Music industry executive Patrick Joest shares his experience of being a German-Argentinian Jew in different cultures For years he had been traveling back and forth for work between Germany and the United States. Dozens of times Patrick Joest had visited Los Angeles. When his company sent him and his family on an expatriate assignment to California, Patrick quickly realized there’s a bit of a difference between being a business traveler and someone who re-establishes himself in a new environment, a twelve-hour flight and nine time zones away from where he grew up. In his more than eleven years ..read more

The automotive marketing maven tells his cross-cultural tales of selling Porsches, Chevys, Subarus, and VWs around the globe Selling a product requires understanding the needs and desires of your potential customer. You need to recognize what problems customer have and how your product can be a solution to that problem. Sales and Marketing are professional tasks that are difficult enough in your domestic market – which is an ever-changing arena. Now imagine promoting and selling your product around the world, where consumer demands are often widely different and where the problems your product ..read more

How Malcolm Ohanwe shines light on inequality by nudging white folks to talk about it He works for one of Germany’s biggest public broadcasting companies, the Bayerische Rundfunk. The country today is as diverse as it has probably never been, yet when Malcolm Ohanwe stepped foot into the BR offices for the first time he “thought I entered Narnia. Everything’s as white as snow here”. It was another reminder that even as he gets to play with the “indigenous Germans [Ohanwe’s tongue in cheek terminology]” his skin color is still being perceived as an exception by many. Born and raised in Munich a ..read more

Back from California’s beaches Martin Brem reflects on expat life He works for one of the most global businesses in one of the most global industries. Yet, when Martin Brem made a professional move from Central Europe to Southern California for the music business, his Red Bull wings didn’t fully prepare him for the cultural change he was about to experience as an expat in the United States. Now back in his native country of Austria, Martin reflects on the five years he spent as a California Expat in the greater Los Angeles area – where he was confronted with a culture he describes as cha ..read more

Rachel Smets shares her confidence hacks for moving abroad On this episode Rachel Smets, author of “Awaken Your Confidence,” shares her experiences of moving abroad and living in different countries. Born and raised in Belgium, she currently resides in the Netherlands. She left home in her mid-20s and moved to Spain where she landed her first job abroad. Over the years, Rachel has lived in the United Stated, India, Scotland, Wales, Germany, and France. Today she speaks six languages and helps people to develop more confidence. In their conversation, Rachel and The Culture Guy talk about what i ..read more

An attempt to digest the Charlottesville riots and the rise of violent hate groups in the United States This episode begins with a different song, as it covers different terrain. I recorded it on August 13, 2017 under the fresh impression of the white supremacist “protests” in Charlottesville, VA (USA). You’ll notice that I am struggling to find the right words. The open display of bigotry, hatred, violence, and outright stupidity were rather unnerving. Even though I nearly deleted the recording to start over again, I decided to leave it as is. It’s a bit unpolished and perhaps not as coherent ..read more

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 is raising two bilingual and bi-cultural children. They live in Yogyakarta, the cultural center of Java. Silke’s No. 1 rule for intercultural relationships “You need to be able to understand each other. Sounds overly simple, yes. However, it is immensely impo ..read more

Marie Gervais talks about Nabil from Nottingham and being allergic to rice in Japan On this episode Marie Gervais, the CEO of Shift Management, Inc. in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), shares how she learned that people can be plotted on a continuum of cultural rigidity. Sometimes people’s positions on this continuum changes over the course of a lifetime, but sometimes it does not. And for those of us working across cultures it isn’t always necessary to impose cultural agility on people who are resistant to such a transformation. Marie also recalls her experience with an allergic reaction to rice w ..read more

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 she moved it was within the United States: From her home in the hot desert climate of the Southwest to the sometimes brutal cold of the State of Minnesota, in the upper Midwest of the country. She has been to more th ..read more

Carmen Ring explains why tolerance will only get you through the first year of an intercultural relationship Born in Ploiești, Romania – at a time when the Iron Curtain was still closed and her country was governed under the dictatorship rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu – Carmen now lives in New York State with her American husband and their toddler son. During her school years Carmen applied for scholarships for study abroad programs which allowed her to travel and took her to France, the Netherlands, and Germany. Today, she speaks seven languages and operates a translation and interpretation servic ..read more