We Make Global Business Skills Training a Public Enrollment Matter

Our clients want to get better at what they do. They want to succeed in global business. We give them a leg up. With our public enrollment courses. Throughout the year 2021 we are offering cross-cultural business trainings on various topics. Global business training turns your employees and executive team into more mature and skillful leaders who will have a …

training room

4 Reasons to Make Space for Intercultural Learning in Corporate Settings

A guest blog by Stephan Hild, originally published in German on his company blog. Effective intercultural business training can turn your employees and executive staff into more mature and considerate leaders who will have a significantly broader and deeper behavioral and cognitive repertoire when dealing with challenging situations in global business. Here’s what you’ll need and how it will pay …

Why People Need Rituals, Especially in Times of Uncertainty

A guest blog by Dimitris Xygalatas which originally appeared at The Conversation. Responding to the coronavirus pandemic, most American universities have suspended all campus activities. Like millions of people all around the world, the lives of students all over the U.S. has changed overnight. When I met my students for what was going to be our last in-class meeting of the …

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 …

Where You Are Born Influences the Person You Become

As early as the fifth century, the Greek philosopher Thucydides contrasted the self-control and stoicism of Spartans with the more indulgent and free-thinking citizens of Athens. Today, unique behaviors and characteristics seem ingrained in certain cultures. Italians wildly gesticulate when they talk. Dutch children are notably easygoing and less fussy. Russians rarely smile in public. As developmental psychologists, we’re fascinated …

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 …

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 …

Growing up as a black TCK in Germany [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Trevor Gillies talks about his experience with racism and ethnic inequality as a U.S. third-culture kid in Deutschland Spending your childhood and adolescence abroad and being raised as a third-culture kid (TCK) is a unique experience. As the child of U.S. service members, Trevor Gillies grew up as the only black kid in a Southern Germany town in the ’80s …

How Culture Considerably Influences Children’s Development

From educational toys to governmental guidelines and detailed nursery progress reports, there are lots of resources available to help parents track and facilitate their children’s development. But while there are tricks we can use to teach children to talk, count, draw or respect others, a surprisingly big part of how they develop is determined by the culture they grow up …

Why your perceptions of Iran are probably wrong [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Three countries in seven years For many Western expats the list of destinations for an overseas work assignment often include countries among the developed economies as well as the leading powers among the developing nations. So living in Australia and Indonesia might not be considered unusual for a student and young professional from Germany. However, relocating to Iran – a …

What do expatriates want?

Take the survey Are you currently an expatriate on a foreign work assignment? Have you lived and worked abroad in the past? Are you considering taking a position overseas? Then this survey is for you! Please take a minute to answer these short questions for expats. This brief questionnaire is designed to help us better understand how people who live …

Mastering a mixed marriage in Indonesia [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Silke Irmscher talks about transitioning from Saxony to Java On this episode Silke Irmscher, founder of Culturenergy, tells her story of how she left Germany and fell in love with Indonesia and, in fact, found love on the island of Java. Silke has been living in Indonesia for more than 15 years and together with her husband, Ri Yanto, she …

When moving within the U.S. feels like going from Morocco to Finland [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Melissa Hahn shares how the question of identity can shape a relationship between partners from different cultures. She also describes how the geographical distance within one country can equal that of the opposite ends of a continent. Born and raised in Arizona, Melissa has had many opportunities to travel and live abroad and to experience other cultures. However, the first time …

How to build cross-cultural rapport by leaving your food comfort zone [The Culture Guy Podcast]

When he moved within the United States, from Maryland to Arkansas, Michael Spencer realized that some of the stories about the U.S. South are sometimes more than just stereotypes. Or, as he found out, Southerners like their tea sweet. Which meant that rapport building in the Ozarks is different than at the Chesapeake Bay. Then his company offered him an …

When the expat dream turns into a career challenge [The Culture Guy Podcast]

In the past few weeks we have been posting several useful articles on our Facebook Page about life abroad, the challenges of expatriation, raising children overseas with two languages, and repatriating back home after having lived abroad for years. So it is time we let someone who has been through all of these stages share her story. Meet Germany-native Tina …

Talking about connection across cultures, ethnicities, socio-economics with Gary Rahman

Adjusting to different cultures and the behaviors which are acceptable and familiar to their representatives isn’t only challenging across country lines. Often we find distinct subcultures within nations. That’s the case in comparatively small countries like Spain, Germany, or Italy and especially in large territorial nations like China, India, or the United States. In the U.S. the different American cultures …

The Table of Elements for Global Business Readiness

What do expat families need away from home? Which components make a community a desirable destination global business and foreign assignees? Our clients trust us and rely on us that we will lead their teams to more success across cultural borders. We are the aspirin to your expat headache. So we researched the most important success factors and compiled them …

We’re in the human dignity business

Guest blog by Jerry Redman, Co-Founder and CEO of Second Life of Chattanooga One of two things usually happen when I’m asked what I do for a living: upon hearing the answer many folks immediately appear very uncomfortable, or others launch into a lengthy series of questions and comments about our work, the issue of trafficking itself, their outrage that …

Balancing different leadership approaches as an expat boss [The Culture Guy Podcast]

As the daughter of first generation immigrants to Australia, Stephanie Barros learned from childhood on how to balance the cultures of her birth country and those cultures represented in her family who, hailing from the Philippines, combines roots from England, Spain, Portugal, and Germany. Today, living in Singapore with her family and working as an executive for a U.S.-based, multinational …