How do my fellow citizens of other cultures and religions perceive German and Christian traditions during the Christmas season? I went and asked a Muslim friend who is originally from Afghanistan and she wrote me these lovely lines: “When we bumped into each other in town the other day, you asked me to describe Christmas from my perspective. I have been living in Germany for…
Emotional Rollercoaster In the 1960s, Gullahorn & Gullahorn’s empirical research established what many repatriates intuitively felt: Repatriates from a stay abroad suffer similar stress symptoms during the readjustment to their home country as they did when adapting to the host country at the beginning of their foreign assignment. As a result, they developed the W-curve of acculturation, which I have already illustrated in my blog…
To be honest, I’ve been avoiding to write this article for quite some time. As I look back, things could have been a lot easier. If I had known back then what I know now about transition, culture shock, re-entry shock and Third Culture Kids, and if I had received specialized support, then…! Then I would have been spared some detours and some very rough…
Everyone experiences the return after an expat assignment in their own individual way. Whether as the assignee, partner or child, everyone finds their way back home at their own pace. In addition to your own personality, several factors play a role: Will I move back to my old place of residence or will I move to a completely new region? How often have I already…
“Who are you? And if so, how many?” This is the title of a well-known German philosophy book on identity by Richard David Precht and it fits perfectly for this article! As mentioned in my previous article, we should stop thinking in terms of countries and national cultures when we talk about culture. You will most probably not define yourself as “typically Mexican” or “typically…
The knowledge about culture and cultural dimensions is certainly an important starting point, but it is not sufficient. To be truly effective in foreign cultures, you need to develop the skills to transfer your knowledge into effective behavior. And practice! Andy Molinsky provides a set of very helpful strategies step by step in his book “Global Dexterity”. By Global Dexterity he refers to “the capacity…
Expatriation can be one of the most exciting periods of your life, but also one the most challenging. Have you heard of the expat curve or the stages of acculturation? Did you experience culture shock after moving abroad or re-entry shock when you returned back home? Take a look at the following graphic that depicts the different stages of acculturation. I also recommend this…
Our choices “What makes a good sailboat captain?”, I asked my husband while we were sailing last week. “Good assessment of the circumstances and making the right choices.” How strong is the wind? How high are the waves? How fit is the crew? How reliable is the boat? Safety first. He has always had very good judgement and I trust him 100% when it comes…
I would like to invite you to follow me through the notes and conclusions I have drawn from the book “Basic forms of anxiety” by Fritz Riemann. First published in the 60s, it is considered standard psychology literature in Germany (I hear you think… ‘yeah, no wonder the “German Angst” is such a thing!’). It was recommended to us in our coaching course so I…
My first post about resilience on LinkedIn attracted over 1500 readers from all over the world. It seems that many of us are in need of good strategies to ride out the current global crisis. I felt encouraged to keep posting about the topic and to write this blog article as a compilation of my posts. Again, I hope that my thoughts and tips will…
