Like Tree2Likes
  • 1 Post By hullexile
  • 1 Post By emmie

cross cultural training

Closed Thread
  1. #1

    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Pampanga, Philippines
    Posts
    29,768

    cross cultural training

    So I teach this stuff, but never had any myself. I just wondered for those expats who were sent here by their company, did you receive any cross cultural training prior to coming here?


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    2,446

    I had nothing before arriving but a few months ago, my company held a cultural awareness session for one morning. I was the only gweilo attending. The gweilo running it asked everyone to say the first 3 words that came into their head about HK. Locals went first, I went last. Everyone said "fast". I said "slow". Much confusion.

    Actually it was reasonably useful session (it was actually targeted at differences between HK and our offshore sites in other Asian countries) but for me personally, it would have proven a little more useful 18 months ago when I moved to HK from Europe rather than now.


  3. #3

    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Posts
    4,040

    Not formally, or through my job. I did have some very close personal friends who grew up in Hong Kong. I had exceptional local mentoring and I still do.


  4. #4

    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Pampanga, Philippines
    Posts
    29,768

    Funny isn't it that as a business school we teach this stuff but I had no training, no support, no local mentoring, everything has been ad hoc and down to negotiation including my repatriation. Oh well, perhaps one day I might be asking some research questions of you all.

    emmie likes this.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Kowloon HK
    Posts
    1,226
    Quote Originally Posted by hullexile:
    Oh well, perhaps one day I might be asking some research questions of you all.
    Hull - Your above reminds me of a few chapters from a book I browsed a while back called Don't Sweat The Small Stuff: 'Become an Anthropologist', 'Search for the Grain of Truth in Other Opinions' and 'Lighten Up'...

    Good to see U on here... just before you're off again
    Skyhook likes this.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    猴山
    Posts
    23,652
    Quote Originally Posted by hullexile:
    So I teach this stuff, but never had any myself. I just wondered for those expats who were sent here by their company, did you receive any cross cultural training prior to coming here?
    None but HK is really a soft psting.

    Aren't the highest expat failure rates for people who get posted to countries that speak the same language. Like a Bring in the USA or a Kiwi in Canada.

    Read this today http://www.thebolditalic.com/negrocl...r-black-friend what a very modern assessment of being only just a little bit different but alas visually