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In summer 2000 I left Switzerland for three months with the aim to take a film course in New York. Even though I was used travelling with others, this time I went alone which gave the trip a somehow adventurous flair

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Case Study 2: Christian Christmas Eve celebration at multireligious schools

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Case Study 2: Christian Christmas Eve celebration at multireligious schools

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In the middle of the actual Christmas eve celebration time (as of 2006) a public discussion burst in here, which has a lot to do with monocultural shaped values in a multicultural reality. Muslim parents in a number of Swiss cities demanded ultimately from the relevant Cantonal ministry of education, either to renounce the traditional Christmas celebration in the school classes or to introduce also celebrations dedicated to holy Islamic days

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During my studies of Sinology at the university in Zurich, I have spent one year in Hangzhou/China (1997/98) in order to learn Chinese. We were sent abroad without any information or training. I had a cultural shock without even knowing that it is one! I just realized that nothing is like it was before and I always thought, that I am going to be crazy.

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I was 16 years old and was traveling with my mother from Sri Lanka to Switzerland, coming back from summer holidays. The flight enclosed a stop in Kuwait City; in the outward flight, we only stopped for a short time, without getting off the plane as we had only to wait for new passengers to come onboard.

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Case Study 5:Culture shock in a professional environment

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Case Study 5:Culture shock in a professional environment

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The people involved in this long-suffered story are mainly my former boss, Mr. Griffith, (I work for him as his assistant) and colleagues from different nationalities such as a Cuban Regional Director, high officers from Chile, Panama, Uruguay, Japan, Great Britain, and of course Mexico.

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Case Study 6:Emerging conflicts in an NGO for torture victims

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Case Study 6:Emerging conflicts in an NGO for torture victims

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The situation takes place in a non-governmental organization for torture victims established in Bucharest in 1992, three years after the fall of the totalitarian regime in 1989. The institution was created with the aim of offering medical, psychological and legal rehabilitation services to former political prisoners who were subjected to torture and other severe abuses during the communist regime in Romania (between 1945 and 1989).

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Case Study 7:Immigrating from Australia to Switzerland

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Case Study 7:Immigrating from Australia to Switzerland

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For a white male who grew up in a Western society, I did not consider a country like Switzerland to be foreign. Sure, it is different to my home country, Australia, geographically and linguistically, and like any country, it does have its peculiarities that make immigration a little difficult, but on the whole, I expected the differences to be rather trivial. They are both western, democratic countries, with similar standards of living and, as I discovered, a surprisingly pleasant dislike for hierarchical structures and formalisms.

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A couple of years ago I had my first business trip to Karachi/Pakistan. My colleague (Gottlieb S.) who was in charge of Marketing for the Far East Region planned this trip to visit the Ciba-Geigy owned entity in Karachi in order to validate the local marketing strategy. Gottlieb asked me to accompany him on his trip and to analyze the outcome of the discussions from a financial point of view.

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Case Study 9:The Pope’s speech at the University of Regensburg

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Case Study 9:The Pope’s speech at the University of Regensburg

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On 12. September. 2006, Pope Benedict XVI held a speech called „Faith, Reason and the University – Memories and Reflection‟ at the University of Regensburg in Germany. In his speech, questioning the concept of holy war, he quoted the 14th Century Christian Emperor Manual II Paleologos of the Byzantine Empire, who apparently said: “Show me just what Muhammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

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In July 2005 I returned back to Norway after having spent some good seven years abroad as a result of studying in London and afterwards working in an international company in Rome. I had only had brief working spells in Norway thus my points of references with regards to working culture and studying came mostly from contexts different from what I could expect in Norway.

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Turkey has always fascinated me. This fascination was born when I first heard a Turkish song in a kebab place in Zurich and still lasts in one way or the other. I emerged into oriental dance and visited the country (however only the western part) several times. At one stage, I also happened to have a boyfriend from Turkey. He lived in Patara, a gorgeous, a small but also touristy village in the South West of the country which I discovered thanks to Sarah, a friend of mine from England who married a Turkish guy and moved to exactly this village after their wedding.

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Wengun Jhuy is originally from China, she is 25 years old and moved to Italy from a little village in the Shangai province when she was 3 years old. She lived in Milan with her aunt until she got her university diploma and then moved to Rome to live with her parents, arrived from China the year before.

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Case Study 12: Adapting to the French culture

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Case Study 12: Adapting to the French culture

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My intercultural experience which I chose to discuss is my experience as an exchange student abroad. During my previous studies, I spend 6 months studying business and communications at a university in France, Lyon. Before this experience, I had no idea how big the change would be moving from Scandinavia, Finland to France. Of course, I had travelled a lot and studied in an intercultural environment and class but moving to a new country and trying to adapt to a different culture was a huge change. It was a bug intercultural experience for me.