expat insider 1 InterNations

The World Through Expat Eyes – The Good, The Bad, and The Challenges

Working outside of your comfort zone can be a challenge. Relocating to a new country for work can be taxing. Life as an expat typically means working in a different environment, with new colleagues, settling into a new area and making a new city home, and needing to establish a new social life. The insights from the latest InterNations expatriate …

The Culture Moment

Introducing: The Culture Moment Video Series

In addition to our audio program, The Culture Guy Podcast, you can now also get cross-cultural insights from us in the form of video content. We are introducing a new short-form format: The Culture Moment. Every clip is around three minutes long and contains a complimentary intercultural nugget, presented by Christian Höferle. We want you to stop wasting your time and resources …

When Everything You Think You Know About A Country Is Wrong [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Inês Nascimento shares her experience of being a serial expat She had always been curious about “the world out there” and so Inês Vieira Nascimento started working for international companies, supporting business functions and employees navigating the challenges of international transition. Then she became a serial expat. As an HR manager, Inês began her career in global mobility roles in Portugal. …

Daren Menabney The Culture Guy odcast

Why Focusing on Differences Won’t Help You Build Commonality [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Darren Menabney talks about the things you may want to stop doing when working across cultures When Darren Menabney moved to Japan in 2011 it was to attend an MBA program in Tokyo. Before that, the Northern Ireland-born Torontonian spent over twenty years working for the federal government in Canada, in the Departments of Revenue, Industry, Foreign Affairs, and Defense. Today, …

Sharing The Culture Mastery Story with a LAMA

When explaining themselves to the market place, companies today have multiple avenues to be heard, seen, or experienced. For The Culture Mastery these channels have mainly been social media – if you’re not doing so yet, we encourage you to connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium – our Podcast as well as webinars, speaking engagements, or professional articles …

Build a Global Career You Can Be Proud of – with a Culture Coach [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Everybody needs a coach – here’s why Let’s call this the coaching episode. A whole podcast about the fact that you won’t reach your top goals without someone who holds you accountable and cheers you on at the same time. 27 minutes to highlight how you or any global professional can build a career in international business with cultural competence. …

body language

Learn to Read Body Language Across Cultures for Global Business Success

No matter how strong your foreign language skills may be – without the ability to effectively interpret body language across cultures, you’ll struggle to understand all the complex communicative details of global business. So how can you learn to make sense of nonverbal cues in different cultural contexts and feel more confident in a range of situations? You may find …

expat management

Money, Time, Manpower – Stinginess With a Tiny Slice May Cost You the Entire Expat Pie

Any cost-conscious organization sending employees abroad needs to be prudent and justify all the expenses of an expatriate assignment. Smart organizations know that a small percentage of the overall expat management cost protects their investment in global talent. International employee relocations can fail for various reasons: A company may have chosen the wrong team member for the overseas job. The expat …

The Best (and worst) Countries for Expat Job Assignments

Relocating to a new country can be a challenge. It typically means working in a different environment, with new colleagues, settling into a new city and making it home, and needing to establish a new social life. The latest InterNations expatriate survey might make it easier to decide which destination will be best for an international job assignment. According to global …

Get the Latest on Developing a Global HR Strategy

In order to help global assignees and their families succeed when relocating internationally, human resources departments in multinational organizations need to have state-of-the-art tools to manage employee mobility and they need to have a wellformed global HR strategy. On September 27, 2018 language services firms TransNation Translations and Fluency Corp will host a lunch and learn session for human resources professionals …

expat spouse

The Secret to Managing Expat Assignments for Modern Families? Start with the Spouse

Skilled professionals are increasingly likely to have an equally skilled partner at home. This makes it harder for companies to fill overseas positions when the move affects two professional careers. Multinational corporations are starting to recognize and try to understand the complexities of managing talent globally. But we wondered whether they are considering the “right” scope of complexities. As an …

How Unmanaged Diversity Will Lead to a Mess in Global Business [The Culture Guy Podcast]

When companies fail abroad, 50% to 70% of the time this is due to cultural differences that have not been addressed, says Sophie Lechner. The CEO of Global Commerce Education and creator of The G2 Experience is dedicated to making her clients aware of the dissimilarities and contrasts between markets and countries. Sophie Lechner about how organizing diversity properly will …

Bicultural Employees Can Be Your Organization’s Secret to Success

A stroll through the halls of almost any Canadian or U.S. American workplace will testify to the cultural diversity of its workforce. By 2050, around 40 per cent of the population of Canada, as well as the United States and Australia, will be immigrants or the children of immigrants. Many of these people, who make up an increasing portion of …

Anthony Bourdain obit

Anthony Bourdain’s death is a tragic blow for the cross-cultural world

When I heard the news of Anthony Bourdain’s death I felt sadness. I can’t say I was surprised. If you ever watched Parts Unknown, his excellent show on CNN, you’ll remember how many times Bourdain talked about his demons. His bouts with addiction, his self doubt, and his depressive tendencies. Bourdain’s tragic suicide creates a gaping hole in the souls …

Why knowing Spanish isn’t good enough to be successful in Latin America [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Adjusting to cultural differences between Spain and the Spanish-speaking parts of the Americas Spanish is the world’s second most common language with more than 400 million native speakers. Comparable to English it has been a lingua franca for centuries and you’ll find people on five continents whose first language is Spanish. This linguistic commonality, however, does not translate into cultural …

Younger Isn’t Necessarily Better When Learning a Second Language

It is often thought that it is better to start learning a second language at a young age. But research shows that this is not necessarily true. In fact, the best age to start learning a second language can vary significantly, depending on how the language is being learned. The belief that younger children are better language learners is based …

Are some cultures really less trusting than others?

Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow once described trust as a “lubricant of a social system”. Economic exchange, in particular, is virtually impossible without at least some level of trust. While markets, shops and online traders attempt to reduce uncertainty through customer reviews or free returns policies, consumers have to decide for themselves whether to trust unknown trading partners calling themselves obscure …

Why the Japanese concept of Nemawashi affects leadership in a Western context [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Working with professionals from Japan, Mexico, and the USA For three decades Jack Parsons worked for a Japanese car manufacturer who is building vehicles in the United States. In fact, Honda was the first automaker from Japan which established a production subsidiary in the U.S. In his functions at Honda Jack was responsible for training and supporting his company’s network …

How Learning a New Language Builds Cultural Competence and Tolerance

Why is foreign language study important? There are many benefits to knowing more than one language. For example, it has been shown that aging adults who speak more than one language have less likelihood of developing dementia. Additionally, the bilingual brain becomes better at filtering out distractions, and learning multiple languages improves creativity. Evidence also shows that learning subsequent languages …

Atlanta mural ATL downtown

Join us at the Global HR Business Conference

Learn, Engage, Connect, Exchange Ideas, Collaborate The Global HR Business series of conferences is coming to Atlanta, GA this April. Event organizer Edwin B. Cohen has been putting together an impressive speaker roster. This full-day event on April 11, 2018 will bring together professionals from various industries. Ed and his team have been connecting business people from across silos, from across …