There’s nothing that stirs the intercultural pot quite like throwing together young people from two very different cultures and watching what happens. I had the privilege this past week of observing, and guiding, such a clash when 20-odd American and 20-odd Chinese youth roomed with each other in a remote location near Beijing as part of the YingHua Summer Language and Leadership Institute.

When you’re consulting with youth, all the fancy theorizing in the world can’t save you. That’s not to say that theory isn’t important. In fact, without a solid grounding in theory, you’re surely sunk. Rather, it’s a matter of constantly finding ways of translating theory into models and activities that are suited to youngsters. And when these don’t work, making things up on the fly. It’s exhilarating — especially when the light bulbs go on and true, meaningful intercultural understanding manifests out of what seems like thin air.

This morning we asked the kids to share about what they’ve learned this week. My favorites were the most rawly expressed. One Chinese girl said: “At first I thought the Americans’ behaviors were strange, and I didn’t know if I could accept them. But now they have become my true friends and I can accept their behaviors.” An American boy said, “On the first day I thought my roommate did some weird stuff, and I thought he wasn’t normal. But now I realize that he’s normal and it’s just how he lives and it’s his culture.”

It’s not the language most adults would choose, but I can’t think of an intercultural lesson more profound than transforming “not normal” into “normal.”