Intercultural Communication

About 4 million people of Turkish origin live in Germany. Most of them came in the sixties because of the high population growth and the mass unemployment in Turkey.
Even if they form the largest ethnic group after Germans, Turks are considered as the 'most foreign' group in Germany. Communication between German and second and third generation immigrants from Turkey is no longer characterized by language difficulties but there remain some intercultural missunderstandings.

Thyssen Krupp Steel is a German company where 16% of the employees have Turkish origins. The company used to have a big problem: The workers from the different backgrounds did not get along. There were often confliction between them. In the breakroom, the Germans were sitting in one corner of the room, reading the Spiegel or the Süddeutschezeitung, while the Turks were sitting in the opposite corner reading the Turkish journal.
Most of the conflicts between the German and the Turkish employees were based on cultural differences, e.g., the Turks felt often offended at the straightforwardness and honesty of their German colleagues and the Germans did not like the implied statements usually used by the Turks.
The situation got worst after the events of 9 11. Even the few Turks who used to have some German friends at work felt that they were avoiding them and felt the gap between them becoming bigger and bigger.
That's when the company decided to take action and tried to resolve the problem by introducing the idea of 'culture mediators'. Those persons help workers in the company from differents backgrounds to get along. They are sort of bridge-builder: they try to find solutions for conflicts between employees from different origins by organizing seminars and workshops. The purposes of the seminars is to show respect the other cultures and avoid cultural misunderstanding. The way to reach these goals is to encourage the effective intercultural communication and the emphaty with people from different backgrounds without any kind of cultural prejudice.


                                                        

Application Letter

Nesrine Damak

22 College Avenue East Singapore 138595

nesrinedamak@mytum.de, (+65)91438227

August 22, 2011

Director, Human Resource

Robert Bosch (SEA) Pte Ltd

11 Bishan Street 21

Singapore 573943

Re: Application for an internship – Assistant Project Engineer at Security Systems

Dear Sir or Madam,

As a student of Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and as an exchange student at the National University of Singapore for the fall term 2011, I am applying for an internship in Bosch from 1^th December 2011 until the end of March 2012.

After successfully receiving my A-level in Tunisia, I had the opportunity to study in Germany with the support of a government scholarship. This new situation made me very enthusiastic to know more about foreign languages and cultures and instilled in me the desire to continue to do so in the future.

After spending two years at the university acquiring basic engineering knowledge, I chose to study signal processing and multimedia more intensively. I recently finished my Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology with the grade “Very good” and I am currently pursuing my Master degree in the same major.

I have been tutoring first and second term students in circuit theory for four semesters. This allowed me to further develop my social and communication skills. Now I feel myself able to face any new situation where I have to pass on my ideas and interact with other people in my field of work.

My experience in working as part of a team has also been enhanced, especially during a student project at TUM, aiming at designing an electrical vehicle.

I am confident that the experience working for your company is a perfect starting point for an ambitious engineering career, and would be the best way to highlight the link between my academic studies and industrial work experience. The worldwide reputation of Bosch and the recommendation of previous fellow students encourage me to apply for an internship as an Assistant Project Engineer at Security Systems.

Thank you for considering my application, to which I enclose supporting documents.

I will be delighted to provide further information upon request and would be available for a telephone or a face-to-face interview at any time.

Yours faithfully,

Nesrine Damak

Edited: 13/09/2011

Interpersonal Conflict

Interpersonal relationships are usually associated with conflicts , especially when we have to interact with the same person in several occasions. Conflict occurs when two or more individuals do not share the same view or have different goals and interests.

The person with whom we are in conflict can be a loved one and a friend or it may be a stranger like the salesman or the neighbour.

In the case of a close person, the conflicts can weaken the relationship and sometimes end it. Even if the conflict can be unimportant and minor, it can damage our relationships if it is not resolved or well handled. An example for this situation would be the divorce of a couple after a long-term relationship because the man is a workaholic and the woman does not have the energy to save the marriage by talking fully about what is on her mind.
Conflicts can also occur with your boss at work or during a project. They can put your work in jeopardy.
I experienced this kind of disagreement as I was writing my bachelor thesis at the university. My supervisor was too demanding and exigent: He pushed me over the limit by assigning me complex topics and letting me completely rely on myself. I was the first student he supervised, so I assumed that his carelessness was probably due to a lack of experience. The most rational way for resolving this conflict was to talk to my supervisor and let him know about my opinion. He told me then that the reason why he let me rely on my own was that my marks were good, so he thought I would be able to cope with the research difficulties without his help. I proved him wrong and proposed to him some alternative solutions like to shorten the content of the topic and not to go into too much details. At the end, we agreed on specific topics that would be doable in the defined period of time. As for me, I spent some extra hours in order to satisfy some of his demands.
Finally, I got a very good mark and everyone was happy and satisfied.
 We can see that the first step in a conflicted situation is to realize the existence of the conflict. Once you admit this, you can reduce the conflict by effectively communicating with the other person and by trying to find compromises that satisfy you both.
What do you think about my reaction? Would you do the same or would you stagnate in the situation in which you are out of your depth?
 09.09.2011