Recently, I had a discussion with some friends in the US about culture in the workplace. They told me that in the US, people don’t really make small talk, that there is a clear separation between personal life and work: you go to work to work. This surprises me pretty
After more than a decade (yes, almost 11 years now) living in France, I’m far from the “honeymoon phase” of the little kid who was excited about every little thing in the new country. Nevertheless, culture differences seem to be an infinite topic. That’s the reason why I wrote down
As you might know, Erasmus program usually asks exchange students to give advises to the back-home university students or the future exchange students. To be honest, I won’t and can’t give you a numerous and concrete advises, as I don’t see myself as an expert in studying abroad, in travelling
If you ask me to describe my image of the Dutch with 3 words, I would say: open-minded, nice and easy-going. Open-minded Since I’ve been in Groningen, I discovered that “the Dutch are everywhere”. The Netherlands is so small geographically, but their contribution for the world is noticeable. Indeed, since
This article is about some daily stuffs that I’ve noticed. It’s not about to give a conclusion or criticisms, just some observations of mine. 1, The weather Tomorrow’s temperature (the 14th January) In Paris: min: -2 oC (felling temperature -FT:-5oC), max: 1oC (FT:-3oC) In Groningen: min:-8oC ( FT: -14oC), max:
So, after the brief presentation on the main cultural concepts. Now, let’s have a look on how the researchers score the countries. I will compare here the results on France, the Netherlands and Vietnam. You can find more scores on other countries in: http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html. 1, About the Power-distance dimension: France: 68
During the conversation with John, he told me about the cultural differences between French and Danish societies. Some concepts like “power distance” that he used reminded me of the Intercultural Cooperation class. In addition, John insisted me to do research on someone names ‘Hofstede’. I came home and looked in
Before Christmas and New Year holiday, our class (the teachers included) organized an international dinner. The “rule” is that each member brings a traditional and hand-made plate of his/her original country. The list of plates is long and all of them are very delicious. For instance, from the Netherlands, there are
To change a little bit the atmosphere, this article will consist of some facts and numbers about Groningen and my class. Let’s start first with some facts about the city: – 567,76 km: is the distance between Paris and Groningen. If you want to travel between these two cities, there