Brooks Rosenquist is a doctoral student in Education Policy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennesee. He has lived in Taiwan and Spain, and is looking forward to his next international adventure.
“Some of the houses in this neighborhood are FIFTY years old!” That’s how I remember a quote from Steve Martin’s character in LA Story. Growing up in California, my sense of history of place didn’t go back too far. I was surrounded by relatively new buildings and the car and commuter culture they were built around. Although on our fourth grade field trips, we did visit some of the few oldest local historic sites, such as those associated with the Gold Rush of 1849. When it came time to go to college, this young man headed east, to Washington DC, and my sense of history of place was forced back a few centuries. Then, junior year, I headed even further east, for a semester abroad in Salamanca, Spain. For me, this required a quantum leap in my sense of history of place: in Salamanca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, they have two cathedrals, and the one they call “the new cathedral” dates back to the 1500s.
When I am lucky enough to travel abroad for any period of time, I’ve learned I have to try to do at least a little background on the place, the language, the customs, the cuisine, the geography, and the history. I remember living in Taipei, seeking out books on Chinese history in one of the few small bookstores that specialized in English language books, hoping to teach myself something about the sequence and characteristics of the more than twenty dynasties and five thousand years of history in order to put in context some of the ancient treasures I saw on display at the National Palace Museum,. Then again, instead of just reading about the raw facts of history from one era, country, or culture, you sometimes need a book that really puts it into perspective for you, providing the big picture and showing you how its patterns and lessons are applied in our world today.
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to read Parag Khanna’s book “The Second World”, where he describes his travels though the world while presenting the argument that, after the Cold War, there is substantial shift of power to the middle-income countries and emerging economies, as the powers of Europe, China, and the US court these countries for access to markets and natural resources. While others have expounded variations on this theme, Khanna does so particularly coherently and convincingly; the book reads like a travelogue, so that you can read it straight through or skip around to the sections on the countries that interest you most, enjoying the author’s mix of political analysis and entertaining details and observations. I was in college with Khanna, and after this book was published, he really started to get some of the acclaim that, when I met him, was just limited to the college campus. It was really cool to see my old classmate on TV doing interviews with Charlie Rose and on CNN with Farheed Zakaria.
Khanna is coming out with his second book later this month, and this time, he is really taking a broad, sweeping, historical approach to his analysis. With a decline of influence of the world’s superpowers, political, economic, and even military power is devolving not only to emerging market governments, but also to corporations, armed resistance groups, and non-profit, philanthropic, and other international organizations. In this book, called “How to Run the World: Charting a Course for the Next Renaissance,” Khanna draws upon history to construct a comparison with another time in global history when power was also widely dispersed in this way: the Middle Ages.
For example, while Europe struggled to find it’s way and even lost some of the technological know-how developed by the Romans, empires in China, India, and the Arab world flourished. The Byzantine Empire, based in modern day Turkey, served as a stable link between the East and West. Khanna sees a reflection of many elements of the Middle Ages in our own times, with the US playing the role this time of the multicultural Byzantine Empire, linking East and West. While those with a Euro-centric vision of history think of these centuries as a time of stagnation, it was in many ways a high point for much of the rest of the world. When the knowledge retained and developed in the East was reintroduced to a stabilized Europe, the continent experienced a cultural Renaissance.
From his title, it seems like that is a vision of the world which Khanna would like to encourage: a world with stable and widely distributed economic and political power, which is so interconnected on multiple levels that it avoids war and instead allows for the development of art, commerce, dialog, and travel. Hopefully, those that are in the position to make a difference on a global scale will read Khanna’s book and start to make this vision a reality. For those of us who intend to go or continue to “go global,” this dynamic and interconnected vision of the world is an enticing one, indeed.
So what happens when you decide to take ‘the road less traveled’? You open yourself to a world of possibilities, literally. That is our lesson from our guest this week, Lucas Franchi. He decided rather than to follow the normal trajectory for a recent college grad, he was going to explore his ‘road less traveled’. He ventured out to combine his love for languages and culture as an ESL teacher in Asia. His one-year adventure has turned into a three-year career that he hopes to continue building in other countries as well. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Small cultural nuances make all the difference when traveling to a new country. Something as subtle as knowing the protocol of shaking hands will distinguish you as a culturally sensitive foreigner. Use these tid bits for your next trip to India.
Shaking hands is not a universal greeting in India, especially between a man and a woman.
Let the Indian host to take the lead in offering a hand shake.
The most common greeting in India is to join your hands together as in prayer, nod your head and say “Namaste”. The word “Namaste” comes from Hindi Sanskrit meaning namas ‘bowing’ + te ‘to you.’ This means that “I honor the spirit in you” as a greeting.
Most Indian women do not shake hands with men since physical contact is traditionally not acceptable between the opposite sex. However, a Westernized Indian woman may feel free to shake hands with a foreign visitor.
College gives you the environment to accumulate the necessary tools and skills to be a successful working professional. An international internship simply adds to your toolbox. What is it though that makes an international internship so important? Obvious reasons like gaining work experience and building your resume, have been ingrained in our heads as appropriate justifications. Digging deeper however is a subtler and yet equally if not more fulfilling reward of interning abroad.
Having come back from my year long trip after college, I was sent this video by my boyfriend, as a reminder of why we decided to embark on our gap year. As I was brainstorming topics for this post, it dawned on me that interning and living abroad is not just about expanding your cultural and professional horizons. It is about discovering who you are in the process. The story, the images and the music of this video continue to inspire me every time I watch it. What I learned most in all my international experiences, be it when I was a high school student, a young professional or a gap year traveler, is that every country that I have lived or traveled to, are part of my journey of self discovery.
That is the essence of an international internship. Over the years I have spoken to many students and professionals who share international living and working experiences. The common theme is the awareness that they have developed about themselves. The advantage of living and working in another country is that it forces you to discover new things every day. Every day therefore becomes a journey. Buying milk is journey. Riding the bus to see your new friends is a journey. Asking for directions to where you live is a journey. By learning to think outside of your cultural and professional box, you are opening yourself to new beginnings. An international internship opens you to yourself.
*Disclaimer: Going Global does not directly endorse Louis Vuitton. This video is strictly for education purposes.
The nature of international assignments for dual-career families is changing due to a workforce transition with the retiring Baby Boomers coupled with the economic downturn. The current workforce, primarily consisting of Generation X and Y, eligible for international assignments are experiencing the economic necessity to have two income streams in order to sustain their lifestyle. This poses an enormous challenge for companies because these couple are much more hesitant to leave everything and depend on only one stream of income.
To explore this phenomenon further, the workforce consultancy, ORC Worldwide, conducted a worldwide survey on Dual Careers and International Assignments Survey. “Employers face a difficult dilemma,” said Geoffrey W. Latta, executive vice president of ORC Worldwide, in a statement about the study. “Forced to be particularly mindful of cost constraints, managers are still responsible for balancing these efforts with the need to attract and retain the best talent to remain globally competitive. Further, as more and more Baby Boomers are beginning to retire, companies are sending Generation X and Y employees abroad, many of whom have spouses/partners with their own careers and who are unwilling to give up not only their jobs but also the income associated with their positions.”
Exacerbating the situation further is the cutback on financial support for dual-career couples. Where employers once provided resources for the other partner/spouse such as – job search assistance, CV/resume preparation, language training and repatriation support – they have had to decrease these efforts significantly in order to reduce costs. In 2005 only 33.5% of employers provided no financial help. Today this has increased to 50.9%.
Latta suggests that “successful employers will recognize the necessity for flexibility and creativity in finding solutions for staffing worldwide operations” in order to address the reluctance of dual-career families to accept international assignments.
Perhaps this change is not entirely bad. Not only is it forcing employers to push their creative limits to support their expatriates, but it is also breeding a new type of expatriate. These younger career centric couples are finding new ways to fulfill both their desires to take the international assignments and further their careers. Interesting the amount of female expatriates is on the rise and shifting the traditional spouse who is sent abroad. Through the power of the internet, dual-career couples will be able to work remotely without compromising their career.
Going Global is the leading provider of country specific career and employment resources for individuals interested in working outside of their home country. More than 500 universities around the world currently subscribe to Going Global for use by their students, staff and alumni. We provide Country Career Guides, USA City Career Guides, corporate profiles for the world's leading employers and a job search database with over 500,000 worldwide job and internship listings. You can learn more about us at Goinglobal.com.
