On 3 March 2025, TE IS Foundation (TEIS) piloted the Barnga tool during an intercultural training course in Hungary, bringing together 22 participants for a five-hour experiential learning session. Set within a wider programme on youth work and diversity, the workshop aimed to help participants reflect on how they navigate confusion, unspoken norms, and communication barriers in intercultural settings.
Barnga is a classic simulation game for intercultural learning: participants are taught to play a simple card game in small groups, but each table receives slightly different rule sets. After a short practice round, verbal communication is forbidden. As players rotate between tables, they suddenly find themselves confronted with people “playing wrong” – or at least, that is how it appears from their own rulebook. In this piloting, TEIS used Barnga to recreate the disorientation that often accompanies encounters with new cultures, invisible norms, and clashing expectations.
Very quickly, the room filled with puzzled looks, expressive gestures, and moments of barely contained frustration. Participants tried to make sense of what was happening using only non-verbal cues: raised eyebrows, hand signals, hesitant smiles, and at times a quiet withdrawal from the game. The structured “silent confusion” of Barnga mirrored what happens when people move across borders or enter new social environments where the rules are not explained, just assumed.
The debriefing circle that followed turned these reactions into learning. Participants described Barnga as engaging, confusing, and challenging in a constructive way, noting that the strong emotional responses – confusion, irritation, surprise, even a sense of unfairness – made the reflection phase especially powerful. Many recognised that their first instinct had been to assume that others were “cheating” or “not understanding,” rather than questioning their own assumptions or considering that multiple rule systems might exist.
Through guided discussion, the group connected these insights to their own experiences of culture shock, privilege, and adaptation. Several participants shared stories of arriving in new countries, education systems, or workplaces where nobody explained how things “really work” – yet they were still expected to fit in seamlessly. Barnga helped them see how unspoken rules and unconscious expectations can quickly lead to tension, exclusion, or conflict if not acknowledged and negotiated.
Feedback on the tool was consistently positive. Participants highlighted Barnga as an accessible, non-verbal entry pointinto complex themes such as intercultural sensitivity, power dynamics, and inclusion. They appreciated that the game did not require prior knowledge or language fluency to be meaningful, making it particularly suitable for diverse and international groups. Several youth workers and trainers expressed their intention to integrate Barnga into their own educational or training activities, especially when working with young people around migration, diversity, and reconciliation.
The TEIS piloting on 03.03.2025 thus confirmed Barnga’s value as a core element of the “Peace by Piece” toolkit. By placing participants directly inside a structured experience of confusion and norm-clash, the tool opens the door to honest conversations about how we respond to difference – and how we might build more empathy, patience, and openness when navigating intercultural encounters.
“The Missing Peace” project is co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ Program (Pr. Nr.: KA220-YOU-055CD22D).
Reference:
- The Missing Peace – WP4.A3. – Piloting reports.