In the third stage of adaption to a new culture – the Acceptance or Integration Stage*) -, the clouds of the familiarisation process clear and we begin to feel comfortable and at ease in our new environment. Integration describes the process when we assume the values, behaviours, customs and beliefs of our host culture without sacrificing the characteristics of our own.

We are still loyal to our home culture whilst simultaneously succeeding in actively interacting with and participating in the life of the new culture. This is the moment we eventually begin to thrive, make friends and expand our social radius, exploring more and more of our new city, region and country.

We still realise cultural differences yet now with the capacity to approach difficult situations more relaxed and even with a sense of humour.

Successful integration enables to fully enjoy the ‘best of both worlds’.

*) (first: Honeymoon Stage, second: Culture Shock/Hostility Stage)

Acculturation is the umbrella term to describe the process of adjusting to another cultural system, the adaptation of an individual to a new cultural environment.

The degree of acculturation will vary from one person to another. It is a socialisation process that comprises the adoption of a series of aspects of the host culture, such as its values and norms as well as its customs and behaviours.

As we can imagine, disposition for and degree of adaptation will on the one hand depend on whether an individual has voluntarily chosen the new environment (e.g. expatriates) or is forced into a new cultural system due to adverse circumstances (e.g. refugees). On the other hand, it will also depend on the welcome, understanding and inclusion of the prevalent host culture.

Affinity Bias is the tendency to naturally mix well with and prefer people who are like us; people who share our values and beliefs or who have characteristics that we relish in ourselves or in someone we like.

This ‘similar to me’ effect makes us warm up to people like ourselves more than to those who are different from us. And this is the other side of the coin: that we might dislike and – as a consequence – avoid people who do not fall into the ‘affinity spectrum’.

We can all imagine that in a cross-cultural context, the pitfalls are manifold. As with any bias, however, affinity bias can occur at a largely unconscious level. Making it conscious is a first, important step. The more we are aware of our bias, the more likely we are to countersteer stereotypical judgements, prejudices, discrimination, the opportunity to open up to the unfamiliar – and to more ‘included diversity’ 😉.

Assimilation describes the process of an individual or a group becoming fully conversant with a new culture they are living in; their values and beliefs, their customs, traditions and behaviours. Whilst assimilating to the new culture’s characteristics and way of life, they lose the attributes of their own culture to a greater or lesser extent.

The roots of the word are to be found in the Latin word ‘assimilare’, being composed of ‘ad’, meaning ‘to’, and ‘similis’, meaning ‘like’ –> ‘becoming like’.

It differs from the Acceptance Stage (in the process of adapting to a new culture) to such a degree as full assimilation makes members of a society become indistinguishable from those of the dominant group.

We talk about additive assimilation when, instead of replacing the ancestral culture, an individual expands their existing cultural repertoire.

The sense of belonging, also belongingness, is the human psychological need to be an acknowledged and accepted member of a specific group – family, friends, colleagues, an interest group or a cultural community. It is a sense of connection, a deeply subjective human want. However, it is observed across all cultures and all types of people.

Taken out of one’s familiar cultural sphere, the sense of belonging can be lost all too easily. Social bonds, in the accustomed setting of one’s home culture rather easily formed, can become a struggle, and “making sense of the world” can suddenly be a veritable challenge. When it comes to belonging, the quality of interactions is of greater importance than their quantity; it is not enough to BE a member of a particular group yet to FEEL as one.

Belongingness is crucial in culture, as an individual, and in company culture, as an employee. Societies that open up for and organisations that promote diversity (=fact), opt for equity (=choice) and practice inclusion (=action), ultimately allow for sense of belonging (=outcome).

Biculturalism describes the official co-existence of two originally distinct cultures in a country or region, recognising their distinct languages and particularities. It is about the relationship between a country’s founding cultures (often having emerged from a history of ethnic or national dispute), giving both sides of the cultural coexistence political and economic power.

The term was originally adopted in Canada when it became officially bilingual (1969). Other examples for countries which formally recognize biculturalism are Belgium (divided between speakers of French and Dutch), Hong Kong (both Chinese and English are official languages), New Zealand (te reo Māori is recognised as an official language with Māori having protected representation in Parliament through the Māori electorates) and Switzerland (mainly German and French in language, with recognition of Italian and Romansch) – to name just a few.

Like a national culture, the components of an organisation can be illustrated by the different layers of an onion. Every company is like a microcosm, built out of the same structure yet filled with different meaning.

Company values are at the core of the organisation and shape all the other layers. Some of them might be actively communicated externally in order to inform and attract customers, e.g. trustworthiness for a financial institution or creativity for a tech start-up. Others, such as loyalty or quick decision making might be part of the internal values that are not so easy to recognise.
Rituals are collective activities, such as monthly assemblies, business lunches or simply the way people greet each other.
Heroes are those people who serve as role models, for the way business is done and as representatives of the organisation’s values: the founder or CEO, for instance.
The most visible elements of the Business Culture Onion are the symbols: the company logo, the whole corporate image, even the office décor is part of this layer, presenting the organisation to the public.
All these layers inform the practices that members of the organisation are expected to adopt: recognising and behaving accordingly towards the heroes, using the symbols in an appropriate manner etc.

Are your organisation’s values clear, the symbols, heroes and rituals known so that you are able to adapt your practices and thrive in this environment?

Chronemics is the study of how time affects communication and behaviour. It is applied to understand the use of time in differing cultures and its effect on the way we value the 24 hour/1,440 minute/86,400 second credit that each one of us has every single day.

Chronemics looks at factors like scheduling, punctuality, focus on tasks, dedication to plans, considering deadlines, commitment to results and interactions. The way time is used defines our lifestyle, our daily agenda and our general sense of past, present and future.

We distinguish between monochronic and polychronic cultures (see respective terms). Intercultural training and coaching amongst other things deepen the understanding of their differences, build confidence for cross-cultural interactions and ultimately enable international success.

Coconut Culture is the opposite of Peach culture (see below) – and as with peaches, the characteristics of the fruit already give a part of the cultural traits away: coconuts are hard on the outside, hence difficult to crack. This may take time and effort. However, once one has succeeded in making it through the protective shell, chances are that there is real potential for trusting relationships and even friendship.

A (stereo)typical example for “coconuts” are Russians. They appear rather reserved towards strangers and are not as easily engaging in conversations as “peaches”. Nevertheless, what appears cold at first, can develop into “loyal at last” – the emphasis here is to be resilient in the beginning of the relationship and make it through the sometimes seemingly frosty start.

As always, categorisations like this are generalisations, if not stereotypes. They can help us to make sense of different approaches in the first place yet do not release us from our responsibility to evaluate individual situations and act accordingly.

Collectivism describes a society where priority is given to a group over individuals within that group. In collectivist cultures – like South Korea, Thailand or Vietnam -, group loyalty is valued, relationships have precedence over task achievement and the interest of the community is of higher importance than that of a single member of that community.

The opposite of a collectivist culture is an individualistic society, with an emphasis on individual pursuits, self-realisation and self-expression rather than group orientation.

How do you think collectivist (and individualistic) tendencies have influenced people’s behaviour towards restrictions and measures during the Covid19 pandemic?

Company Culture, also Corporate Culture or Organisational Culture, is like a microcosm within a national culture, a world apart with its own values, personalities (serving as ‘heroes’), expected behaviour and rules – openly communicated as well as unspoken. We will understand and grow into this microcosm after a while. However, when we join the organisation, it will be a new, strange world for us that we first have to discover for ourselves – just like another country culture when we start living abroad.

Company culture determines the way its people interact with their clients, their contractors and suppliers as well as other stakeholders. Above all, it influences the manner how people within the company interact with each other and how much they identify with the organisation.

How do you think lockdown situations like the one for Covid19 will influence company culture, with staff members required to work from home, separated from their usual business environment and cut off from personal interaction? What part does organisational culture play to the resilience of the company? How big, in your opinion, are the advantages for organisations with high employee identification, clear processes and strong company alignment towards goal achievement?

We all have our own view when it comes to personal and social distance. Apart from being an individual perception, it is also a highly cultural characteristic. (High) Contact Cultures generally are those where people tend to stand closer together when they are talking, touch more frequently – e.g. handshakes when greeting, patting of the shoulder, kiss on the cheeks -, speak with a louder voice and have more direct eye contact. This is for example the case in regions like South America, Southern Europe or Arab nations.

How does your personal greeting ritual look like? When talking to someone, how close is ‘close enough’? How close is ‘too close’?

see Company Culture

While a subculture is a group that is partly consistent with the ideas, beliefs and values of the mainstream culture, a counterculture is at odds with the majority of people within the mainstream culture and predominantly opposing their norms and rules.

Examples range from past countercultures – like the women’s suffrage movement and women’s liberal activists at different moments in varying areas of the world – to those of preppers or people who choose to live a completely self-sufficient lifestyle without the safety and conveniences of modern-day life in more recent days.

Assuming a critical mass, countercultures can trigger radical cultural changes, namely the women’s suffrage movement, leading to a fundamental change in social order and hence within the mainstream culture.

The expression ‘cross-cultural’ relates to the comparison of different cultures, with one culture often being considered ‘the norm’. In cross-cultural relations, people exchange beyond the boundaries of the nation or cultural group. They are open, build relationships, learn about each other, understand and acknowledge differences. Cross-cultural interaction can bring about individual change yet no collective transformation. (See differences to ‘multicultural’ and ‘intercultural’.)

Cross-cultural leadership describes the leadership that is required in an international setting, in the interaction with teams, partners and organisations across cultures.

With the speedup of movements, exchanges and relations over the planet, the demand for cross-cultural leadership is becoming more and more important. Its complexity lies in the different perceptions of leadership in varying cultural regions; in the diverse understanding and definition of leadership, displaying distinct values and beliefs that will ultimately lead to different processes and behaviour.

Cross-cultural leadership develops from a comprehension of a broad range of cultural values and concepts as well as from a recognition of different leadership styles. They will be influenced by the way a society orientates itself and focuses on time, whether it is hierarchical or egalitarian, whether its members display a competitive or rather co-operative approach to planning and organisation, whether the societal structure is individual or collectivist and many more factors.

The cross-race effect describes the tendency to better recognise faces of one’s own – or one’s most familiar – ethnicity compared to individuals of other groups. Also called cross-race bias, other-race bias or own-race bias, it is a cognitive phenomenon which, in social psychology, is described as the ‘ingroup advantage’.

It is due to the fact that with faces of foreign ethnic groups, we are more focused on the specific ethnic differences – e.g. skin colour – and not on the individual characteristics (shape of the mouth, the nose etc.). People of foreign groups are therefore rather perceived classified and not individually.

The more we are exposed to and interact with other ethnic groups, the more likely we are to improve our cross-racial perceptions – and with it our ability to communicate, our empathy and our cultural intelligence.

Have you ever noticed this effect yourself?

Cultural accommodation depicts the process by which we make room for another culture and their values and beliefs in interacting with others – without giving up our own.

Accommodation in general is about creating space, about sharing. In the cultural sense it can be seen as veritable acceptance – or even as ‘applied diversity & inclusion’. A working approach in cultural accommodation emphasises the cultural particularities of each culture, not in a comparing or judging way yet in an exploring, curious and accepting manner.

Cultural Accommodation is also good business sense. Countless researches show that organisations that accommodate diverse cultures are more successful in a number of areas: creativity, productivity, financial results to name just a few.

Making space for one culture and their values and beliefs does not mean displacing another. It means enriching our views, our lives and our world. There will always be enough room for all of us.

Cultural appropriation defines “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture” (Cambridge Dictionary). Typically, these are elements like a specific hairstyle such as dreadlocks, a culturally characteristic piece of clothing like an Indian feather headdress or anything that a certain culture strongly identifies with.

Cultural Appropriation can be controversial when members of a dominant culture use cultural identity markers of minority cultures. Very often, the term is used when Western cultures appropriate from non-Western cultures and do so out of the original cultural context.

When it comes to adopting creative, artistic themes or elements from other cultures – fashion, music, the use of religious symbols and even the use of a specific language or language form -, there is a very fine line between culturally acceptable actions and hurting the feelings of individuals or a whole group.

Where would you draw the line?

Cultural Awareness is the understanding of differences between ourselves and others – be it individuals from other countries with a distinct set of values and beliefs or people with contrasting backgrounds – and how these differences might influence our interaction.

Having cultural awareness is a necessary competency to have in literally every area of our lives. Whether we talk about national cultures and their differences around the globe, or in a wider sense about company cultures, the culture in a specific profession, a classroom, an association, even a friends’ group – cultural awareness will always be the foundation of communication and its outcome.

It will enable us to build bridges, find a common ground and promote diversity, inclusion and the sense of belonging.

A cultural celebration is a traditional festivity of a particular culture, their people, their beliefs, their places. Cultural celebrations are moments to gather as a family, as friends, as a community. They are opportunities to identify with one’s own culture or to discover another, to show devotion, to share, to celebrate, commemorate, to be joyful. Every cultural celebration carries the potential to foster respect, inspire open-mindedness, to bridge gaps and to unite.

Cultural celebrations are found in all seasons of life – in birth, growing up, ageing and death. They celebrate nature and the elements, and they give thanks for blessings or goods received. Culture celebrations can have a rather worldly reason – like the ‘Oktoberfest’ in Bavaria/Germany for instance – or a deeper meaning as this is the case in most religious celebrations, such as Yom Kippur, Diwali, Ramadan, Vesak – and Christmas.

Curiosity might be one of the most underestimated and underrated characteristics when it comes to approaching different cultures and set off to an intercultural learning journey.

Curiosity is the power unit for outcomes. Cultural curiosity is the most important building block for those aiming to become global leaders. Whether those outcomes are to ensure that a multicultural team is working successfully together, a business deal is being closed abroad, that an international assignment is bringing the desired results or D&I programmes are being implemented successfully – without culture curiosity, every learning will be an isolated lesson, a “how-to” instruction that only works once in a very specific context and leaves us clueless in countless others.

Cultural curiosity will motivate us to look, to observe, to inquire, to challenge, to be surprised and amazed – before we are even able to judge, succumb to our prejudices and spoil the experience in the first place. It will show us myriads of new possibilities, make intercultural encounters joyful occasions and open our spirit to the realisation that it is not always about our cultural differences yet very often about our human commonalities.

Cultural Dexterity describes the competency and know-how to successfully adapt to other cultures. Achieving success in doing so does not mean for a person to get lost in the process. It means to adjust one’s behaviour to a new, complex and often seemingly opposed environment without sacrificing one’s authenticity.

Today’s (business) world needs leaders who are able to demonstrate cultural dexterity – be it to negotiate a business deal with a client in Malaysia, to host an international meeting in Brazil or to make the most of a (culturally) heterogeneous team that thrives despite – or rather because of – their diversity.

Will we make mistakes on the way to becoming culturally dexterous? Of course, we will! However, nothing that can’t be solved with the right intentions, appropriate training and preparation – and an honest apology in case of a cultural hick-up…

The term ‘Dimensions of national cultures’ has been coined by Geert Hofstede (1928 – 2020, Dutch Social Psychologist) in the 1960’s who carried out a far-reaching study of national cultures among IBM managers and employees with over 100,000 questionnaires in more than 40 countries.

He initially defined four primary dimensions of national culture: Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance which were later expanded to include Long-term Orientation and Indulgence. Although often criticized for certain aspects of the study, he received much recognition for his work in cross-cultural analysis.

I generally and genuinely believe that no person can solely be seen by their national affiliation and that we must take individual traits into account when we want to communicate successfully in an intercultural setting. However, Cultural Dimensions are like markers, illustrating the differences of national cultures in certain aspects and helping us to navigate the often challenging contradictions of cross-cultural interaction. They are an excellent framework to get started and stimulate awareness and conversation.

“Cultural Diplomacy may best be described as a course of actions, which are based on and utilize the exchange of ideas, values, traditions and other aspects of culture or identity, whether to strengthen relationships, enhance socio-cultural cooperation, promote national interests and beyond; Cultural diplomacy can be practiced by either the public sector, private sector or civil society.”

Cultural Diplomacy (or “Diplomacy between Cultures”) has existed as a practice for centuries.  Whilst the term “cultural diplomacy” has only recently been established, evidence of its practice can be seen throughout history and has existed for centuries.

When learned and applied at all levels, Cultural Diplomacy possesses the unique ability to influence the “Global Public Opinion” and ideology of individuals, communities, cultures or nations, which can accelerate the realisation of the 5 principles below. By accomplishing the first principle, one enables the second, which in turn enables the third until the fifth ultimate principle of global peace and stability is achieved.

• Respect & Recognition of Cultural Diversity & Heritage
• Global Intercultural Dialogue
• Justice, Equality & Interdependence
• The Protection of International Human Rights
• Global Peace & Stability

Cultural diplomacy is not secondary to political or economic diplomacy. It rather functions as an intrinsic and necessary component of it.

Source: ICD – Institute for Cultural Diplomacy

Cultural distance describes the extent to which cultural norms – and the accompanying world views, opinions and behaviour – differ between cultures.

Just imagine a country/culture that you think is very different from yours. What are the actual distinguishing features? Is it the way people greet each other? The manner emotions are shown (or not)? The style in which business is done, decisions are made, or differences are settled?

Very often, distinctness is not all that obvious and, depending on one’s own experience, will be interpreted and judged in the wrong way, resulting in misunderstandings and frustration. Also seemingly close cultures can differ in specific areas – e.g. varying views when it comes to hierarchy in European countries – whilst being similar in other domains like the need for clear structures and rules.

The history of the country we grew up in, together with its location in the world, have made us the people we are today. The way the role of women and men is seen, the influence of religion in our daily lives, the degree of industrialisation of our country, its relationship to power and influence – all this has shaped our world view and created distance from other cultures. Wherever we go, whatever cultures we interact with – it is important and worth learning, researching – and making that distance a little smaller, one conversation at a time.

Cultural Etiquette describes the codes of behaviour in a given environment, the dos and don’ts, the rules that guide our interactions with others. It determines how we greet each other, how we deal with and perceive time, whether or not we bring gifts and when to open them, how we take decisions and in which way we communicate them to others – and also ‘ground rules’ like gender roles or social hierarchy.

Cultural Etiquette is demonstrated in personal encounters and business relationships in equal measure, and it is not always easy – and sometimes even impossible – to anticipate what is acceptable and what is not. As so often, the truth is written ‘between the lines’, requiring from us to watch and listen before we react or speak.

Each culture we are interacting with deserves our respect and interest – preferably before we ‘touch ground’ with them. Learning about a culture’s etiquette should be one of the basic actions to be taken when living or working abroad or in any international context.

What is the most surprising cultural etiquette that you have ever encountered?

Cultural flexibility can be described as the ability and propensity to effectively navigate diverse environments. Most of the time when we talk about cultural flexibility, we will think of navigating and adapting to a different country culture. However, it can also mean to operate successfully in another social environment, a different company culture or even a new profession (just think about the different traits in professions like doctors, lawyers, teachers, musicians etc.).

As always, in order to develop cultural flexibility, we have to start with ourselves and consider our own cultural ‘setting’. Awareness of our own values and beliefs and what exactly it is that is important to us will help us approach ‘the other’ with higher attention and mindfulness, greater respect, more patience, clarity, openness, humility and – precisely – increased flexibility.

Cultural flexibility does not mean to completely ‘surrender’ to another culture in order to make the (business) relationship work. However, it means actively looking for and finding common ground – and thus ways and possibilities for successful intercultural interaction and communication.

Cultural fluency can be seen as the capacity to effectively adapt to and communicate across cultures, in a broad range of contexts. It is the ability to openly observe how other cultures operate compared to our own, to pay attention how things are said – or not said -, to watch and listen actively without judging and to ultimately build bridges between our own and the other culture/s. As a result, we will build trust, facilitate exchange and collaboration and, as a bottom line, promote performance and productivity.

Cultural fluency is a critical (job) skill to have, whether we are working abroad or not. Our whole present-day social reality, making the world a veritable global village and exposing us to different cultures wherever we go, requires this crucial intercultural competence if we were to be successful.

Intercultural coaching/training is a valuable tool to guide individuals what to look out for and to help them to translate their intercultural competence into their own business reality.

Cultural identity is the feeling, the profound knowledge of belonging to a cultural group, a ‘tribe’. It can be related to a wide range of social affiliation: national or regional origin, ethnicity, religion, political conviction, age group, social class, professional guild or special interest group – any kind of community depicting a specific distinct culture.

We identify with the attributes and characteristics of these groups – and we are ‘longing for belonging’, consciously and unconsciously, to mirror our cultural identity.

“We seek out people who have shared values, shared understanding of how we grew up, shared experiences, and we create tribes, because we’re safer in tribes.” (Simon Sinek)

Our complex ways of life and our experiences mean that we are members of several cultural tribes, having more than one cultural identity. What are yours? What tribes are you belonging to?

Cultural intelligence (also known as cultural quotient or CQ) can be seen as the ability to successfully connect with and effectively work across cultures. It describes the interactional competence when it comes to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Compared to Emotional Intelligence (EQ), the ability ‘to understand, use and manage our own and other people’s emotions’, Cultural Intelligence (CQ) goes one step further, being the skill ‘to understand people who are not like us’.

Cultural intelligence can be learned and developed – through awareness of one’s own culture, active interest in another culture and the acquirement of relevant knowledge with regard to that culture’s characteristics: its history, the political, economic and legal system, existing values, beliefs, customs and traditions, social norms – and how they are all translated into verbal and non-verbal behaviour.

In a challenging field of unfamiliar territory, individuals with high cultural intelligence will successfully blend into any environment, build bridges and find common ground. They are able to lead diverse teams when it comes to doing business on an international level and to establish meaningful relationships when it comes to personal encounters.

Leadership styles differ from culture to culture, and growing up in a specific environment coins us for the culturally appropriate style of that culture. We all have our ideas what a “good leader” looks like, right? However, chances are our ideas of good leadership are completely different, depending on where we grew up.

In a culturally egalitarian environment – take the Netherlands or Denmark as an example -, the implicit leadership style will be expected to be marked by more democratically run meetings, generally more consensus-oriented processes and joint decisions, often across different hierarchy levels. The boss is considered “one of the team”.

In more hierarchical cultures – for instance China or Russia -, the power distance between leaders and their team is higher, with less participation of lower ranking individuals in decision making processes and emphasis on hierarchy and status.

The given examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to leading across different cultures, and with increasing internationalisation, different leadership and communication styles naturally mix, offering challenging situations even for experienced international leaders.

Cultural norms are, simply put, the standards that a culture, a society, lives by. Cultural norms inform the values, beliefs and behaviour we consider ‘normal’. They are transmitted by a number of institutions or existing systems, e.g. government, education, upbringing within the family and the impact of the wider circle of influence, such as friends or groups that a person belongs to. Cultural norms are transmitted explicitly and implicitly in equal measure.

The tricky part is that – as long as we navigate in ‘calm waters’ and interact with people living by the same cultural norms -, we don’t have to question or challenge them. Confronted with a differing set of norms, by interacting with members of a different cultural sphere, our way of seeing things, or our behaviour, can hit a more or less invisible wall, and difficulties in communication and understanding can occur.

The same can happen when external circumstances threaten part of our values. Take, as way of example, the Covid19 pandemic. The higher values like freedom and autonomy are prized in a given culture, the more difficult some of the current restrictions will be for the people living in it.

It will be interesting to see in the weeks and months to come, in which way cultural norms will change – and how our ‘new normal’ will look like.

The term Cultural Relativity refers to the relative positioning that determines how people from different cultures view one another. How we see and perceive a culture other than our own is subject to the specific lens or filters that our own culture gives us – and the values, beliefs and practices associated with it.

Example: You will have already noticed that punctuality is interpreted differently in different cultures. Whilst someone coming from Malaysia (a country where being late is an accepted norm) might perceive the French as ‘overly punctual’ and ‘extremely committed to deadlines’, someone from Japan (a country where being just one minute behind is considered being late) might see them as ‘always being late’ and ‘not keeping agreed time frames’.

It turns out that Einstein was right all along: time IS relative 😉. And so are other cultural characteristics, depending on which viewpoint we see them from.

Have you ever asked yourself what it is that makes you an undeniable representative of the culture you grew up in? Thought about the specific traits that constitute you – and that you have in common with your fellow nationals, regional citizens, your tribe – or even with colleagues of the same profession?

Most of us never do, because we are not at any time asked. We normally don’t get to think about it before we interact with other cultures – and hence before we hit that invisible wall which we didn’t even know existed.

Not every characteristic we show is linked to our cultural heritage – a lot is down to our personality, making us individuals within the society we grew up in. However, we all have learned to make sense of the world by unconsciously adopting the values, beliefs, convictions, spoken and unspoken rules, customs, traditions and rituals (…) of our cultural environment. They have been instilled in us during our upbringing and in the course of our education.

Cultural self-awareness refers to the understanding of how culture has influenced ourselves (as opposed to personal self-awareness, the awareness of how our personality and our individual experiences influence us). It makes us conscious of our preferences, perceptions and behaviour and more open and respectful for those of others, the things that are important to them.

Having cultural self-awareness really gets interesting the moment we are confronted with someone from another culture. Understanding the ways we approach business tasks, how we build relationships or how we would like to be addressed will make us more observant of the manner in which others do – and it will most certainly lead to successful intercultural interaction and communication.

Culture is the social behaviour and norms found in human societies. It is the set of customs, traditions and values of a society or community, such as an ethnic group or nation. Culture is considered a central concept in anthropology, encompassing the range of phenomena that are transmitted through social learning in human societies, the set of knowledge acquired over time.

Culture defines how we make sense of the world, without normally having to explain it. It is deeply anchored in our core being, and it tells us ‘how things are done’.

Culture chameleons are individuals with the ability to successfully adapt to different cultural styles. They don’t suddenly change their personality or their own innate cultural characteristics. However, they are able to adjust their ‘colours’, thus their behaviour, to their environment and blend in with the host culture, integrating with the locals.

Being a culture chameleon means flexibility when it comes to a great number of business realities: different leadership styles, variable working styles, differing communication styles, varying meeting styles, to name just a few.

One can learn how to be a culture chameleon. It starts with (cultural) self-awareness, (cultural) awareness of others and insight into cultural differences. The more we learn about it, the bigger the ‘colour palette’ will get that we have at our disposal, and the better we will be able to mix them …

Travelling to other countries – and especially relocating – can be a wonderful experience at least and a life-changing event at best. Getting to know a new culture, diving into its customs and traditions, connecting with different people and maybe even speak their language all broaden our horizon – in the truest sense of the word – and present us with another jigsaw piece of this world.

However, changing one’s cultural environment can be a confusing experience, too, and requests adaptability, willingness to learn and patience. Often, “culture confusion” can set in and cloud our view of what was so beautiful at the beginning of our (ad)venture. Whether you are in a completely new place for the first time or somewhere you have visited before, culture confusion can meet us anytime – and will mostly take us by surprise.

I would not go so far as to say that culture confusion is equivalent to what is called Culture Shock. However, the overall change in life might lead to similar effects of disorientation – and very often, it can be at the beginning of a cultural adaption process that turns out trickier than expected.

It is best to see culture confusion as a good thing. Confusion will eventually create new connections in the brain – and with an open mind, it will enable us to make our culture change a success.

Culture Contact as described in Encyclopaedia Britannica is ‘the contact between peoples with different cultures’.

In our globalised world, culture contact happens every day and everywhere: through travel, for business or leisure, through all kinds of media, through international trade, through business contacts, even if they are sometimes purely remote. The term is believed to have been coined in the late 19^th century, long after discovery missions and conquests have actually made first contact with peoples of different societies or cultures (not always on friendly terms, mind you).

What does it need for culture contact to be a success and harness the ‘best of both worlds’? In my coaching practice, I promote what I call ‘triple A approach’ – and there is no difference when it comes to culture contact:

• AWARENESS as a first step that there ARE going to be differences on a number of levels, be it in the way we perceive time and distance or how much context we give in our communication.
• Non-judgmental ACCEPTANCE of our differences.
• ACTION that is characterised by honest interest, by curiosity, by respect and by appropriate behaviour.

Only when we manage our expectations, our perception and our approach will culture contact ‘lead to change in both systems’ as Encyclopaedia Britannica also claims in its definition.

Culture Decoding describes our attempts to dissect and explain cultural differences, making them tangible in such a way that successful cross-cultural communication is possible.

Culture Decoding comes in different approaches and with a lot of different names. However, it is inevitable in every corner of the world today. Whether we are in a real or virtual environment, intercultural encounters challenge our interactions with each other and can develop into veritable obstacles when it comes to doing business abroad, working in an international team or wanting to achieve specific goals as a global company. Simply because different cultures have different ways to do so.

Culture Decoding gives us clues on how to initiate international business relationships and approach cross-cultural negotiations. It helps us when it comes to giving feedback, making decisions or expressing a different point of view.

Culture Decoding in one way or another is the key for successful cross-cultural interaction.

A culture gap describes the difference between two cultures that can hinder mutual understanding, communication or interaction in either personal or professional relationships. Differences arise from diverse values, varying beliefs, sometimes seemingly strange customs or traditions, more or less given context in communication – and even opposed behaviour, e.g. when it comes to notions of time or personal space.

Overcoming a culture gap is the responsibility of both parties adapting to each other, not only one of them. At times, it can be daunting and quite a challenge to interact with another culture when our ‘normal’ does not seem normal to others, when the way we make sense of the world does not make sense to them at all.

Intercultural coaching and training help to overcome culture gaps, so that communication and interaction with other cultures not only work yet become a sheer endless source of fun, creativity and productive cooperation.

Grammar in connection with languages is the framework that helps us to structure a language and to approach it in the first place. The more words, expressions, and phrases we know, the more we need some ‘building blocks’ to combine all the elements to a comprehensible whole.

With regards to culture, it is quite similar: We need at least a basic framework, some indicators that we can orientate ourselves. These elements exist, and they are helpful in finding an orientation in a complex environment that would otherwise be difficult to navigate.

Whether we look at the different notions of time in varying cultures, the contrasting perception of distance, physical contact or territorial behaviour, the concept of context or other indicators and dimensions – all of it will help us learn about other cultures and often about ourselves.

It is our responsibility to be flexible in using ‘Culture Grammar’ as an orientation only, being aware of the pitfalls of generalisations and adding a bit of grey where they seem too black-and-white or too either-or. Because just like in language grammar, we will find a useful structure, helpful guidance – and also a lot of exceptions.

Culture Grammar does not exactly tell us what to see. However, it can tell us where to look.

One of the challenges when it comes to other cultures is the fact that most of their characteristics are hidden at first – as the Culture Iceberg model very vividly demonstrates.

As with an iceberg, some cultural elements are perfectly visible to the eye (or noticeable using our other senses), such as the clothes people wear, the food they eat, the music they listen to, the behaviour they show or the rituals they have (what people do). However, a much larger part is below the surface and very difficult to spot, e.g. people’s values and beliefs, their tastes or their assumptions (what people think and feel).

I personally see language as a hybrid with several ‘layers’ to it, partly above, partly under the surface: Provided we speak the language of another country, we can understand the things being said. Grasping how things are expressed requires a little more sensitivity. And it is even harder to understand those things that are not explicitly stated at all. That, for me, would be an element that lies beneath the water surface.

Finding many aspects of culture underneath the surface does not mean that we will never understand them. The challenge simply lies in our willingness and ability to dive …😉

Geert Hofstede (Dutch Social Psychologist, 1928 – 2020) compared the components of culture in a metaphor with the layers of an onion: values at the core, rituals, heroes and symbols at the outer layers and practices cutting across all of them. Whilst the structure stays the same for every culture, its layers are filled with different meaning.

Values. Hard to recognise at first sight as they cannot be observed, values determine the elements a society considers normal, right, good, desirable, acceptable etc. – or not. They are the building block for all the other layers.

Rituals are collective activities, e.g. religious services, greeting ceremonials, shared meals.

Heroes serve as role models for behaviour. These can be religious, political or royal authorities, famous people, athletes and even cartoon superheroes.

Symbols are all the visible objects, pictures, signs that represent particular meaning, such as road signs, flags or ways of dressing.

Practices are the behaviours resulting from the different layers, the way people are expected to behave in society by following the rituals, respecting the heroes and recognising the symbols.

The second stage of adaptation to a new culture is the Hostility Stage, also called ‘Culture Shock’*).

Not everyone will experience this stage (and not everyone will perceive it as an actual shock), whilst for others it might look and feel quite similar to the grieving/change curve developed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. For those who do experience it, it can be a quite daunting and upsetting feeling that sensitively dampens the initially so positive experience.

Every new culture comes with their own set of challenges, and even an apparently similar culture can lead to culture shock, e.g. a British moving to the US (or actually a US ‘Westener’ moving to the East Cost).

Culture shock can set in slowly, when we are confronted with a certain bureaucracy in the new culture, encountering language barriers, misunderstandings, seemingly ‘wrong’ practices, behaviours and values – and when we realise the full extent of change in our new environment. It can also occur quite suddenly when we experience distressing events or perceive hostility from the hosts in the new culture.

Our disappointment might make us judgemental, comparing our own culture with the new one in rather negative ways, leading to stereotyping and to feelings of anger, frustration, anxiety and even depression, using vocabulary like ‘difficult’, ‘strange’, ‘hostile’, ‘confusing’, ‘daunting’.

How well we deal with this stage of adapting to a new culture and how long it will last will very much depend on our attitude and understanding. Understanding about the fact that this stage is a natural process, a reaction to a significant life change that we made. Knowing that it does not last forever – and that we are not the only one experiencing it – might help us to focus on our daily achievements in this new environment, a better and better understanding of the new culture which will finally lead to the third stage of adaptation, the Integration or Acceptance Stage.

(Did I mention that intercultural training/coaching can significantly reduce, if not prevent, a culture shock? 😉)

*) (first: Honeymoon Stage, third: Acceptance/Integration Stage)

Culture Training is a facilitated process aiming to give anyone the skillset to navigate cultures different from their own. Also called cross-cultural, intercultural or culture competency training (to name just a few), it is designed to shape someone’s cultural awareness, sensibility, knowledge, skills and ultimately their cultural competence and global mindset. It conveys the ability to perceive, decode and adjust behaviour to a multitude of different cultural contexts.

For international organisations and teams, culture training can facilitate process planning, increase team cohesion, effectiveness and productivity, establish and reinforce mutual trust, speed up decision-making processes or generally enable and lighten interpersonal communication. For expatriates, culture training can simply represent the make or break of their international assignment.

According to the United Nations, “three-quarters of the world’s major conflicts have a cultural dimension. Bridging the gap between cultures is urgent and necessary for peace, stability and development.” The same might be the case in international business – often without being recognised and acted upon. Frequently, the focus in preparation for an international assignment lies on the functional skillset needed for a specific job whilst preparation for culture specific requirements and challenges are treated secondarily – or not at all. Rather incomprehensible considering the costs behind an employee’s international assignment.

In theory – by definition -, a custom is “a widely accepted way of behaving or doing something that is specific to a particular society, place, or time”. In practice, a custom is an activity or action practiced over a long period by many people that is considered absolutely normal in one culture – and often acclaimed and commemorated -, whilst it might seem completely absurd or strange to another.

Greeting ceremonies are typical examples:

• In the German workplace, it is custom to shake someone’s hand when you first meet them.
• In the Maori community in New Zealand, welcome is expressed by the rubbing or touching of noses, called ‘hongi’, roughly translated as the ‘sharing of breath’.

Bear in mind: “There is very little ‘of course’ when it comes to customs.” (Janet Kagan).

Discrimination describes an unequal and unjust treatment of an individual or a group on the grounds of that person’s or group’s affiliation to a specific category. As with prejudices, this can be race/ethnicity, nationality, age, religion, language, physical appearance, sexuality, gender, education, profession, political affiliation, beliefs, values, social class, physical and mental ability/disability and many more; the list is not exhaustive.

Discrimination means acting on our prejudices.

It can happen because of conscious prejudices for a certain individual or group – or without thinking, as a result of unconscious attitudes, preconceptions or emotional associations, rendering us biased against others. In the latter case, the question is not whether or not we do have biases. We all do have them. The question is rather: How can we become aware of them – and subsequently: How do we act on them in order to avoid discrimination?

Diversity – in the cultural understanding – means featuring a heterogeneous group of people; a multicultural society forming e.g. a classroom, a community, a team.

In a broader sense, it describes a group of people with different race, ethnicity, gender, age, political and religious beliefs, sexual orientation, social background and status, mental and physical abilities and a different set of values in potentially fundamental areas of life.

Diversity has a number of advantages, on an educational level, to foster flexibility, understanding and acceptance – and even to increase the success rate of organisations. Studies show that a diverse workforce will always outplay a more homogeneous one in terms of creativity, productivity and results. They simply have a more diverse insight into your customers’ preferences and requirements – after all, your customers are diverse, too.

Please note: Having cultural DIVERSITY does not – yet – mean to implement INCLUSION.

ELF stands for ‘English as lingua franca’. Lingua franca refers to a language used for communication between people who do not share a native language. For centuries, LFs have been used around the world for different reasons (trade, diplomacy, religion etc.). What makes ELF a phenomenon is the scale to which it is used worldwide: it is the second most spoken language after Chinese (taking the total number of speakers, not just natives).

Braj Bihari Kachru (Indian linguist, 1932–2016) developed what is seen as the most relevant model of the spread of English – the three circles of English (‘World Englishes’): the Inner Circle (English is the primary language of the majority of the population, e.g. UK, USA), the Outer Circle (English serves as an additional language for intranational and international communication, e.g. India, Nigeria) and the Expanding Circle (English is used as a foreign language, e.g. Brazil, China, Russia).

The beauty of cultural influences resulted in a multitude of different “colours” of the English language, countless dialects, thousands of accents and varying ways of expressing certain things, which brings with it a number of challenges. In order for communication to be successful – and hence for personal and business interaction -, it is crucial that English speakers from all three circles learn to adjust to each other’s language level.

What is your experience with ELF?

Enculturation describes the process that we all go through when we grow up. It is the procedure we traverse when we get embossed by the culture we are nurtured in.

Enculturation, as opposed to acculturation, is about our own culture, the one we learn from our parents and wider family, we pick up from our community, we are taught by our (academic) education and the one that we are influenced by a number of external factors and contributors – like language, general social life, media, political structure and many more. Enculturation happens both on a conscious and unconscious level. It informs our values and beliefs, gives outspoken and unspoken clues about acceptable and not acceptable behaviour, about norms and boundaries, traditions and rituals, the existing framework of the society we live in and the different roles we hold within that society.

Enculturation makes us become the individual we are, and as long as we are in our accustomed cultural sphere, we will probably feel and act like fish in the water. The challenges begin when we start exploring new oceans …

Oxford Languages define ethnicity as “the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition”. It is a society-made construct, characterising ethnicity as a grouping of individuals who identify with each other on the basis of a shared membership to a specific culture, ancestry, language, appearance, religion – or any common heritage that distinguishes them from others. (Interestingly, another definition from Cambridge Dictionary describes it as “a particular race of people, or the fact of being from a particular race of people”, making it about biological traits rather than shared heritage.)

A group of people of the same race can have members of completely different ethnicities whereas another group with members sharing the same ethnicity can be composed of people with different race. For instance, Indians and Japanese are considered Asian; however, they come from completely different backgrounds and share a different heritage.

Originally derived from the Greek word ethnos (meaning nation or people), ethnicity has been used in very different ways throughout the centuries, in a specific era even to just describe people of a different religion. Despite its origin, the word ethnicity is not about someone’s nationality, e.g. “African American” informs about the ethnicity, whereas “American” indicates nationality.

An “expat bubble” describes a community of expatriates who spend the majority of their time abroad with other foreigners, interacting only with those who share their nationality or language – or the simple fact that they are expats, too.

Whilst mingling with other foreigners can be a good strategy in the beginning of one’s time in another country, keeping this habit throughout the whole assignment can prevent us from really understanding and immersing ourselves in the new culture.

By surrounding ourselves with locals and exploring cultural codes we did not grow up with – those that are not second nature to us and more complex to decipher -, we not only give ourselves the unique experience of a different set of values, beliefs, traditions and customs. We might even grow into the ideal ‘international asset’ our company sent abroad in the first place.

Sounds tempting, no? 😉

An expatriate or expat is a person living in a country other than their native one. Whether this is to work or go to university, the term ‘expatriate’ describes the fact that the residence abroad is planned for a determined period of time – at least in the first place -, distinguishing an expatriate from a migrant or an immigrant.

In recent times, new terms have emerged from the word ‘expatriate’, not yet fully accepted in mainstream language yet being proof of cultural changes:

• inpatriate, an employee sent from a foreign subsidiary to work in the country of the company’s headquarter
• flexpatriate, an employee frequently travelling internationally for business
• rex-pat, a repeat expatriate, choosing to return to a foreign country after the completion of their work assignment

The term Flexpatriate refers to an employee who frequently goes on international business trips without fully relocating.

Being a flexpatriate comes with its own particular challenges: Flexpatriates often have to adjust to varying conditions in a minimum amount of time and to adapt to several different cultures at once – when it comes to international business meetings for instance -, not to mention frequently working in different time zones and often being affected by jetlag without having the opportunity to act upon it. Most importantly, for flexpatriates, it’s all about flexibility when it comes to cultural differences: anticipating cross-cultural challenges, showing a global mindset and cultural adaptability are crucial to establish effective inter-cultural relationships and hence for successful ‘flexpatriation’ 😉

A generalisation is a broad statement about a group that may or may not apply to individual members of that group.

When experiencing a culture for the first time, generalisations can be helpful, if we focus on behaviour to note similarities, stay descriptive without judging and are prepared to change our approach if an individual does not comply with that generalisation. Cultural generalisation can be a way to make non-judgemental comparisons between cultures and give actionable knowledge for intercultural communication. However, it is our responsibility not to oversimplify experiences, facts or examples and stay open and flexible.

Example: “Trust is important in China. To do business, you need to build a relationship first.” (non-judgemental ✅, focus on behaviour ✅, descriptive ✅, informative ✅, gives actionable knowledge ✅)

As opposed to Ethnocentrism, Geocentrism describes a mindset that looks at the world from different cultural perspectives. A geocentric approach acknowledges the fact that there is no universal way of communicating – yet myriads of different forms and manners of interaction – and that e.g. conducting business at a global level requires varying timescales, processes and a profound comprehension of differences in culturally diverse people.

As a business model, geocentrism integrates the knowledge of and experience with other cultures to operate more effectively on foreign markets and is paramount in today’s globalised environment. In my understanding, it is more about the “how” than the “what”, meaning that it is primarily about dealing with people in a given culture than understanding what products a certain market needs or welcomes.

Businesses that perform in a setting other than within the context of one culture most definitely need to understand that there is no “one size fits all” and develop a geocentric understanding as well as the respective operations in order to succeed internationally – if not globally.

For millions of people around the world, the country where they were born is not the one they currently call home. Does this fact already make them global citizens?

For me personally, global citizenship is first and foremost a mindset. We don’t need to have a fat air miles account, and we don’t necessarily have to live abroad. What is important is a holistic understanding of ourselves in relation to a global community, a ‘world-mindedness’ when it comes to varying values and beliefs, a different history, diverse customs and traditions – and above all, a focus for the characteristics that unite us with other cultures, not the ones that differentiate us. Being a global citizen involves cultural self-awareness, tolerance, honest curiosity for other cultures and other people, cross-cultural understanding and the skills to navigate through a range of culturally influenced situations.

Of course, living abroad and travelling to other cultures are helpful in becoming a global citizen, yet they are not the only ways to develop our cosmopolitan skills. Our world is so embossed by globalisation that we can gain all the necessary skills literally ‘from the comfort of our own home’ – by interacting with people from other cultures, learning new languages, listening to music from different parts of the world – and through intercultural training/coaching.

Wikipedia describes globalisation as “the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide”. The term, which is said to have been popularised by former Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt (1925-2006, American economist, editor of the Harvard Business Review), has been in our vocabulary since the 1980s yet was a reality as soon as transportation (steamships instead of sailing boats) and communication technology (rise of the telegraph) started to make the world smaller and smaller …
It might seem as if globalisation erases differences, abrogates borders and opens gates to sheer endless and friction-less intercultural exchange. The truth is that the world is still the same diverse place with a myriad of social and cultural aspects that need to be discovered and explored in order to be appreciated, respected and safely navigated.

Globalising means to make something universal or worldwide, in scope or in application.

Our world is becoming more interconnected on many different levels. When we talk about globalised markets, we refer to the economic aspect of globalisation. When we talk about diplomatic globalisation, we refer to the political facet of it. More rarely do we recognise that not only our processes yet we ourselves have to globalise – how we perceive, interact and work.

Globalising one’s leadership skills for instance means developing, adopting and applying a leadership style that is able to build bridges between different viewpoints, different behaviours, different cultures, whole different worlds. For we need to be aware of the fact that there is no such thing as a globalised decision-making process or a globalised way of communicating.

“Globalising ourselves” needs effort on more than one layer. First and foremost, it requires honest interest in other cultures, other peoples and other people, a firm sense of self-assessment and strong listening skills – or should I say perception skills. Globalising ourselves does not erase differences. However, it can override judgmental errors and make way for meaningful and fulfilling interaction with others.

Global leadership describes the ability to lead across cultures, to adapt one’s leadership style to the requirements of different cultural settings.

So, is there something as a ‘Global Leadership Style’? In my opinion, there is no such thing as one single style. Global leadership means to be able to change one’s leadership according to the culture they work in. It is the ability to adapt to many different styles, the talent to almost act like a ‘cultural chameleon’, adjusting to the cultural environment and blending into the communication style of the respective country.

That could mean switching from an egalitarian style to a hierarchical one, for instance from a Dutch configuration to a Japanese set-up, whilst also respecting the culture’s manner of communicating, building relationships, leading teams and making decisions, to name just a few.

In an increasingly globalised environment with organisations being represented across the globe, the need for global leaders is constantly rising – and so are the challenges for individuals who are appointed overseas to operate in international and multicultural contexts.

(Did I mention that intercultural training/coaching is an excellent way to develop your global leadership style? 😉)

Global Mindset is the ability to perceive, decode and adjust our behaviour to a multitude of different cultural contexts.

Global Mindset is Growth Mindset with a worldwide radar, if you like. It involves a lot of curiosity – not only about other cultures yet also about our own. It means being open to new ways of looking at things. It signifies being alert, agile and flexible when it comes to different values, beliefs, opinions, points of view, operating modes, behaviours – to mention just the tip of the iceberg.

A global mindset helps us understand that, based on different cultural settings, processes like decision making, expressing disagreement, planning and scheduling, leading a team, persuading others, giving feedback – and communicating in general – can be the opposite of our familiar way, demanding an adjustment without judgement and the will to learn new modalities. And it definitely involves getting out of our own cultural comfort zone and seeing little hurdles as an invitation to try harder and not a reason to give up.

“A person who travels extensively to different parts of the world.”

We all travel the world in different ways. Some might want to ‘tick off’ destinations from their bucket list, others travel with their heart and soul.

An African proverb says: “The stranger sees only what he knows”, paying attention primarily to those characteristics of the visited culture that are similar to their own, familiar to them and well-known – hence often missing out on a great number of learning opportunities.

By looking out for those elements of the other culture that are different from ours – the new, the different, the exotic, unfamiliar and sometimes strange -, we genuinely unlock the ‘other’ and open up a whole new world for ourselves.

A habit is probably the least ‘cultural’ of repeated behaviours or actions, compared with a custom or a tradition. And yet I like to include it in this context for a simple reason:

Looking at habits emphasises the fact that – even if we see a person in the context of cultural diversity -, we should always bear in mind that they are first and foremost an individual, someone with their own personality, their own view of the world and their own behaviour – no matter what cultural background and hence detached from any generalisation. So, when we are dealing with the challenge of different traditions and customs, we also have to take into consideration that there might be different habits that are very private to the specific individual.

To give you a personal example: When I was working in the car industry, I made it a habit to look at the ‘automotive’ section of a newspaper first.

Haptics is the study of physical touch used in nonverbal communication. It plays an important part in intercultural interaction, as it already gives clues about a person’s communication preferences even before the first word is spoken, the introductory sentences are exchanged, the initial conversation has started. Haptics include handshakes, hugs, kissing (cheeks, lips, hands), shoulder-pats, etc. and are more frequent in some cultures than others.

This is where it gets tricky: a well meant embrace to greet someone – perfectly acceptable in one culture -, can lead to serious unease in a person from a different culture and create a situation of misunderstanding, confusion, and even mistrust.

Being aware of diverse preferences and observing the other one’s body language can help us adapt our behaviour and match our nonverbal communication appropriate to different cultures.

see CONTACT CULTURE

In contrast to low-context cultures, high-context ones communicate in a more subtle, indirect manner with information being given implicitly and very much included in the way how – and if at all – things are said.

There is a lot of “reading between the lines” going on, as I like to call it. People need a mutual body of knowledge, internalised points of reference and inferences – usually acquired through shared cultural history – in order to decode information and successfully communicate with each other.

‘Good communication’ in a high-context culture is more complex, nuanced and relying on non-verbal clues as much as on verbal ones – or even on silence. Negative comments are veiled and not made directly and explicitly – a conduct that would be considered unnecessary and impolite.

Typical examples of high-context cultures are Japan, China and Korea.

Can you imagine the challenges that arise in intercultural encounters between representatives of different cultural communication styles?

A holidayer is simply someone who is on holiday, a holiday maker, a vacationer, a tourist.

And then: would we call it simple? There are different ‘species’ of holidayers: those who like to go to places they know, who are reassured by familiar languages and rituals, relaxing in an environment that resembles the one they know best. And then there are those who travel far and wide to discover new countries, landscapes and places, listen to new languages, dialects, sounds and music and dive into a new culture, an unknown world where not everything might be understood and decoded into one’s ’normal’.

Adapting to a new culture can be a difficult process, with several ups and downs along the road where most people go through different stages.

The first of these stages is called ‘Honeymoon Stage’*).

During the Honeymoon Stage, everything is characterised by excitement and positivity. So many new things to discover in new circumstances, so many new people to meet. Who would not like that? Most things are seen in a favourable light, we are interested in our new environment and open to learn, to cooperate and to please.

Our feeling might be that of adventure and discovery, and we probably use positive words like ‘exciting’, ‘great’, ‘challenging’, ‘lovely’, ‘interesting’ etc. to describe our new promising life abroad.

*) (second: Culture Shock/Hostility Stage, third: Acceptance/Integration Stage)

see CULTURE SHOCK

Humour is universal, and everyone likes a good laugh. Humour adds that little bit of sparkle to our interactions that helps us build bridges between different opinions and approaches and convey messages that may otherwise come across blunt or overly serious – and instead makes information interesting, playful and more memorable. Using humour in social interaction can be a real icebreaker to build trust and establish a relationship.

However, as much as humour is a global concept, it is also quite culture specific. So, when we interact with someone from a different culture, we need to be very careful about how we use humour in our communication. What may seem funny to someone from Austria may elicit less laughter from their French interlocutor. Worst case, it leads to hurting the other people’s feelings, especially when it comes to comparisons. The best way is to find a manner to laugh at ourselves and our own culture rather than the other one’s – and ultimately find a way to laugh together.

Used in the right way, humour will not break yet create cultural alliances. It will help build connections and convey cultural characteristics that will make it easier for the other party to understand what we want to communicate.

As described in the Cambridge English dictionary, an immigrant is ‘a person who has come to a country that is not their own in order to live there permanently.’ Immigrants are not born and do not hold citizenship in the destination country; however, they come there with the intention to settle as permanent residents or naturalised citizens.

Whilst migration is characterised by temporary movement – sometimes also within the borders of the same country -, immigration describes permanent residency in another country.

Looking at the definitions of expatriate, migrant and immigrant, we find that the meanings are partly similar or cross over one another. Whether we are aware of the exact definition or not – the most important thing is to realise and acknowledge the cultural challenges that all of them face when they leave the ‘normal’ of their homeland to adapt to the ‘new normal’ of their host country.

Inclusion refers to circumstances where all people have the same rights to be respected, accepted and valued as equal members of their societies, communities, educational institutions and organisations – regardless of their race, ethnicity, personality, gender, age, political and religious beliefs, sexual orientation, social background and status, mental and physical abilities, different values etc.

Inclusion involves a feeling of belonging (as opposed to a feeling of just being part of a quota). It promotes laws and policies to make sure that diversity – the sheer existence of a heterogeneous group of people – is taken to the next level.

To express it in a more modern, catchy way: Inclusion could be seen as ‘mix and match’, not just mix 😉

Individualism, one of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, indicates ‘the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members’. It describes the relationship between a society’s individuals and the groups to which they belong as well as the people’s inclination to define their self-image as ‘I’ or ‘we’.  The higher a country’s score on individualism, the more its social behaviour is guided by personal goals, the more important personal achievement and self-actualization will be, and the looser relationships between individuals within groups become.

The opposite of an individualistic culture is a collectivist society, with an emphasis on group membership rather than individualism, personal goals subordinate to those of the community and relationships having priority over task achievement.

With every general statement made about a culture, this one also needs to be interpreted and handled carefully and with the understanding that it is but one element in a variety of indicators a culture – and above all its individuals – can be approached with.

How do you think a business relationship needs to be conducted between cultures showing high individualism – such as the US, UK or Australia – and those being characterised by high collectivism – like Pakistan, Ecuador or Guatemala?

In one of his dimensions of national cultures, Geert Hofstede describes ‘Indulgence’ as “the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised. Relatively weak control is called ‘Indulgence’ and relatively strong control is called ‘Restraint’.”

Both have an undeniable impact on how we will enjoy life, have fun and value instant gratification – or put duty over pleasure, focus on responsibilities and control basic human drives.

On the scale between indulgence and restraint, cultures with relatively weak control, e.g. Mexico, New Zealand or Australia, will place a higher degree of importance on leisure time, tend to have a more positive and optimistic outlook whereas societies with strong control over their desires and impulses – such as Bulgaria, Romania or India – will perceive more constraint by social norms and indulge themselves to a lesser extent.

see ACCEPTANCE STAGE

The term ‘intercultural’ describes societies, communities and environments with a deep understanding and respect for all cultures. Intercultural interaction concentrates on building profound relationships and on reciprocal exchange of cultural norms, ideas and experiences. It usually brings about change on a broader level, for everyone in the community, with a mutual interest for interaction and learning. (See differences to ‘multicultural’ and ‘cross-cultural’.)

Among Hofstede’s dimensions of national cultures, Long Term Orientation describes “how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future”.

Different societies prioritise these goals in varying ways: Cultures inclining towards long term orientation – like South Korea, Taiwan, or Japan – tend to delay short-term projects or gratification in order to prepare for the future. The focus is on patience, persistence, and perseverance to obtain certain results. Societies with short term orientation on the other hand – such as Egypt, Australia, or Portugal – foster virtues related to the past or present. They honour tradition and norms and regard societal change with suspicion. Their preference for quick achievement results in more immediate gratification.

Knowledge about a culture’s inclination towards one of the cultural time orientations is an important asset when it comes to management – goal setting, negotiating, motivating people. For instance, whether it is more opportune to reward with short term gratification – e.g. a bonus at the end of the year – or a longer-term reward, such as an attractive pension scheme, to name just one example.

A loose culture, according to the theory of tightness–looseness in culture by Michele J. Gelfand (Cultural Psychologist at the University of Maryland, US) is one with rather flexible and relaxed social norms. Compared to a tight culture, a loose society allows for their members to roam within a behavioural framework that leaves flexibility to their own preferences. It encourages creativity, new ideas and experimentation.

Permissive of a wider range of behaviour, loose cultures – like Australia, New Zealand or the United States for instance – are more ready to adapt to change.

When we imagine the concept of tightness-looseness as a continuum, we can also envisage that the challenges between opposing cultures increase the further apart these societies are from each other on said continuum. In your opinion, which issues can arise when it comes to planning, decision-making processes and communication in general between a loose culture and a tight one?

Hearing about someone being “lost in translation”, many of you might first think about an actual translation from one language to another going wrong, leaving the stakeholders amused at best, yet mostly confused and helpless. And in so many situations, when people from different corners of the world meet and interact with each other, this might well be the case.

Being “lost for words” can be one definition of being lost in translation. Another one can be “being lost for meaning”, and this happens more often than we would like to think when it comes to intercultural exchange. In these situations, it suddenly is not “only” about losing the effectiveness of our words, the full subtlety of what we wanted to express – it is about the interpretation of a whole new world, being different from ours, not making sense with the tools that used to work in our own cultural sphere.

We can be “lost in translation” when we interpret and respond to a person’s behaviour solely with the learnings of the cultural background we come from, unaware of a wide range of different cultural settings, different “culture languages” if you will, making our world the diverse and exciting place it is.

Like a language, cultural differences can be explained and learned. However, we need to have awareness for the countless nuances, our own responsibility in dealing with a person not only from another culture yet also another person – and the fact that cultures are living concepts, constantly changing and developing as our world becomes bigger on one hand – and smaller on the other hand, every day …

Different cultures communicate in diverse ways. One of the distinctions is shown in the manner in which information is conveyed. In the case of low-context cultures, content is expressed more explicitly and directly, including a higher amount of information in what is verbally said.

These cultures value clear, precise messages and comprehensive verbal information as ‘good communication’ and also accept directly made negative comments. Of course, it is a matter of degree; rudeness or aggression aside and delivered in a neutral, polite manner, the simple fact that a comment is negative is normally not considered as being offensive.

Typical examples of low-context societies are the US and Germany.

The opposite to low-context cultures are high-context ones. Can you imagine in which ways they differ and how these differences can challenge intercultural encounters?

Masculinity is one of Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. It refers to the degree to which traditional masculine/male values coin a national culture (emphasis on traditional 😉): characteristics such as performance, competition, assertiveness, ambition or achievement are greatly valued in societies with a high score in masculinity. We will find clearly differentiated gender roles, an explicit sense for ‘winning’ and material rewards for success.

The opposite of a masculine culture is a feminist society, with an emphasis on traditional feminine/female values (emphasis on traditional 😉): a more nurturing environment with overlapping gender roles, focus on quality of life, consensus-orientation and concern for the less fortunate.

When societies with different cultural ‘settings’ need to find common ground for negotiations and collaboration, both sides have to be aware of and acknowledge the other one’s perspective and operating mode. Nordic cultures (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) for instance, placing high value on feminine traits, will have fundamentally different ways, influencing their leadership style or decision making, compared to a country with a very high score in masculinity, e.g. Japan.

The Cambridge English Dictionary describes mentality as “a person’s particular way of thinking about things”. Looking at it from a cultural point of view, mentality can be a tribe’s, a community’s, a nation’s way of thinking about ideas, concepts and events.

Mentality can also be described as a certain mind-set (shown by the word “mental”, relating to the mind) or outlook that will determine how we will perceive, interpret and respond to specific situations.

Mentality is shaped by a multitude of influences as we grow up. It is impacted by the language we learn, coined by the circumstances we are born into, formed by our education, affected by the people we surround ourselves with and powered by our own ability to assess and evaluate – situations, behaviour, events etc. A nation’s societal and political structure may influence our mentality with regards to our attitude towards hierarchy and authorities, towards time pressure and planning, as well as gender roles or individuality.

According to the UN Migration Agency (IOM), a migrant is “any person who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a State away from their habitual place of residence, regardless of the person’s legal status, whether the movement is voluntary or involuntary, what the causes for the movement are or what the length of the stay is.”
More often than not, migrants have not chosen to leave their native country. They are rather forced to leave, by events out of their control, and the reasons are manifold: conflict or war, persecution, terrorism, human rights violations, lack of employment, natural disasters, or other environmental factors. In any case, migrants move away from their homes in order to find work or better living conditions.
Knowing that cultural adaptation already represents a challenge for individuals migrating out of choice, we can only imagine how challenging it must be for those migrating out of necessity.

Have you ever been disappointed by colleagues arriving to a meeting 30 mins late? Or rather disturbed by those arguing that you have been 2 mins late? The reason may be down to cultural differences, to the disparity of monochronic and polychronic cultures. The terms were used by Edward T. Hall (US anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher, 1914 – 2009) to depict how different cultures consider time. In monochronic cultures – like Germany, Japan, the UK or the US -, time is regarded as a linear concept with strict deadlines and schedules. The focus lies on ‘task’ rather than ‘relationship’, and we will hear expressions like ‘saving time’, ‘managing time’ or even ‘time is money’. Characteristics that are seen as a virtue in a monochronic culture are e.g. punctuality, promptness, timekeeping, long-term plans.

Can you see how a monochronic culture can clash with a polychronic one?

How late is ‚late’ in your culture? 😉

The term ‘multicultural’ describes a society or an environment that contains different cultural or ethnic groups. People in these groups coexist without necessarily interacting with each other. They might frequent the same restaurants, cafés and shops and have polite, if anything superficial exchange rather than engaging interaction. Each cultural group stays separated from one another. (See differences to ‘cross-cultural’ and ‘intercultural’.)

National Culture is expressed in a set of norms, beliefs, customs and traditions that exist within the population of a given nation. It represents the shared cultural meaning system of individuals of a certain country and reflects the historic commonalities of the members of that nation, such as ethnic identity, language or religion.

A country’s national culture is part of their members’ identity, welding them together in a wider sense than their own family. Who does not feel belonging and pride when they hear their national anthem?

A person’s national culture does not tell anything about their identity or any personality traits which are specific to every individual. Knowledge about a person’s national background can help identify certain possible behaviours. However, these sometimes helpful generalisations should not be mistaken for reality and divert into stereotyping.

The Cambridge Dictionary describes nationality as “the official right to belong to a particular country”. According to Wikipedia, “Nationality is a legal relationship between an individual person and a state. Nationality affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state.”

Nationality does not equal ethnicity, racial identity or culture. Thus, it does not give any indication of how to approach, address and deal with a person.

Our globalised world makes it possible to meet people who would introduce themselves as follows: “My nationality is French, my ethnicity is African-American, and I was born and raised in Japan.”

How would you expect doing business with this person? 😉

In comparison to (high) contact cultures, non-contact cultures are those where people give each other larger personal space (in a range of different situations, e.g. to greet or to stand farther apart during a conversation), touch less often (touching is not welcome, even considered offensive or for instance simply not part of the greeting ritual) and maintain less eye contact – e.g. Asian countries, North America or Northern Europe.

As with all antipodes, it is often a matter of degree. Personal space is an invisible bubble around each and every one of us, an unseen boundary that defines how we are comfortable in social interaction.

Non-verbal communication (NVC) is the exchange of information and messages by means other than through linguistic expression. It can vary significantly from one culture to another and represents yet another challenge in the sometimes seemingly minefield-like world of intercultural communication.

NVC comprises everything from our posture to our general appearance (clothes, hairstyle), the way we make body and/or eye contact with others (e.g. when greeting) or how we move our head and eyes. It includes our facial expressions, our hand gestures, and sounds that we make to express emotions (laughing, crying, sighing etc.). For instance, a certain hand gesture that is accepted in one culture can easily represent an insult or rudeness in another.

NVC already occurs when we are standing still, not gesturing, just looking. The way in which we do that – standing straight, slouching, leaning towards or away from another person – will be interpreted differently in diverse cultures.

NVC also refers to non-linguistic expression such as art (dancing, sculpting, painting etc.), signs (visual like traffic lights or logos and acoustic such as sirens or gun salutes) or symbols (wedding rings or national flags).

see Company Culture

Othering describes the process where we attribute negative characteristics to another individual or another (cultural) group of people. It is a form of dividing into ‘US’ and ‘THEM’, instead of looking at what unites and what could be a start for common ground, for ‘ALL OF US’.
Unfortunately, othering is also a breeding ground for generalisation, prejudice and/or discrimination and all the plagues of humanity that should be a thing of the past: homophobia, misogyny, racism …
Whether we do it unconsciously – very often coming from a feeling of fear or threat – or consciously – as a way to make ourselves feel superior –, it is always meant to set us apart from an opposite in order to show our belonging. We all need to belong, and by highlighting differences to other groups, we affirm our membership and inclusiveness to one specific community.
However, our challenge is to gain awareness if and when we are in the process of othering: nearly all conflicts – be it in our personal or professional environment, in a specific region, a nation or globally – are based on some form of group-based difference.

see Cross-Race Effect

Pancultural*) describes something that is universal, relevant across all human cultures.

For example, facial expressions to show emotions are pancultural. However, the circumstances in which these facial expressions are shown – or in what intensity – are already subject to cultural influences and specific to a particular culture.

*) includes the Greek word “pan”, meaning all, completely

Paralanguage describes the non-lexical components of our communication, those that add additional information to what is said, such as intonation, pitch or volume. It can give nuanced or different meaning and convey emotion, and it influences the way we see others and how they see us. Paralanguage is expressed consciously as well as unconsciously and allows for a whole conversation going on beneath the surface.

Paralanguage is not only applicable to spoken language; it is also relevant in written communication such as emails or messaging. Think about how the meaning can change depending on which punctuation marks are used, which kind of font (type, size, colour, bold, underlined, etc.) and how emoticons can influence and change the message.

Paralanguage is very much culture bound and can lead to all kinds of misunderstandings in intercultural communication. The fact that high-context cultures are less explicit in their spoken communication than low-context cultures could suggest that they may interpret non-verbal elements and clues more effortlessly and adapt more easily to different communication settings.

One of the many challenges when it comes to different cultures is their approach to interaction and relationship building with others.

A Peach Culture (term coined by Kurt Lewin, 1890-1947, German-American psychologist) is characterised, like the fruit, by a soft outer layer, allowing for conversations and interactions to take place more spontaneously and for relationships to be built quicker. However, these may stay rather superficial and non-committal in their beginning. Only when the stone in the centre has been cracked, can connections form on a deeper level, giving access to people’s “real private self” and develop into personal relations, bonds and friendship.

A (stereo)typical example for “peaches” are Americans, being accessible and friendly towards strangers and seemingly building relationships quite quickly. However, one still has to earn a person’s trust to be able to form a lasting bond that can eventually develop into friendship.

Polychronic cultures differ from monochronic ones in their more flexible notion of time.

Historically speaking, polychronic cultures have until recently depended – and partly still do – on an agricultural economy, their tasks were set according to the cycles of nature more than to clock time. Figuratively speaking, polychronic cultures work ‘sunrise to sunset’ rather than from nine to five.

Polychronic cultures – such as Brazil, India or Nigeria – see deadlines as ‘indicators’ and are willing to change plans often and easily. Their focus is on what will be achieved rather than when it will be achieved, with a priority on relationship over task.

In an era of schedules and time pressure, cultural differences in the area of time become visible very quickly, and different viewpoints often not only lead to misunderstandings yet to veritable business challenges.

A polyglot is a person who knows and is able to use several different languages.

There are varying opinions about how many different spoken languages actually make someone a polyglot person. Three? Four? Five? If we look at the meaning of ‘poly’ – derived from Greek for many -, we can confidently say that it is probably three or more (pairs are not considered many, triples already are…).

At what level should polyglots be able to communicate in their learnt languages? At basic level? Or at native standard? Again, there are a variety of interpretations and opinions. Personally, I would say someone who is able to communicate with ease in certain languages rather than with perfection.

We don’t have to speak the language of a country in order to appreciate its culture. However, language can be the first step to get a glimpse of the values, the beliefs, the customs, traditions and ‘ways’ of its people – and an idea of the ‘soul’ of the country.

Power Distance, one of Hofstede’s ‘dimensions of national cultures’, indicates to what extent a certain culture perceives and accepts power inequality. In simple words: how much hierarchical differences we acknowledge and appreciate – and how lower ranking individuals react to authorities. Countries with high/er power distance are characterised by a more autocratic framework, emphasis on hierarchy and status as well as less participation of lower ranking individuals in decision making processes. Nations with low/er power distance normally show less acceptance of centralised authority, more democratic relations and wider distribution of decision-making responsibility.

The degree of power distance in a given culture will have an influence on whether a team member will speak up to their manager, question decisions or contribute ideas. It will coin people’s leadership, management and working style, the hierarchical relationship with their bosses, colleagues and team members – and it will be expressed in a culture’s political and societal fabric, even down to the family structure.

Imagine the challenges that arise when cultures with low power distance – for instance the Netherlands, the US, Germany or the Nordic countries – collide with high power distance cultures, such as China, India, Saudi Arabia or France. How do you think will the difference in power distance – a more democratic vs a more autocratic style – affect the interactions they have with each other?

Prejudice is a judgement about, and often affective feeling towards, a person or group based on that person’s perceived group membership or the group as a whole. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived, typically adverse, evaluation of another person based on that person’s characteristics (for example: race/ethnicity, nationality, age, religion, language, physical appearance, sexuality, gender, education, profession, political affiliation, beliefs, values, social class, physical and mental ability/disability, to name a few – of course this list is not exhaustive). Prejudice is very often formed without thought or better knowledge and not based on reason or actual experience.

Along with generalising or stereotyping, prejudice is another example of our cultural conditioning, showing our desire to belong to something bigger than ourselves, our need for a feeling of “we”/“us” – which inevitably brings about a “them” and the respective judgement. It is likely to arise when we perceive a threat to our own personal or group identity.

As is often the case, awareness of prejudice is the first step in preventing that prejudice from occurring.

(Did I mention that intercultural training/coaching is an excellent way to gain awareness about our prejudices? 😉)

Have you ever experienced this situation? You are in a conversation with someone standing very close to you. You take a step back in order to get comfortable with the distance to the other person – only to realise that every time you ‘correct’ the distance according to your personal comfort, your conversational partner follows by taking a step towards you …

Proxemics, a term coined by Edward T. Hall in the 1960s, is the study of the human sense and use of space and its effects on social interaction. Hall differentiated between four distinct zones of interpersonal distance: intimate distance (touching, embracing, whispering), personal distance (conversing, chatting), social distance (meeting clients in more formal business situations) and public distance (public address, theatrical performance).

We all perceive space in a similar way, through distance receptors (eyes, ears, nose). However, the way we define and organise space – and tolerate contact – varies from culture to culture. In our initial example, “you” could have been someone originating from the UK who prefers a greater distance than your Southern American counterpart, who is confused as to why you both have moved a couple of feet through the room during your conversation … 😉

Of course – as with ‘all things culture’ -, personal and social distance are also a deeply individual perception and not only dependent on the culture we come from.

Racism is the belief that particular groups of humans are superior or inferior to another. Racism involves stereotyping, prejudice, antagonism and discrimination on the basis of different race or ethnicity.

According to UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), refugees are people “who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country. They often have had to flee with little more than the clothes on their back, leaving behind homes, possessions, jobs and loved ones.”

The word refugee comes from the Latin word fugere, meaning to flee, to avoid – and just now, it resounds throughout the world due to current events: more than 1,7 million people have fled Ukraine in just 10 days’ time.

Together with the millions and millions of refugees all over the world*), experiencing misery and hunger amid decades of conflict, persecution, threat to their lives and/or non-existing living conditions, this wave of human beings having been made homeless is yet another sad testimony that the way to a peaceful world is a long and rocky way ahead.

*) resulting from ongoing “major wars” or so called “minor conflicts” (depending on the number of deaths in a current year) – as we see them mainly in the Middle East, on the African continent and North-West Asia

Relocation is defined as “the action of moving to a new place and establishing one’s home or business there” (according to Oxford Languages). Relocation can mean moving from one house to another in the same city, village, or country. In any case, it means having to adjust to a new environment, to different circumstances, another neighbourhood and community. Or it can mean, leaving your home country and moving internationally – to the country “next door” or even to another continent, far away from your loved ones, your friends, your support network.

Relocation to another country and culture can be an exciting adventure – and is for sure one of the most horizon broadening life events one can imagine. On the other hand, relocation in general is seen as one of the most stressful projects, various studies have found. Whilst change itself is a challenge for us human beings, the transition to living in another culture often adds another layer of intensity to the undertaking. It means deciding which part of your belongings you pack and take – and which you leave behind. It means adjusting to a completely new way of doing things, learning how everyday life is organised – from the health system to general administrative tasks, from the education structure to hierarchical order, from company culture to social activities. Not to mention a potentially different language to one’s mother tongue. Last but not least, relocating to another culture confronts us with a way of life, with values, beliefs and traditions that can potentially be the opposite of what our life so far looked like.

Have I mentioned that cross-cultural coaching or training can make your relocation to the adventure you want it to be – and support you with the effects you would not expect from moving to another country? 😉

The term repatriate describes a person who returns to their place of origin after having lived abroad for a certain period of time. Whilst the notion ‘expatriate’ is widely known and given a certain level of attention, repatriation is not as commonly talked about – and the challenges of its reality are less familiar.

However, they can in fact be as impactful and hit someone completely unexpectedly. Returning home after quite some time when life in the home country has moved on can be a daunting experience, especially when it hits unprepared. Relationships with friends and even family might have changed, business within the company one used to know so well might have evolved – just think of new colleagues, different ‘power proportions’, new processes etc. And then there are also the people and things that we have learned to appreciate abroad that we will inevitably miss… There are so many things to consider. The only way to deal with it is preparing for this important step, giving it the same Awareness, Acceptance and Action^*) that it needs to turn it into a positive experience.

*) Did you know that all Authentic Wow programs are designed to promote ‘triple A approach’?

Reverse Culture Shock can be seen as the probably even more underestimated brother of Culture Shock. It describes the emotional and psychological challenge we face and the adjustment we need to make when we return to our native country after a number of years abroad. Realising that time has not stood still during our time overseas and that both we, our friends and family as well as the circumstances back home have evolved, sometimes requires time and effort to ‘re-become’ familiar with. By focusing on not having to ‘choose’ between cultures yet having an even richer cultural spectrum at our disposal, we can help ourselves to auto-facilitate the return process – as well as seeking support by an intercultural coach.

On a different scale, returning to our offices with the easing of lockdown after Covid_19 might feel like a reverse culture shock – after weeks of getting accustomed to working from home.

Most of all, Reverse Culture Shock is a testament to the infinite human capacity to adapt, to learn and to change …

A rex-pat, a repeat expatriate, is someone choosing to return to a foreign country after the completion of their work assignment, becoming ex-patriated another time.

The term is not yet fully established in mainstream language. However, it is yet another proof of our more and more globalised world, our flexible, modern way of life and the constant cultural changes within it, opening up new opportunities, fresh choices and different ways of life.

There lies magic in living abroad. It means being surrounded by a different culture, getting to know new ways of doing things, being immersed in an unknown world and thus also seeing one’s original environment through a different lens. Rex-patriates become befriended with their country of assignment, forcing them to return once again, sometimes for good.

Rituals are repetitive actions or practices that are performed in specific life situations. They are a feature of all human societies and found in every single culture of the world, marking particular events in the life of individual people or of communities. Some are performed to celebrate, witness and share incisive moments like giving birth, baptism, weddings or funerals. However, also common actions like greeting (e.g. shaking hands or bowing) or giving presents (for birthdays, anniversaries etc.) can be seen as rituals.

Some rituals that are commonly accepted in one culture can seem very unusual and even weird from the point of view of another and stretch one’s imagination to the limits. An interesting series on BBC called “Extraordinary Rituals” explores the spectacular and emotional world of rituals in different parts of the world. If you are interested and have the chance to get it, I strongly recommend to watch it. It is incredibly interesting, very educational and deeply humbling.

Do you have personal rituals, for instance in the morning to start the day? And what are your rituals to end a calendar year and begin a new one?

Most of us will think of country or ethnicity when we hear the word ‘culture’. And in most cases, the term will as a matter of fact be used in the sense of ‘national culture’.

There are, however, subcultures deriving from national ones, and even small cultures developing from ‘a cohesive social grouping’ (Adrian Holliday, Professor of Applied Linguistics and Intercultural Education). Small cultures can emerge from specific groups (e.g. subject matter classes at university, political parties), the staff of a particular company and also from professional guilds (doctors, lawyers, musicians …). Each small culture is characterised by a set of in-group values and beliefs, expressed in their collective action and behaviour. If we think of differences in company values, just imagine how they could vary between a 150-year-old, private banking institute and a two-year-old technology start-up – and how these differences could be expressed in their appearance and communication.

A stereotype is an over-generalised belief, a very often negative statement or interpretation made about a particular group of people (in the cultural context about a particular country/nation/region, a culture group etc.).

Stereotypes tend to place people into categories and limit groups to a handful of specific characterisations. In general, they focus on an adverse view and are often harmful. Instead of giving actionable knowledge, they are judgmental and can be detrimental to intercultural communication.

Example: “The Chinese are mistrusting to people outside their in-group. Building a business relationship with them is difficult.”

Compare with the more helpful generalisation, focusing on the needed value: trust.

Subculture is the sociological term for a more or less differing culture of the subgroup of a society. The degree of deviation ranges from mere modifications to fundamentally different lifestyles. Members of a subculture share varying values and beliefs to the mainstream culture they are embedded in. However, they agree on their basic norms (otherwise the subcultural group would not be part of the overall system).

The term is often applied to class-specific youth cultures (such as mods, rockers or skinheads in the 1960s) for example. More rarely are professional groups designated as subcultures; most likely travelling folk or showmen, who not only spend their work yet also their private lives for the most part in their respective group.

It is often difficult to apply the term in a non-judgemental way precisely because of its popular use.

The term TCK is used for children who are raised outside their parents’ culture for a significant part of their development. These children build a new cultural identity (C3) which neither matches exactly with their home culture (C1) nor their host culture (C2) yet is an amalgamation of both.

The concept of tightness–looseness in culture has been coined by Michele J. Gelfand, Cultural Psychologist at the University of Maryland, US.

According to Gelfand, a tight culture is a more restrictive society, with stricter disciplinary measures for norm violations and a low tolerance for deviant behaviour. Dominant elements are routines, processes, rules, consistency, and conformity, leaving little room for individual improvisation and interpretation.

As with all things culture, the theory of tightness-looseness should not be considered as either black or white. We can imagine cultures being located along a continuum from “tight” to “loose”, depending on the strictness of their rules. And as always, we also have to take into account the fact that not every single individual of a specific society will respond in the exact same way.

There is also no right or wrong, and only in the “confrontation” of two cultures situated at opposite ends of the continuum will they experience challenges in their interactions. Whilst tight cultures like Germany, Japan or Singapore might be well organised and foreseeable, loose societies have their own set of traits and advantages (see Loose Culture).

Kurt Tucholsky (1890 – 1935, German journalist, satirist and writer) once said: “Tolerance is the suspicion that the other person might be right.”

Described as “willingness to accept behaviour and beliefs that are different from our own, although we might not agree with or approve of them” in the Cambridge English dictionary, tolerance can be seen as one of the main ingredients for successful intercultural interaction and communication.

Tolerance allows an objective and fair attitude towards those with different values, beliefs, opinions, racial or ethnic origins, religious faiths, political convictions or way of life. It is our ability to distance ourselves from ‘right-and-wrong’ classifying, to promote curiosity as well as an open mindset, enabling us to listen and observe instead of instantly judge.

In today’s global village, tolerance is an indispensable capability to have if we were to communicate successfully.

Like a custom, a tradition is something that is done repeatedly, an action/behaviour that is passed down within a group, a society, a culture. Traditions very often have symbolic meaning and significance. The word itself origins from the Latin word ‘tradere’, which means to deliver, to hand over.

We can also say that a custom that continues from generation to generation can eventually become a tradition, e.g: ‘For thirty years, my grandparents had a custom of spending New Year’s Eve in the mountains in order to go skiing on the first day of the new year. Since then, it has become a family tradition, and now we all do it together.’

Typical traditions in different cultures:

• In Mexico, celebrating and honouring the dead on ‘Día de los muertos’ (Day of the dead) by visiting their loved one’s graves, bringing and eating their favourite food.
• In Portugal, passing on the father’s name to the first son.
• Sharing specific meals on holidays, such as turkey at Thanksgiving in the US, la ‘Galette des rois’ (a special pie) on the 6^th of January in France – or, yes, cakes at birthdays in a lot of countries.

What traditions are typical in your culture?

Travel bug is wanderlust’s little brother/sister. If you catch it, you probably have a constant – or at least frequent – urge to travel, a desire to go different places, meet new interesting people, discover exciting landscapes, explore big cities, and become acquainted with unknown cultures.

Your mother doesn’t have to be a pilot, your dad does not have to have read you travel stories when you were a child (see what I did here?). You can catch it as simply as by learning another language, by seeing a picture of a far-away place, by listening to foreign music, by meeting that one person so different from you that you need to know more, understand better …

Once smitten with the travel bug, your life will be forever changed, enriched with learnings, full of opportunities and chances. And you will say: “I haven’t been everywhere – but it’s on my list.” 😉

Hofstede’s cultural dimension of Uncertainty Avoidance describes the degree to which a society tends to embrace – or avoid – uncertainty, unpredictability, and ambiguity.

The higher a culture scores on the uncertainty avoidance index, the more uncomfortable they are with the unknown, trying to minimise the eventuality of unexpected events to a greater extent. We will find a high need for information, strict laws and rules as well as a requirement for regulations and behavioural guides, like for instance in France, Japan, Belgium.

Countries with a lower score will be more comfortable when dealing with ambiguity, more open to risk and satisfied with a loose set of rules. New ideas or unconventional ways of thinking will be welcome and implemented more pragmatically – think of Denmark, the UK or China.

How do you think will the way in which different cultures deal with uncertainty and risk impact the manner of planning, negotiating, and decision making in an international business relationship?

In the cultural context, we very often talk about values and that they play a big role in evaluating situations and events as well as in interacting with others. On the one hand, we can see that some values are more important in certain cultures than in others. On the other hand, the significance of certain values also influences behaviour and communication.

Let’s take the value of “face” as an example. “Face” can stand for honourableness, righteousness, esteem, standing. The expression “face” is used in a number of languages to express all that. For instance in German, the expression “das Gesicht verlieren” means “to loose one‘s face”; it signifies being embarrassed in front of someone else, ”being discovered“, in a way.

However, it does not quite have the same intensity, the same severity as this is the case in a lot of Asian countries for example – one of them being China. “Face” in the Chinese culture is an omnipresent value: “keeping face” to express “keeping dignity”, “saving face” to convey “keeping integrity” or also to talk about “building face” in the sense of building reputation.

As a consequence, feelings such as disagreement or anger are not directly addressed. They are conveyed through more subtle, indirect communication – often non-verbal or coded. Even a simple “no”, which by Asian standards is considered blunt if not rude, will be conveyed more between the lines. Of course, all this also applies to each individual, and we should never forget to take this not only inter-cultural but also inter-personal factor into account in our communication.

Wanderlust is a very strong innate desire to travel; the Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “the wish to travel far away and to many different places”.

Now, we all have varying motives and ways to travel and explore the world. Some might go on a journey to discover the endless abundance of different landscapes whilst others emphasise on the people they meet and their cultural background – language, customs and traditions, their whole way of life.

In situations where travel is restricted (e.g. Covid19), whoever is overcome by wanderlust faces a genuine challenge, and I can very much relate to that. NOT travelling is one thing – not BEING ABLE to travel is a completely different ball game.

In the absence of actual travel, why not ‘virtually wanderlusting’ by asking international contacts or friends about a specific cultural element of their country? That can be a certain term of their language, a tradition you have heard of or, yes, a stereotype that you have come along and that you want to get out of the way once and for all. (Sure, you could google it – but where is the fun?)

see Worldview

We-ness describes a sense of affiliation to a specific group, a perception of ‘us’. It inevitably provokes a ‘them’ and very often leads to a judgement of superiority.

We-ness emerges from the very powerful human need for belonging, making us focus on differences to other groups, instead of looking at commonalities in a wider sense. We all are members of many groups at the same time – we are family members, work colleagues, community members, stakeholders in companies, affiliates of religious congregations, class mates or club members -, and in each group we set ourselves apart from a – more or less imaginary – ‘outside’.

In organisational culture, developing a sense of we-ness is crucial for the good of the company. It is indispensable for commercial success which results from a welded team that knows their common goals and pulls together.

What if we defined ourselves mainly as ‘we, human beings’? Would the awareness about it lead to more acceptance, less judgement and a better understanding in the first place? Where do you experience we-ness?

see GLOBAL CITIZEN

see ELF

‘Worldview’ is a loan translation of the German word ‘Weltanschauung’, meaning ‘perception of the world’. It is the way an individual experiences, interprets and understands the world and interacts with it.

Coming from different cultures, we all perceive the world from a very distinct perspective. Our education might have favoured a religious or spiritual approach, the political structure of our nation might have given us a certain ideological set of beliefs, our parents and teachers might have instilled a more optimistic or pessimistic approach to life in us – the influences on our worldview are manifold and colourful, sometimes leading to potential conflicts or challenges created by our individual cultural lens.

Whatever worldview we have: If we could all agree on one common approach to the world, a peaceful one, all other differences can be taken care of …