Cross-cultural training in Southeast Asia: three programmes, because three countries are not one culture
A briefing that prepares somebody for one of Thailand, the Philippines or Vietnam quietly misleads them about the next. Asia Relocation runs a programme for each, from trainers who live in the country, for the employee, the family alongside, and the team that will work with them.
A newcomer to Southeast Asia rarely gets a language problem. They get a meeting that ended in agreement and produced nothing, a yes that meant later, a colleague who would rather fail quietly than say a task was impossible. The mechanisms behind that are real, and they are not the same in the three countries: shame and seniority in the Philippines, Confucian hierarchy and face in Vietnam, Buddhism, status and the pursuit of ease in Thailand.
That is why one regional briefing does harm. It teaches "Asia", and Asia is not where anybody lands. A person prepared for one of the three arrives in another fluent in the wrong signals, and the more confident the briefing, the longer it takes to notice. Asia Relocation runs three programmes instead, each written for its country by the people who work there, and a transfer briefing for those moving between two.
Asia Relocation has briefed assignees, families and teams across Asia since 2011, from consultants and trainers who live in the country concerned. The examples come from their own working week, which makes a mechanism recognisable in the next meeting rather than on a slide.
What every programme covers, and what belongs to a sister service
The same ten questions in Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam; three different answers.
Carried by the service
- The country's mechanisms: how a decision is really taken, how disagreement is voiced, what a yes means, how seniority, face and shame work, the calendar of a working year.
- Business etiquette and communication: the meeting, the introduction, the written message, the relationship that has to exist before the contract.
- Daily life for the household: the building, household staff, the school gate, the neighbours, the market, where the culture is met with least support.
- Examples from your own role and industry and, for a team, from the company's own meetings.
- A transfer briefing for anyone moving between two of the three countries: what they already know, and what will now read differently.
Format, participants and sessions are fixed at the brief and quoted per country.
A different service
- The language itself. Courtesy forms and weighted words are here; vocabulary, tones and grammar are language training, often taken alongside.
- Finding the home and the school. The district and the campus are home search and school search, on the same file.
- The first day on the ground. A guided day in the city and its districts is a city orientation, offered by the country teams where it exists.
- The visa that lets the assignee work. An immigration file in the country concerned: visa and immigration.
One Asia Relocation coordinator carries these beside the briefing.
Four formats, and who each one is written for
The same country programme across Southeast Asia, taught from the side each person will meet it on.
Assignee briefing
For the person with the contract: hierarchy, decisions, feedback and disagreement, relationships in business, the calendar, with examples from their own role and industry.
Household programme
For the partner and the children: the building, household staff, the school gate, the neighbours, the market. Where the culture is met daily, usually with less support.
Team workshop
For a foreign management team, or a mixed one, in the company's own premises: how the two sides read the same meeting, and what each is not saying.
Transfer briefing
For someone moving from one of the three countries to another, starting from what they already know. Shorter, sharper, the format only a regional provider can offer.
Four steps from the brief to a mechanism you recognise
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The brief
Who is being briefed, for which country or pair of countries, in what role and industry, with what experience of Southeast Asia already.
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The programme, chosen and adapted
The country's programme in the right format, the examples rewritten around the person's own week, the sessions scheduled remote or in person.
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The sessions
A first session before the flight where possible, a second in the country once there are real meetings to bring; household and team sessions in person.
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The follow-up
A trainer to write to when a meeting has gone strangely, for the first months, and a written summary the assignee keeps.
Four people who need the country named first
Each ends up with a country programme; Asia Relocation says which, and whether two are needed.
The manager arriving with a team to lead
Decisions, feedback and disagreement work differently in each of the three, and a manager who has read about the region reads the first meeting wrong. Briefed for the country, not the region.
The partner and the children
The household meets the culture at the school gate, with staff and in the building, with less support than the office gives. The family programme is written for that.
The assignee transferred within Asia
Fluent in one culture of the three, about to be misled by that fluency in the next. The transfer briefing names what changes, and only that.
The mobility team with arrivals in three countries
One regional programme on paper, three country programmes in practice, one report. Asia Relocation holds the scope; the country trainers hold the room.
Three countries, three sets of mechanisms
What each programme is built around, and the page for it.
In Thailand, the programme is built around Buddhism as a way of life, respect for hierarchy and social status, the pursuit of ease and enjoyment that Thais call sanuk, the wai and the gestures of respect, loyalty to the monarchy, the place of temples and spirits in daily life, and the festivals that mark the year. In the Philippines, it is built around the central place of the family, the community spirit of bayanihan, the shame that keeps a face saved, respect for seniority that keeps a decision waiting for the right person, a Catholic calendar that shapes the working year, and the Spanish and American layers under the surface.
In Vietnam, it is built around a hierarchical society and respect for authority, strong community bonds and collective identity, deep Confucian values, the saving and losing of face, ancestral worship and Buddhism, national pride, and a resilience and work ethic that shape how a team responds to pressure. Asia Relocation teaches each from inside its country; this page says which one you need.
What assignees and HR teams ask before booking
Is one briefing enough for the whole region?
Who is the training for?
We are transferring from one of your countries to another. Do we need it again?
What do the three programmes actually cover?
Can it run before we arrive in Asia?
Who are the trainers?
Does it include the language?
How is cross-cultural training priced?
The service usually taken with this one, and the whole offer
You want the language, not only the culture
Thai, Filipino or Vietnamese with native-speaker trainers, one-to-one or in small groups, in the country you land in.
Language training in Southeast Asia →The whole relocation service
Home, school, office, temporary housing, cultural and language training across the three, and which of them your move needs.
Relocation services in Southeast Asia →Tell us who is arriving, and in which country
Asia Relocation chooses the programme, rewrites the examples around your role, and runs the sessions from inside the country, before and after the flight.
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