Intercultural Communication

Whether you work in business, education or healthcare, in the public sector or international governance, society is becoming increasingly diverse. The world is globalising and intercultural communication is becoming increasingly important.

You can have such good communication skills, but when dealing with other cultures, words and behaviour can be interpreted in different ways. As a result, the message does not always come across as you intended. Misunderstandings and misunderstandings lurk, with potentially major consequences for mutual trust.

Participants of this training:

  • learn to reflect on their own cultural background and personal norms, values and assumptions.
  • gain insight into different communication styles.
  • learn how to use those communication styles to communicate effectively and appropriately within diverse intercultural environments.

Depending on the requirements and goals, the training takes one half-day, a full day or several days.

An inspiring customer experience

During a training session, a participant from Vietnam asked, ‘What do you mean by cultural differences? What is done differently?’ To that, our trainer replied, ‘For example, dealing with conflicts, which is often done in different ways. How do you do that in Vietnam?’

The Vietnamese participant explained, ‘If we have a conflict, we keep dealing with each other until the conflict is out of the world. The conflict itself is not talked out. It more or less disappears by itself if you sit together long enough.’

The participant was visibly surprised when the trainer explained how we deal with conflict in the Netherlands: ‘In the Netherlands, people express themselves explicitly when they want to make a point. Especially when it comes to a difference of opinion. In a conflict, all parties want and can tell their story.’

‘So that is an example of a cultural difference,’ the trainer told us. ‘The implicit communication style in a collectivist culture like Vietnam versus the explicit communication style in an individualistic culture like the Netherlands.’

We are happy to help you

Are you interested in this training?

Please complete the form below or send an email to info@cultural-insights.nl. We will then contact you as soon as possible.

Contact Form products

Also see Intercultural management

Saskia Maarse

Envelope Linkedin Globe

Saskia Maarse is a Dutch intercultural speaker, trainer and author. For six years, she researched how Dutch culture is experienced by people from other cultures. She did so through in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs and managers from 30 different countries. She wrote two books on the subject: Tutti frutti – Success in a colourful and entreprising Netherlands and Onder de zeespiegel – collaborating and living together with the Dutch.

Saskia’s fascination for cultural differences started at a young age. She worked in tourism for over ten years, including several years in France, Spain, Italy and Austria. Her work experience abroad and her subsequent trip around the world broadened her view of the world and its inhabitants. Her research provided Saskia with much: more cultural awareness and extensive knowledge about Dutch culture in relation to other cultures.

Saskia’s mission is to provide as many people and organisations as possible with cultural insights and awareness in an accessible and inspiring way, so that more understanding of different cultures is created.

“During our team building day in Openluchtmuseum Arnhem we have had the pleasure to enjoy a very interesting cultural awareness workshop focussing on the Dutch culture in comparison with other cultures, how other cultures see us Dutch and what we can learn with the 6 principles of intercultural working from Saskia Maarse. The diverse group that we were with 25 people, 6 nationalities and even more cultures (including Frisian and Limburg) were really enthusiastic and even more understood the importance of good communication (verbal and visual) in international business.”
Marko van der Smitte, Sales Director Alfa Laval

Skip to content