How many kisses make a greeting? Who gets to sit and who gets to stand in public transport? What is a proper way to thank 
someone?
Sure, you can find answers to these and other questions through reading about a country and taking a cross-cultural training. But you can also find all this and more through simply paying ATTENTION to what’s happening around you.
We start our A to Z of Successful Expatriation™ with a basic tip that can be useful anywhere, anytime. You don’t even have to be an expat to benefit from it. Paying ATTENTION to what happens around you, observing it, and learning from it is an excellent way to get information about the culture you are living in.
What have you learned in the past by simply paying attention?
And what can you learn this week?
Any other “A’s” you can suggest?
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I couldn’t agree more! Just paying attention to your surroundings and what the natives are doing will provide a lot of insight and save you a lot of time and money. Another “A” I’d add would be awareness. Maybe this comes after attention though!
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Perfect start of integration process!
Attention, awareness…
How about acknowledgement? It’s an instrument to avoid criticising the other way of living, behaving, talking. It’s also the way to stay open to new experiences.
Acknowledgment is a great addition, thanks, Elena!