| Let the Adventure Begin! A Week-by-Week Guide to Moving Abroad
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13 Weeks Until Move: Working Abroad - Strategies for Preparing for Your International Assignment
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Note: this is an excerpt of our free e-newsletter, Let the Adventure Begin!. For full access, please subscribe to the e-version of Let the Adventure Begin! (free). This is a synopsis of an e-newsletter issue of Let the Adventure Begin! Subscribe today (free) and you'll receive weekly e-newsletters starting 8 months before your approximate move date and running through your first four months abroad, you'll receive weekly e-newsletters with timely advice related to where you are in the preparation and settling in processes.
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NationPhone&TV's USA TV Abroad Service offers you a real US cable subscription streamed to you live from the US. You can watch on your PC, your TV, or on your mobile device! Go to NationPhone's Website for a demo today.
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| Learning about the Culture
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If you're going to be working abroad, learning about the culture is imperative. One member of ExpatExchange explained, "Be open to what your trainer has to offer. We assumed we understood the British culture since we speak the same language, and come from the same "roots" if you will. But the things our trainer shared have been so helpful! For example, my husband had a habitual hand gesture that we were told was quite offensive here, and why. He had been offending people for a month, but the cultural attitude dictated that no one tell him about it!"
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Earth Class Mail lets you view your mail online, then, with a mouse click, have it either opened and scanned for your review and download, shredded to protect your privacy, recycled to help the environment or forward-shipped to you or others 24/7, wherever you are in the world. Reduces forward-shipping costs by 50-90%!
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| Tips for Preparing for Your International Assignment
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At work, offending people can be a real deal breaker, especially when it comes to interacting with customers. The article, Strategies to Help You Prepare for an Overseas Assignment, by Sondra Sen, Sherisen TSI offers some great suggestions to help you prepare for your new job abroad. Here are a few of the highlights:
- Prepare a country profile.
Learn the geographic, historic, political and economic factors that have shaped your host country and its people. Start by reviewing a map to determine the country's location, distance from the U.S. and neighboring nations. Read history books about the country or region, and familiarize yourself with recent current events. Investigate various topics that will make the country and its people seem more "real" and ease conversations with host nationals.
- Learn how business is conducted and people are managed in your host country.
Discuss in advance what's expected at business/staff meetings. Also learn about typical leadership styles, boss-subordinate relations, decision-making, teamwork, and differences in pace, pressure and protocol from U.S. norms. Ask others who have been successful overseas how they handled sensitive work or management situations.
Practice "style switching" when learning how to manage key cultural differences. For instance, if you're transferring to China and you learn that "the Chinese are like...," recognize that you must continue the thought with, "If the Chinese are like..., then to be effective, I must..."
- Practice conflict management and international negotiation skills.
While you can't insist on doing things the way you've always done them in the U.S., neither can host country nationals have things entirely their way, either. There must be an accommodation, and you'll likely have to arrange it. Becoming a good global manager requires tact, diplomacy, a genuine respect for others and the ability to develop and maintain relationships.
- Become aware of verbal and nonverbal communication styles.
Recognize that such gestures as raising an eyebrow, nodding, crossing your arms or leaning forward send a message, but its meaning may vary in your host country. For instance, a smile and a nod in Japan can be a polite refusal. Moving your head from side to side means "yes," not "no," in south India. Learn to interpret common gestures and body language in your assigned country.
When using English with host nationals, speak slowly and distinctly, and avoid using idioms until you know how well they speak it. Use feedback mechanisms to determine if your message has been understood.
- Understand time and space concepts in your host country.
Knowing these issues can help you successfully navigate social and business engagements. In general, most foreigners are more relaxed about time and schedules than U.S. and western European executives. When conversing with others, Latin Americans and Arabs prefer to be physically closer than the 30 inches preferred by most Americans.
- Study social customs and behavior that will help you to interact with your hosts.
These include learning how to make appropriate introductions and greetings and understanding native food habits, mores about drinking and smoking, conversation topics, relationships between the sexes and gift-giving.
As a manager, you'll need to be culturally savvy concerning business entertaining and social protocol. Who should initiate an invitation or pick up the tab? Are spouses normally invited? What's an appropriate gift? Can you discuss business at a social gathering, and if so, when? For example, the French have a saying, "Nous concludons les affaires entre le poire et le fromage," which means, "We conclude business between the pear and the cheese." In other words, they consider it gauche to concentrate on business discussions during a meal and not on the food, wine and conversation.
Note: This article first appeared in the National Business Employment Weekly.
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Living abroad has a lot of benefits but exceptional healthcare isn't one of them. Global Rescue membership ensures your health and safety no matter where you reside. We will evacuate you to the hospital of your choice in your home country. Period.
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Expat Advice: Working Abroad (Country-by-Country)
Other LInks
A Day In The Life Of a Teacher Abroad
Anne Keeling (Jun 02, 2009)
Social Networking in the Expatriate World
Emilie Udell (Dec 15, 2008)
Singapore Work Permits: The Personalized Employment Pass
AngryAngMo (Dec 07, 2008)
Working Abroad: Paphos, Cyprus
ExpatExchange.com Member (Aug 03, 2008)
Expat Life in the UAE: Working in Dubai
Pippa Sanderson (Jun 21, 2008)
Sustainable English Cultivates Relationships
Terry Kaufman (Feb 24, 2008)
Work Permits for the U.K.
Joshua Wood (Feb 16, 2008)
International Assignments in a Changing World
Griselle Cardozo (Jan 26, 2008)
Working in Spain
Simone Icough (Jan 12, 2008)
Working in the U.S. - Common TN Visa Problems to Avoid
TN Visa Expert (Dec 15, 2007)
>> See More Articles
Related Resources
Babylon
Babylon is the world's leading provider of quick online and offline dictionary and translation software in over 75 languages in one simple click and is being used by millions of private users and organizations in more than 200 countries.
Berlitz International
Berlitz, a worldwide leader in global training and development services, offers customized language, cultural training and translations and interpretations services through 400 locations in more than 50 countries.
Fluenz Language
At Fluenz, we combine an innovative teaching approach with next generation technology to provide the best language learning software available. We are fanatical about customer service, which along with all fulfillment, is handled in-house. Free shipping, worldwide.
inlingua Americas
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Lonely Planet Language Guides
Lonely Planet Language Guides
 : Don't just point at the menu - order dinner in over 50 languages with our phrasebooks and downloadable mp3s.
Sherisen International
Founded in 1980, Sherisen International Inc. is a cross-cultural business training company which provides training, consulting and publications for today's global manager and marketplace.
In addition to training, destination services can be offered in major cities in India.
Soleil Intercultural
Soleil Intercultural offers training and consulting to organizations with employees on global assignments. We create smooth transitions for executives and their families relocating internationally by empowering them to communicate and collaborate across cultures.
TEFL Course with i-to-i
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 includes: the essential TEFL course, a TEFL certificate, an employers reference, access to our job contacts database (8000+) and much more.
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This issue was prepared by ExpatExchange.com
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