When my friends in Mexico migrate within the country, they always go to places where they have family or townspeople. Even if they’ve heard that jobs are more plentiful elsewhere, it’s better to have a network. The community can get you a job, they tell me. In fact, the community is practically obligated to get...
It’s easy to assume that cultures correspond to countries, but the reality is much more complex, and the same is true for languages. You probably know, for instance, that Spanish is spoken in dozens of countries around the world, and that it is spoken a bit differently in each. But what you may not realize...
Imagine that you are in charge of promoting diversity within your organization. You promptly start recruiting people with diverse backgrounds, and initially achieve some success. But not long after you see morale problems. New employees don’t feel welcome, and quit. Established employees feel that their talents and abilities are no longer valued, and so they...
Suppose you have a young employee, Emily, who has been on the job for just a month. She has been working hard on a marketing report, putting in long hours. She has just completed the report and you want to reward her. So you call her into your office, congratulate her, and offer to write...
About twelve years ago, a friend yelled at me for what he saw as constant interruptions. "You never let me finish talking," he said. I was confused. When had I ever interrupted him? After much discussion, I finally figured it out. What he considered an interruption -- saying "right" or "yes" while he was talking...
If you ever have to work with people who don’t speak any of the same languages as you, you will probably have to use an interpreter to make yourself understood. Interpreters are a highly valuable resource for cross-cultural communication -- but when things go wrong, they can go very wrong.
