Expatriates

Ilaria Vilkelis is a Culturs Expert and the founder of Thriving Beyond Cultures, a resource to help ex-pats, B.R.A.T.s, and TCKs take time to process the dramatic changes they are experiencing. Ilaria believes that how we cope with change affects […]

  There are several ways to eat a bowl of soup. You could use chopsticks, or a spoon, or you could slurp it right out of the bowl – and often these tactics are culturally coded. For a kid growing […]

With every new technological development, we get closer to a common global lifestyle. Maybe not all of us are TCKs or have any plans to ex-patriate any time soon, but new advances in communication and social media are evolving our […]

It’s that time again. I can hear the buzz, the excitement and the unbridled wishes for time to move forward a little more quickly. The Families in Global Transition (FIGT) conference is coming around the corner, and the call to […]

Growing up in a religiously-blended household, Erin was never “enough.” Not Catholic enough, not Jewish enough, and she even experienced a brief identity crisis when she realized that being white in her predominately Hispanic hometown of El Paso, Texas set […]

In the American movie “Dirty Dancing,” Frances “Baby” Houseman, played by actor Jennifer Grey, pointed out that about a foot of air space between her and Johnny Castle (played by actor Patrick Swayze) differentiates what is YOUR dance space from […]

“Since cross-cultural preparation is widely accepted to improve expatriate performance and 83% respondents believe it has good or great value, the lack of a practice that makes the benefit mandatory is disappointing.” Brookfield Relocation Report I have been an expat […]

Scientific evidence is piling up that we’re indeed social animals. No matter what your personality type, your brain will light up when you feel like you don’t fit in, or when you’re being excluded. In international settings, this social pain […]