Tag: Culture

Shake hands or not?

illustratie bij begroeting

Do you ever have those moments when you wonder, ‘Should I shake hands with the other person or not?’ Greetings are more than a formality; they say something about a person’s culture. Although the ways of greeting vary greatly, they often have the same purpose: to show connection, respect and trust. So let’s take a […]

Pilotage Service

Geeft indruk van ons bezoek aan het werkveld van het loodswezen

Cultural Insights will train the Dutch Pilotage Service in intercultural communication. To learn more about their work, all three of us were allowed to spend a day sailing with a pilot. What an experience that was! With over 460 pilots, spread across three partnerships and four ports (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Vlissingen, and Delfzijl), the Pilotage Service […]

“Wonderful experience”

Group Photo to show the management team

After one of our consultants did a few online trainings, she finally got the chance to do a face-to-face training with this management team in Ghana. They had covered quite some ground online, yet they all felt the incredible difference with this one. Being in the room, being able to laugh, touch, discuss and look […]

Interview Dutch ‘coziness’

Saskia was invited to the Dutch Broadcasting (NPO) Listen Podcast Festival, to join the conversation on the origins of the Dutch word and phenomenon ‘gezelligheid’. It’s one of those words that is impossible to translate yet used very frequently and therefore, it has a story to tell about Dutch culture. It is a combination of […]

Book Launch

Book launch Cultural Confluence

On the 5th of April 2024 Alette Vonk and Vasco Silva organized a smashing Book launch in Leiden. Creating spaces of confluence.

Culture and sales

Culture Insights works with a worldwide network of intercultural trainers. Here, one of them worked on the impact of culture on sales.

Training Scientists

It was a great pleasure to delve deep into cultural differences together with a group scientists. What do you come across during your work? How can we interpret the differences? Can you step into other people’s shoes? Which are crucial elements in the communication and can we think of various strategies to become more effective? […]

Saskia Maarse

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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