Our mission: To help individuals and organizations move from cultural awareness to cross-cultural skills, through competent, creative and conscious intercultural communication.

Dedicated to those in search of intercultural understanding and cross-cultural competency.

Are you working with, playing with, or doing business with someone from another culture?

Through worldwide advances in communication, increased travel for pleasure and for business, and new migration patterns, we are more globally interconnected.

Understanding people from other cultures becomes a survival skill in our interpersonal, work, business and political relationships.

Undertanding requires more than knowing the language. Culture influences the way we think, the way we communicate, and the way we act.

E.T. Hall (1959) said that culture is communication and communication is culture. In order to communicate effectively with others, it is equally important to understand the values of their culture.

In this age of globalization, cultural competence is a competitive advantage for business. 

It is a marketable skill in the world economy.

And more.

It is about gaining a deeper understanding of ourselves and others.

It is about developing respect and appreciation of differences.

It is acting consciously (mindfully) when interacting with others who are not like ourselves.

Featured research, August 2005.

Gender Differences in Expatriate Job Performance

Authors: Sinangil H.K.1; Ones D.S.

Source: Applied Psychology An International Review, Volume 52, Number 3, July 2003, pp. 461-475(15)

Culture Advantage featured research # 2, Dec. 2004:

International Students' Strategies for Well-being. FindArticles.com - International students' strategies for well-being
College Student Journal, Dec, 2002, by Wen-Chih Tseng, Fred B. Newton

Culture Advantage featured research # 1:

Socialization at the host company as a predictor of cross-cultural adjustment of global workers.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations, February 2004.
To see the full article go to: http://dx.doi.org, then enter: doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2003.12.004

September 2004: EASTERN EUROPE

Learn your Chinese name: just for fun!

Or try the random name generator.

Intercultural website feature of September, 2004:

Pop Culturosity by Kate Berardo : "The power of pop culture as a communication channel."

Country briefing: BRAZIL

SAO PAULO BRIEFING Sept. 2004 from Economist.com

Sao Paulo Bienal: September 25th- December 14th 2004

São Paulo 's biggest cultural event of 2004, the Bienal. The theme of this year's exhibition is �Image Smugglers in a Free Territory �; Alfons Hug, the curator, says it means to suggest a geographical, political, social and aesthetic no-man's land, where art can define its own boundaries.

Brazilian Proverb (From Topics Online, a magazine for learners of of English):

It's better to have one bird in your hand than two flying.

I think that this proverb can explain the way Brazilians act. They are not overly ambitious and it is not easy for them to gain material things. Because it's not easy to have things, we try to keep what we have because it's the only guaranteed thing. Brazilians don't like to risk what they have. Maybe it's better to just dream of having more, and just keep what you have. Stella Tupinamba from Brazil.

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Conferences:

SIETAR 2005, November 9-12, "Blending Cultures, Building Strength"

Jersey City, New Jersey

Post a conference on this site. Send me the link or other information. Thanks.