what someone else tells us to do.)

The skills of learning and innovation are also usually gained as we develop toward adulthood; while you may not think of yourself as particularly creative in the artistic sense, creative thinking is a close cousin to problem-solving: thinking differently about a problem in order to come up with an alternative solution. Critical thinking is perhaps the most difficult in this category; thinking deeply and analytically doesn’t require one to be a genius, but it does mean that we don’t take mental shortcuts. We avoid stereotypes and misunderstandings because we’ve learned to always look deeper, reassess, ask questions, consider alternative explanations, and generally, to think.

The third category of literacies takes time. Just as in the most common use of that term, in being able to read and write, consider when studying a second language – and how long it takes to gain even the most basic level of use. Literacy takes time. We continue to actively gather information – about global issues and systems, about other cultures – throughout our lives, always increasing our literacy. A later chapter in this book will cover media literacy in greater detail. And surely, in this age, we all learn new technology practically every day, constantly adding to our digital literacy. Why is that crucial for the global citizen? Because technology is what now, in large part, runs the world. In order to engage with others around the globe, to learn everything we can about global issues – and how they are changing moment to moment, to take action for the greater good, we need a reasonably high technological capacity.

One of the most difficult areas for the global citizen is that of cultural competency, and there’s a separate book on the topic in this series. As is obvious, we can’t learn about all of the world’s cultures one-by-one (though we can surely have fun trying, for the rest of our lives) – but we can learn, careful not to generalize, about some of the common features in each global region. A number of frameworks for this task have also been developed; I suggest you look at the Lewis cultural model, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, and the Inglehart-Welzel cultural map, for a start. Cross-cultural communication is also a major skill to acquire; even when using the same language, we may have significantly different ways of communicating – and many a misunderstanding can result.

Most of all: make it a primary focus and value of your life. When you want to watch a movie or series on some streaming platform, choose those made outside of your own country (and get comfortable with reading subtitles). If you read novels, the same applies; try reading works from various countries, translated into your own language, of course, and notice as much of the underlying culture as you can. Learn a language. Or a few. Get an app and spend a few minutes a day on a lesson in each of a few languages, ones dissimilar to your own – and also far apart from one another. You don’t need to become fluent – but you will be growing your global mind.

Above all: meet people from other cultures. Find an online platform you like that’s for this purpose, such as AFS Virtual Exchange (different channels for teens and adults), or any online language exchange program. Any global action you get involved in will have its own method for connecting people around the globe who are working together on the same issue.

Gain those skills, meet the world’s people, get involved – take that next step.

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Exercises

Discussion or Contemplation: In which of these skill sets do I already feel at least somewhat confident, and in which do I need to strengthen my skills?

Writing or Recording: What next steps can I take, and how, to begin building those skill areas in which I don’t yet feel confident?

Further Reading: Collaboration, Empathy, and Self-Awareness are Key Skills of Global Citizens

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