Cross-Cultural Training

Lesson 2: What is your culture?

Introduction

It took leaving America for me to realize how American I really am. Once I began to live abroad, I constantly found myself thinking, if not saying, phrases that are associated with Americans that I had never used before in my life. "Time is money." "Talk is cheap." "Look on the bright side." "Where there's a will, there's a way."

In America, I never felt a need to use these phrases. That's not to say that I never had any challenges. I've had my share, but I was always able to find solutions because I was working with my own countrymen and, even though all Americans aren't the same, we have the same basic values and beliefs so in general we see things in the same light and tend to work the same way.

Move out of that sphere of commonality, however, and you'll find that tasks that you once thought of as "no brainers" suddenly become big obstacles, so big at times that they can send you reeling into a downward cycle that lead to depression and feelings of dislike for your new country.

To avoid this scenario, it's important that you take time now to identify your own values and beliefs and to understand how those from other countries view you, even though it may not be how you view yourself. You need to know who you are to see what's different and once you realize the differences (and what may be causing them) you'll most likely become successful at finding solutions to problems that work in the context of your new culture.

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