I’m settling down all right. The first week included 3 days in the Napa valley and they were tough considering all the wine tasting we had to do. Other than that I’m still waiting for my bank cards or check which could be useful as very soon I have to buy a car, and find an apartment.
I was out in the big city this weekend. I even checked out the bluegrass festival and listened to some authentic banjo bands.
Last Friday, as part of the relocation package, I had a day with a lady consultant in culture and people. We ended up discussing from 9am to 11pm about american, finnish, french, german, middle eastern, iranian, chinese, japanese, indian, russian -and more- cultures. That was pretty intensive ; she had so much knowledge and anecdots about everything. I just hope I can remember half and use a quarter of it. The most important principle is to try to bring up the cultural aspects when it comes to communication, work, life situations. And especially in an internation work context when facing problems or weird situations, ask first ‘does this come from cultural differences?’ (and think hard about that) before reaching the conclusion that the person is difficult to work with or incompetent or annoying… There’d be so much to tell, and about what she made me understand about my own behaviors. But something short and interesting. It’s about what makes a person happy at the end of the day:
- A Finn is happy when he (she) did his best to his own personal standard (and the consultant said that was pretty unique).
- A French is happy when he (she) lives or works to the fullest – like for tasting wine, by connecting to all senses.
- An American is happy when he (she) gets things done.
She did not tell me about Germans, Swedes or Irish, Dutch people though… Do you have suggestions?
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