Culture Crossing: A Valuable Resource for Expats Living & Working Abroad

Culture is an essential part of life and how we make our way in the world. Our beliefs, traditions, values, communication styles and biases begin to develop as soon as we are born, and continue to evolve as we learn and are raised by our parents, our teachers, our community. Our cultural identity guides the way that we live, think, interpret the world and engage with others.

When we are operating in a culture in which we are raised, we can often rely on engaging with others who share similar beliefs, values, communication styles and biases. This means that there are much fewer opportunities for miscommunication and misunderstanding than when one is operating in a different cultural setting.  In a culture other than your own, you are not operating with the same set of rules - conventions you depend on to communicate and navigate through life may not apply or a meaning you ascribe to something at home may mean something very different in this new environment.

Therefore as an expat, it is important that you not only understand the culture in which you are operating, but understand how your own cultural identity affects the way you interpret and engage with the world around you.  By seeing that there is neither right nor wrong - only different ways of doing, thinking and seeing - you are in a place to start learning how to thrive in your new home.

For the aspiring expat, understanding how culture affects every aspect of the job search will help you secure a job overseas. For the expat professional, understanding how culture affects the workplace is important to successful working relationships. And for the expat entrepreneur, without understanding how culture affects your target market's needs and purchasing patterns, you may struggle with developing the right products or services and successfully selling them.

Learning about your own culture and the culture of your new expat home can seem daunting.  Fortunately there are tools out there that are helping people navigate through the wonderful world of cultural difference.

I was fortunate enough to connect with the director of one of these tools - Micheal Landers, Director of Cultural Crossing.  He agreed to answer a few questions to explain to readers about the wonderful resources that he has developed.

• So Michael, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you came to create Culture Crossing?

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of people doing business, studying, and traveling abroad. Our communities have also become increasingly multicultural.  As a result, more and more people need access to this kind of cross-cultural information. I have a master’s degree in cross-cultural training and found myself fielding a steady stream questions from friends, colleagues and acquaintances, which made me realize that this kind of information is not always easy to find and rarely offered as a free resource. There are a few specialty books that contain this information, but most of them are outdated and based on a singular perception. Building a Web site seemed like the perfect solution, a way to provide a free resource that could be easily accessed and continuously updated by a diverse community of users.

• What is Culture Crossing?

CultureCrossing.net is an evolving database of cross-cultural information about every country in the world.  This user-built guide allows people from all walks of life to share essential tips with each other about how to navigate our increasingly borderless world with savvy and sensitivity.   Easy to navigate, free to use, and organized into topics such as communication styles, eye contact, gestures, taboos, dress, negotiations, meeting etiquette, school rules, gift giving, and more.

• How can an expat benefit from using this resource?

CultureCrossing.net provides an opportunity for travelers, professionals, businesses and students to find information about 200+ countries and add their own knowledge to our culture guides.  They can also ask specific questions and chat with other users and experts, connect directly with community members from around the world, and access global resources to further their cross-cultural exploration

• What is the one feature should an expatriate professional learning to survive in their new home country workplace and express their unique value or personal brand in a culturally appropriate way be sure to investigate?

The communication style section to begin with for sure.

• One of the benefits of being an expat is that through living in another culture we get to learn more about ourselves. How can Cultural Crossing help the expat do this?

The Explore Your Cultural Baggage section on the site is a great start. For those who don't know what cultural baggage is, let me explain.

The one thing we all do when heading out on an international trip is pack a bag. We may pack different things depending on the climate, availability of products, and other personal needs. But a suitcase full of socks and toothpaste isn’t the only bag we lug around with us. Whether or not we know it, most of us also tote around at least a few pieces of cultural baggage. Like any good suitcase, our cultural baggage contains loads of compartments and hidden pockets—but they are stuffed with things that are less tangible and more likely to get you into trouble when crossing borders.

Our values, assumptions, biases, and communication styles are some of the things that turn up in our cultural baggage. Neatly folded into one corner of the bag might be your views of time. In the other corner, your expectations about gender roles. Check that zippered side pouch and you may find your sense of personal space and comfort level with confrontation. And then there are the countless gestures and mannerisms that inevitably tumble out of your overstuffed bag when you least expect it.

Understanding all of these things is important so then you are operating in another culture, that may have different values, perceptions of time or communication styles, you can anticipate potential areas of miscommunication or misunderstanding.

• How is Culture Crossing different from other online cross cultural resources out there?

For one it is community built and continuously vetted. We strive to cross reference all information posted on our site with two or three other professional sources. Since the guides are user-built and continuously changing, we are always on the look out for information that needs to be updated and/or corrected.

It is important to understand, however, that our country guides provide only generalized information. There are always exceptions to the rule and regional variances. Of course, perceptions of cultural nuances can also be quite varied but everything that appears on our site possesses certain validity. The purpose of offering this information is just to introduce people to the cultural tendencies exhibited by people from different nations and communities. It’s not a foolproof method for staying out of trouble when crossing cultures, but it’s a good place to start to become aware of these cultural tendencies.

We hope that the site will also help to make us all more keenly aware of how culture influences our own behavior. Self-awareness is truly the cornerstone of cross-cultural understanding.

• How can you connect with other users of Culture Crossing?

CX CONNECT is a free social networking tool allowing members to connect through a secure form.  The forum is another way to post questions and look for answers and recommendations.

• Can you share a little bit about "Star Crossings"?

STAR CROSSINGS are weekly interviews in which highly regarded “stars” from various fields (business, creative arts, politics, education, etc.) share their cross-cultural experiences.

• Are there any other resources we should be aware of - or look for that will be coming in the future?

We will be adding more video content to the site and are looking to demo a Virtual World for users.

Many thanks Michael for taking the time to tell us about this valuable resource for expat professionals and entrepreneurs!

YOUR EXPAT SUCCESS TIP: If you are an expatriate studying or working abroad, be sure to visit www.culturecrossing.net and learn more about the culture in which you are living and working. If you are working in a multicultural environment or managing a multicultural team, I recommend stopping by this valuable resource to get some quick insight into how different communication styles can play out in the workplace. Be sure to tap into the social network - post questions or help fellow expats by answering them!

Comments

[Dee]

How interesting, I'll be sure to check it out. Thank you for sharing! May I point out that the link you provide in the expat success tip doesn't work as it should read culturecrossing, not culturalcrossing. ;-)
Ciao and buona sera,
Doris xx

[Dwight/ดนัย]

I hope scholars are taking note. This discussion has left classrooms and training seminars and is increasingly more readily digestible thanks to the efforts of people like Michael and Megan. I'm looking forward to checking out the site and joining the discussion. Thank you.

[Megan]

@Doris - thanks for that catch!

@Dwight - Thanks for the feedback. I love Michael's tool-very web 2.0-allows for contribution, connection-insures the information will not go out of date. And with experts like Michael on the job we're sure to have all we need as a jumping off point to engaging with different cultures.

[Overseas Careers]

"Therefore as an expat, it is important that you not only understand the culture in which you are operating, but understand how your own cultural identity affects the way you interpret and engage with the world around you."

This is where working overseas breeds respect for the culture of the host country and acceptance for the differences in the beliefs of different nationalities within the host country.