Very often in global companies nowadays, there is talk about diversity – making sure to be inclusive of various personalities, personal lives and backgrounds, religious traditions and much more. Somehow, many of them don’t mention cultural competence as a tool that can help manage those differences. But let’s think about it a bit more. Our […]
You know that cultures differ around the world. You know that people have different preferences on both cultural (be it country culture or a certain professional group like HR or IT) and individual level. You know that diversity in the team is important and may bring you many benefits. Is this enough to say you’re […]
When working with people from different cultural backgrounds, do you also sometimes feel a strong emotion, but find it difficult to pin down why it is even actually there and what it means? If it’s anger you could feel your heart racing, your body finding it hard to just stay still – maybe you’re […]
There was multiple times where I felt annoyed, annoying, or stupid after moving abroad. At times, it was easier to deal with those emotions, other times it was not. There was one thing that I definitely learned from experiencing those emotions. I learned what truly matters to me. I learned what my values are. Some […]
They say that “crossing the pond” cannot be that hard. After all, the same language is spoken, pop culture of either of the countries is known in the other, cultural values seem to be very similar. Others might say that the British and Americans are two nations separated by a common language. So which one […]
Have you ever been in a situation where you encountered a challenging interpersonal situation, and started wondering – is there something more to it you should explore, or maybe it’s just a personal clash that you don’t want to do much about?
We are often faced with many questions when going somewhere new for the first time. What’s it going to be like? What are the people there like? How should I behave so that they accept me and trust me? What should I do to be successful in this new environment?
How many people in the past year told you about their adventures abroad? How many of your friends have ever been working abroad? How many of them had good experiences?
Learning a foreign language as an adult is not impossible. But, honestly, were you never jealous of those bilingual three year olds juggling two (or maybe more!) languages when speaking to different people? Oh how I’d love to be able to do that without the pain of going through the grammar books and vocabulary lessons!
Many of us when moving homes focus deeply on the logistics, packing, shipping, closing contracts for the internet or other utilities. And that is true not only during an international move. But so many of us forget to look after our mental well-being during this time.