Image: ‘plane.jpg‘

July 19, 1990

Eugene airport. 5:50am.

I kiss my parents, brother, best friend, and everything that goes with senior year of high school good-bye. I hand my ticket to the gate agent. She tells me to enjoy my flight.

Then, I freeze.

As excited as I am about moving to Germany, second thoughts glue my feet to the airport carpet. What am I doing leaving my family, my friends, what’s supposed to be the best year of high school – everything that’s known, familiar, and comfortable – for the complete unknown? What if I get homesick? What if I can’t learn German? What if my friends forget about me?

I’m convinced that the gate agent will have to push me down the jetway and onto the plane. But she simply smiles at me.

I quickly realize that nobody is going to push me. The only person who can unfreeze me and get me moving down the jetway is me. So I take a deep breath, wave a final, somewhat teary good-bye, and board the smallest plane I’ve ever seen.

The plane door closes, and it’s official: I’m on my way to spend my senior year of high school living with a family I’d never met, speaking a language I barely knew, in a country I’d never visited.

I want to pat myself on the back and throw up at the same time.

November 16, 2010

Eugene airport. 5:50am.

In the 18+ years I’ve lived away from Eugene, I’ve only flown in/out of that airport a handful of times (I fly into Portland instead). Waiting to board my tiny commuter flight to Portland in the dark hours of the early morning that memory of being frozen in transition comes rushing back. It was 20 years ago but it feels like yesterday.

Yesterday. Last week. Last month. Much of 2010. I feel like I’ve been frozen in transition all year.

A few highlights: I started being asked to do consulting and training for some awesome organizations, got more involved in a national professional association, and celebrated my husband’s milestone birthday.

Then, Aaron’s Dad passed away. I got laid off. Worst of all, my grandma unexpectedly died. Somewhere in there Aaron and I celebrated our 10th anniversary.

Fortunately, not all of this year’s transitions were horrible, and the horrible events (namely the deaths of my father-in-law and grandmother) didn’t happen all at once. And I know that in the grand scheme of things, my year of transition is nothing compared to some people’s.

Anyway. Even as 2010 winds down, I still find myself in transition. But at least I no longer feel frozen in it, as I have for the past several months. I no longer feel like I did 20 years ago at the airport when I was frozen (albeit for only about 15 seconds) between the familiar and comfortable and the big scary unknown.

Instead, today I’m happily walking down the jetway, so to speak, to 2011…away from the familiar and comfortable last few years and towards all of the unknown a new year – and a new path – brings.

I want to pat myself on the back and throw up at the same time.

All this to say…

This will be the final post on CulturallyTeaching.com. I’ve launched a new website: SmallPlanetStudio.com. I’ve been transitioning to this website for a few months now and am so excited that’s if finally live.

SmallPlanetStudio.com is similar to CulturallyTeaching.com but the focus of SPS is on intercultural educators (i.e. teachers, students, intercultural trainers, consultants and coaches, homeschooling parents, etc…), rather than just K-12 teachers.

We’re also expanding the topics we’ll cover to include travel, global citizenship, study abroad, teaching, training and coaching, and cool people doing awesome things – in addition to intercultural communication, culture, and schools and education around the world.

You’ll also find an increasing number and variety of resources for intercultural educators – downloads, teleclasses, -workshops and -courses, and a bunch of other things. What I’m most excited about with SmallPlanetStudio.com is that we’re collaborating with some really fantastic intercultural educators.

So come on over and check out the cool logo my awesome friend created, a new series highlighting awesome people doing intercultural work, and photos from Ireland (where I am right now).

What this change to SmallPlanetStudio.com means for you:

:: If you subscribe to CulturallyTeaching.com’s RSS feed — you’ll need to re-subscribe to SmallPlanetStudio.com’s feed. Click here to do so.

:: If you’re an email subscriber, you may not have to do anything. I’m going to *try* to transfer you to SmallPlanetStudio.com’s new and improved email subscription list. If it doesn’t work, I’ll post a note here with instructions for re-subscribing to SmallPlanetStudio.com.

Thanks for reading CulturallyTeaching.com. See you over at SmallPlanetStudio.com!

Image: ‘bear stencil‘

Last Thursday we held the first session of Christine’s Unite Your Brain: How to Effectively Use Visuals in Training, Teaching & Coaching telecourse*.

At one point, Christine explained how she’s used her VisualsSpeak image set to help groups develop a strategic vision. (I was interested in this process because I’d like to use VisualsSpeak with our SIETAR-NC group this year.)

Christine explained that one of the steps in the process is to ask a group to create two group images: one that represents where they see the organization today, and another that represents where they see the organization down the road. In other words, she’s asking about the present and the future.

This is pretty much the route I’d take if I were the facilitator, and I bet if you’re from the U.S. (and probably other parts of the world) you would do.

But Christine mentioned something that I found interesting, and not at all surprising:

Not everyone approaches developing a strategic vision using a present and future framework.

Here’s a short clip (about 2 minutes) from the class, in which Christine talks about her experience using this present and future framework with cross-cultural groups:

This is one example that shows why we need to 1) be aware of our own cultural perspectives, and 2) consider other cultural perspectives. (Always got to be on the look out for those cultural moonwalking bears!)

It also illustrates that even when we know that cultures differ, we can still find ourselves in situations where we haven’t anticipated a difference. In these situations, it’s easy to be caught off-guard by a difference or overlook it completely (which can lead to further problems down the road).

Especially if we’re working in an education or business context where everyone is speaking the same language and drawing on the same general educational or business principles and practices.

Would you use a present/future approach to strategic visioning?

Or would you use one of the approaches Christine mentioned in the clip (e.g. considering the past, telling a story based on a core value)? Or something different still? If you’ve done strategic visioning with a cross-cultural group, what kind of experience have you had? What kind of variation in approaches and preferences do you see within cultural groups?

(So many questions from a 2-minute audio clip…just imagine what’s in the other 58 minutes of the class!)

*If you’re wondering what Christine’s telecourse is all about, click here to learn more. I’ve also organized a course on marketing for interculturalists (the world needs to know what we do!) that starts on Wednesday  – click here to learn more about the marketing course.

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photo by jumbledpile

by :: Anamaria

A while ago Cate and I came across a very interesting discussion thread on one of the on-line groups we belong to. We are grateful to Martina Rehm, who is originally from Germany, for allowing us to post her comments below.

The constant “praise” in the American school system (at least as I see it in my son’s school) surprised me after we relocated to the US from Germany. Although I try not to undermine the teaching methods the school decided on, my son (only 9 years old) sees and understands the “cultural difference” in the teaching approach. It takes a very confident 3rd grader to decide “against”some of the “reward methods”.

Let’s take the “Pizza Hut Book-it” competition every year. The children have to read a certain amount of pages in order to receive a free pizza. If they reach the class goal as well, they are invited for a pizza party in school. Do we really care more about HOW MANY PAGES the children read than WHAT they read?

My son’s friend explained to me that it is easy to reach the goal, you just read a book you already know from last year or listen to an audiobook or even cheat…. It does not seem to be important what they read, if it is a non fiction book the children might actually learn something from or if it is a comic. It also does not seem to matter if they read so fast that they don’t even remember what they read.

I can’t remember how many “Pizza Parties” or “Ice Cream Socials” my son’s school had last year for the children that reached a goal (reading, passing all spelling tests, running x. laps…..). Don’t get me wrong, I am all for rewards. But not too much. Hearing “good job” several times a day for average work makes it almost worthless.

First time I helped in school, one of the kids showed me their work (a very good friend of my son). I said that I liked the work but I believe that he could improve it by… Already the teacher took me aside to explain that we do not criticize the young children’s work.

Just like Marina, we are curious to hear what others think of the “praise/reward” methods in school systems around the world.  In other words, how are students where you live praised and rewarded in school? How much and what kind of praise and rewards do you think are helpful? When do you think it becomes too much?

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Even people who are obsessed with the TV show Lost want to know more about education across cultures:

I found this educational comment and question on a Lost message board where people where discussing last week’s episode  (in which parallel world off-island Alex needed a recommendation from someone who went to Yale University in order to apply and be accepted there).

The comment and question made me wonder about the college search and admissions process in other countries. I know what it’s like in Germany (similar to the U.K. system it seems) and the U.S., but what’s it like in the rest of the world?

What factors contributed to you choosing the university you attended?

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photo by !borghetti

by :: Cate

When I was learning how to do ethnographic research I had to develop keen observational skills.

One of the things my classmates and I did to become better observers was to make the familiar strange.

In one activity, for example, we chose a situation or environment that we knew very well (e.g. a classroom, the check-out line in a supermarket, eating dinner, etc.). Then we observed and described the situation as if we were seeing it for the first time.

Doing this helped us uncover latent interpretations and assumptions. This was important because in collecting ethnographic data one strives to document meaning as determined by the observed, not the observer.

The practice of making the familiar strange taught us how to observe with the goal of understanding the perspectives of others.

If you want to be cross-culturally effective, develop keen observational skills.

Most of us go through a large part of our day on auto-pilot, quickly interpreting and categorizing what we see and experience. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Every day we’re  inundated with a huge amount of information, and we simply can’t stop and ponder every single thing we come into contact with.

But in order to be effective in cross-cultural situations, we need to disengage our cultural auto-pilot.

Instead of automatically interpreting what see or experience, we need to carefully observe it. We need to uncover our latent assumptions and interpretations. Making the familiar strange in our daily lives can help us develop the keen observational skills necessary to be cross-culturally effective.

Ask these 3 questions to improve your cross-cultural observation skills.

Even if you’re not in a cross-cultural situation right now, this simple practice can help you develop the observational skills that will come in handy the next time you are.

As you go through your day, look at everything  and everyone with new eyes. Pay close attention to interactions between people (e.g. greetings, a heated discussion, a parent-child interaction, etc.) and get in the habit of asking yourself these 3 questions:

1. What do I see?
   Describe what you see concretely and objectively. Avoid interpreting or evaluating.
   
2. Who do I see?
   What experiences and perspectives might they bring to the interaction that’s influencing their behavior?
3. How might the where influence the what?
   If the context changed, would the interaction between these people change?
   

What questions do you ask in order to better understand cross-cultural situations?

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photo by bfraz

by :: Anamaria

Every morning at 7 am you will find me in my car, driving to work and listening to NPR. Recently, I heard an interview with science writer Shankar Vedantam, about his new book The Hidden Brain.

The more I listened to the story, the more I wanted to read the book. So I put it on my long list of books to purchase, and, eventually, read. In the meantime, I wanted to talk about it here.

Although this is not a cross-cultural communication book,  many of the things Vedantam addresses in the book could explain why cross-cultural interactions are so tricky. And incredibly challenging. And exhausting.

Let me explain.

In his book, Vedantam talks about how our brains have two modes: one conscious and one unconscious.

Pilot and autopilot, he calls them.

And Vedantam believes that people are constantly switching back and forth between the two. This makes perfect sense to me, I thought as I was driving to work.

And then I started thinking about Vedantam’s theory from a cross-cultural perspective.

When we live in our own culture, I do believe that we switch back and forth between pilot and autopilot all the time. But what happens when we move to a different culture? Does this switching back and forth continue at the same frequency? Should it?

It’s difficult to stop the autopilot part of the brain from taking over, sometimes. However, in a cross-cultural context, it is very important to minimize the autopilot mode - as much as possible.

When your brain is on autopilot, it makes assumptions which, in a cross-cultural context, it should not be making.

These assumptions will result in cultural misunderstandings, frustrations, and miscommunications.  Being on autopilot when we shouldn’t be is what leads to “unsupported snap judgments about people in the world around us” – as Vedantam points out in his NPR interview. How true!

A good cross-cultural communicator is one that suspends the autopilot mode as much as possible when interacting cross-culturally. But not being able to freely switch to autopilot mode can be exhausting for a person.

And this is why living or working abroad is so tiring. This is also why interacting with people from other cultures can be so exhausting. And this is why foreigners will happily look for the company of other fellow country men and women: to give their brain a break, and allow the autopilot to take over. Even if for just a little while.

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My interview with Cindy King is today!   

The interview is conducted in two parts. First, there’s the blog interview that you can read over on Cindy’s blog. Then there’s the twitter interview. We’re doing the Twitter interview today (Tuesday) at 8am Eastern. If you’re on Twitter you can follow today’s interview by following me (@CateBrubaker) and Cindy @CindyKing) - our tweets will be marked with the #ckinterview hashtag.  

Cindy has interviewed several cross-culturally inclined people - be sure to check them out (scroll to the bottom of the post to see the list)!

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photo by Geir Halvorsen

by :: Anamaria

A few weeks ago we invited you to reflect a bit on your communication style. Well, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting of my own lately, especially during the winter break. Some of you may already know that my house was full of family for Christmas: the Romanian side of the family. My side of the family.

And when my side of the family comes into our home, I sometimes find myself wondering how my interactions with my family are perceived by my US American husband.

Why am I saying that? Well, because of differences in communication styles between Romanian and US Americans.

Romanians, like many other Latins, are very expressive when we talk. We are loud (we seem loud to Americans), use a lot of gestures, stand pretty closely to each other. So, when we talk to each other, even if it’s on the phone, we always look to Americans like we are having a fight.

I can’t tell you how many times my husband asked me during the Christmas holiday, when my family was here, if everything was OK. I smiled every time he asked.

Of course everything is OK – I would respond – that’s just how we communicate.

The non-verbal behavior is not the only thing that is different.

WHAT we talk about is also VERY different from the topics that most American families would discuss. Basically, we don’t have many conversation subjects that are off limits. Especially among close family members.

It isn’t uncommon to hear Romanians talk about money, weight, or religion. In detail. Talking about these things often involves openly questioning each other’s choices or opinions on these topics. And somehow, rarely does one get upset or offended. Why? Because for Romanians, talking about this “very personal stuff” (which is how most US Americans perceive these subjects – personal) is a way to get closer to each other. To establish deeper, more meaningful relationships with people. To become close friends.

Needless to say…I had to adapt my communication style when I moved to the US. I was clueless about these things when I first moved to this country…so I made a lot of mistakes.

Some of the questions that I would ask my new American friends were being perceived as very personal, and quite intrusive.

I thought I was making friends, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that I wasn’t.

So, pretty soon I learned to communicate one way with Americans, and my old way with Romanians. It’s fascinating to me how people find ways of transitioning in and out of their culture – national or regional. Going in and out of different ways of communicating is definitely one aspect of this complex cultural transition.

What about you?

Have you experienced these transitions related to communication styles? Do you find yourself communicating one way with a cultural group, and a different way with another?

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photo by iheartlinen

One of the cross-cultural blogs I read is Cindy King’s. Cindy is originally from the Bahamas and has lived and worked in several European countries, including France, where she currently lives. Even though her focus is business, Cindy’s insights into issues of culture are very relevant to educators.

Case in point: here are two recent articles from Cindy’s blog related to time, a topic we covered a while back on CulturallyTeaching (here, here, here and here):

5 cultural differences in understanding appointments

Fun With Half Hours

Some cultures use expressions where a “half hour” can mean 30 minutes before the hour referenced and not after the hour. This can lead to confusion when “half nine” means 8:30 and not 9:30.

This can happen when a non-native English speaker uses literal translations from their own language which uses such expressions.  But there are even native English speakers in some parts of the world who use similar expressions.

This type of mistake usually happens when speaking as most people write out the numbers.

Takeaway: Always be clear in how you say the time.

>> Read about the other 4 cultual differences in understanding appointments on Cindy’s blog here.

Cultural differences in understanding deadlines

My downfall came because people can use two ways of giving deadlines:

• Deadline December 23rd = meaning this is the last day for you to take action
• Deadline December 23rd = meaning you need to take action before this date. In this case your last day for taking action would be December 22nd.

And I navigate almost exclusively in circles where people use the first example with the deadline date given is the last day to take action. But there are people who give the date to mean the first day after you must take action. And this is what happened to me. I had left taking action to what I thought was the very last day, but I was already one day too late.

>> Read more about cultural differences and deadlines on Cindy’s blog here.

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photo by bachmont

by :: Anamaria

A few weeks ago a colleague asked if she could interview me for a grad school project (she is getting a Master’s in International Education).

There was only one interview question: Who was your favorite teacher and why?

At first, the question did not seem to be very difficult. Since I have been in the U.S., I have witnessed many conversations on this topic. Many of my American friends like to reminisce about their favorite teachers. So when I heard about my colleague’s project, I thought oh, easy, I can answer that!

But then I started thinking about it. And I couldn’t come up with a favorite teacher.

Talking about your favorite teacher is a conversation that I never heard or was part of before coming to the U.S.

In Romania, my friends and I never talked about it. Many of my American friends did, though. Why? Could it have anything to do with culture? I think it does.

When I went to school in Romania, the educational system was very formal, and the power distance between teachers and students was huge! The teacher was a guru, whose role in the classroom was to transfer personal and professional wisdom. The teacher was not there to be the students’ friend. As such, the closest that a student could get to having a favorite teacher was defined in terms of how much the student respected the teacher.

In other words, there were teachers I highly respected, but I wouldn’t single them out as my favorite teachers. I didn’t think in terms of favorite. From my conversations with my American friends, I believe that a “favorite teacher” in the U.S. is somebody who breaks some rules, in favor of students, who takes a close interest in the academic performance of a student, or who is willing to help the student with a personal matter.

For instance, an American friend told me that her favorite teacher was a woman who trusted her students enough to leave it up to them to decide whether or not they needed to do their homework, depending on how well they thought they understood the concepts taught in class.

When I went to school in Romania, the relationship between a teacher and students was so formal that this left little to no room for any other feelings towards teachers except for feelings of respect.

In high power distance classrooms, such as they were when I went to school in Romania (my understanding is that this distance has decreased since then), the level or respect for a teacher was sometimes so high, that students would often feel intimidated by that teacher. The idea of feeling intimidated by a teacher is not part of any conversation that I heard in the U.S. about somebody’s favorite teacher.

A favorite teacher, for my American friends, does exactly the opposite: that teacher is able to get close enough to his or her students that feelings of friendship develop, rather than of intimidation. A favorite teacher is somebody one respects. But a favorite teacher is above all someone who has managed to get to know their students on a much more personal level. Somebody who takes an interest in their students’ interests, and uses this knowledge in their teaching.

The reason why I don’t have a favorite teacher is something that I have been thinking about for a while, and I would be very curious to know what you think about this subject.

Do you have a favorite teacher? Why was that person your favorite?

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