by Cindy King on 19 February, 2010 Share
Cross-Cultural Twitter Interviews
Culture impacts the way we live. It shapes all aspects of our lives. And yet, we often forget we have a culture. It’s only when we are confronted with different cultures that we realize it exists. With all of the differences in our perceptions of what culture is, it’s not surprising there are many different definitions of culture.
What is culture exactly? What is culture?
This is the first question I ask on the Cross-Cultural Twitter Interviews I regularly conduct with the people on my list: Cross-Culturall & International People On Twitter. The answers are short and limited to a tweet or two.
Here are some great definitions of culture taken from these Twitter interviews in answer to the question: “What is Culture?” [click to continue…]
by Cindy King on 5 February, 2010 Share
Cultural Perceptions
Women have to pay close attention to cultural differences in perceptions. Many times when you make a cultural blunder you don’t realize you’ve made one until much later after the damage is done. Sometimes you never learn of your mistake. And often you’ll realize your mistake when you see the damage it’s done. This is particularly true of non-verbal cross-cultural communication challenges.
I’ve had a couple of reasons recently to think about the cultural differences in how women are perceived and I’d like to share one of these stories with you. I’m fairly sure the woman in this example did not realize the different perceptions people had of her photo.
First Impressions Online Go Farther Abroad
We all know the importance of the first impression we make. And when you have a successful online presence it’s natural to want to reach international audiences too. [click to continue…]
by Cindy King on 21 January, 2010 Share
Book Reviews
A friend of mine, Shane Gibson sent me a digital copy of Sociable! the book he wrote together with Stephen Jagger and it’s just come out today, so I thought I’d share some thoughts in a short book review here today.
There is a quote in Sociable! that jumped out at me:
“Change happens in an instant, it just takes us a while to adjust” – Anthony Robbins
[click to continue…]
by Cindy King on 12 January, 2010 Share
Resources
Darren Rowse over at Problogger asked for readers to share a list of bloggers relevant to their industry. A few readers have already shared some good lists. I particularly liked reading the list of Translation and Localization bloggers. So I decided to share the list of bloggers I read to stay current.
UPDATE: Darren Rowse has now compiled a list of 47 Lists of Bloggers to Watch in 2010 – well worth looking at!
Cross-Cultural & International Bloggers
You need cross-cultural and international business skills in order to develop your business internationally. What’s interesting is that I find these same cross-cultural skills also help me in social media. Strong people skills are always useful. [click to continue…]
by Cindy King on 10 January, 2010 Share
Cross-Cultural Differences
Cultural mistakes can happen when doing something as simple as setting an appointment. This follows on from by recent article on cultural confusion about the date of a deadline.
Here are five cultural differences in how we communicate times and dates that can lead to misunderstandings.
1. Fun With Half Hours
Some cultures use expressions where a “half hour” can mean 30 minutes before the hour referenced and not after the hour. This can lead to confusion when “half nine” means 8:30 and not 9:30.
This can happen when a non-native English speaker uses literal translations from their own language which uses such expressions. But there are even native English speakers in some parts of the world who use similar expressions.
This type of mistake usually happens when speaking as most people write out the numbers. [click to continue…]
