The International Culture at Disney.

by Benjamin Skye | September 16, 2010 | Student Perspective 0 Comments

Being a newlywed comes with many exciting new adventures. Two days after our wedding, my wife Camille and I had the great privilege of flying to Orlando, Florida for our honeymoon. While we were there, we visited what is perhaps the most iconic theme park on the face of this planet – Disney World, Orlando.

To be honest, I really had no idea what this trip was going to look like seeing that it was not only my first time being outside of Texas since I have been in the US. On top of that, it was also my first time visiting a Disney theme park. Admittedly, I have always been a big fan of the Disney cartoons. Even so, the many years of watching Disney shows on TV, coupled with the many weeks of meticulous planning prior to the trip was overwhelmingly insufficient in preparing me for the monstrosity of Disney World.

For those who are unfamiliar with Disney World, Orlando, this place is made up of four major theme parks in addition to two water parks sitting on a plot of land stretching over 25,000 acres wide. During our four days at Disney World, Camille and I stayed at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. Truth be told, there was so much to do at the parks that we barely had time to explore the surroundings of our resort area. We found ourselves spending anywhere between ten to twelve hours each of the four days exploring the four parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It was a grueling experience – one that was almost as tiring as it was fun. Our trip to Disney World definitely left a deep impression on me. I must say that personally, visiting Disney World was more than just an opportunity to revisit many of my favorite childhood Disney moments. As a matter of fact, this experience has shaped a great extent some of my expectations of the future.

Upon leaving Disney World, Camille and I agreed unanimously that our favorite part of being at Disney World was Epcot’s World Showcase. The World Showcase is a section of Epcot dedicated to celebrating the diversity of various countries. The eleven countries represented are: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, USA, Japan, Morocco, France United Kingdom and Canada. Great detail was given to the construction of each of these “countries” by the Disney park designers to ensure that the architecture and atmosphere accurately reflected that specific nation.

The purpose was to ensure that park visitors could catch a glimpse of what it would be like to actually visit that country. What I personally found impressive was how the staff working at each of these countries was actually hired from their homeland. So here you would find actual Norwegians working in Norway and French-speaking folk in France. As I marveled at the sights and sounds of the various countries, I couldn’t help but ponder, “How does the Walt Disney Corporation integrate all these people from such diverse backgrounds into one functioning unit?”

What I took away from my day at the Epcot World Showcase is that people from various cultures and backgrounds can actually work side by side to make something happen. All it really takes is a shared goal, a common vision. Undoubtedly, foresight on the part of the administration plays a crucial role in ensuring that the integration of diversity is successful within an organization. One would think that it would be unimaginable to run an organization that employs people from all around the world, but as Walt Disney says, and I quote, “It is fun to do the impossible”. For Disney, what began as an impossible dream is now very much a reality. Perhaps in the same way that these movies have been inspiring children and families for the past fifty years, their model of a successfully integrated organization could point us towards a future where cultural differences could be set aside for the higher goal of global welfare.

All that being said, ELI 360 believes that young people need to be part of this movement towards cross-cultural assimilation and understanding. Which is why so much of our time and energy has been invested into helping students from various countries enroll in our partner universities – it is our organization’s belief that by consciously making an effort to diversify the makeup of these institutions, we are shaping a generation that is shaped to face the challenges of a truly globalized world community.