058: The Most UPBEAT News From Iraq; Paul MacAlindin

About This Week's Guest Paul MacAlindin Paul MacAlindin is an internationally renowned conductor and author of "UPBEAT: The Story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq". He led the orchestra from 2008- 2014 in Iraq, France, Germany, and Britain, solving enormous hurdles of culture, language, and education along the way. The National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is by far the most challenging and rich intercultural experience of his career. UPBEAT is out on August the 18th 2016. His three tips to become more culturally competent are: Know yourself culturally. Realize that you're the fish in your own bowl and that you might not know enough about your own culture. If you do this, you can realize that you're different than the other person but you can still work together. If you can, learn another one or two languages. Although not easy, it helps tremendously in overcoming cultural differences. Learn to laugh at yourself. Remember, when it's about culture, it's not about them. It is about you! Interview Links Links that are mentioned in this episode: LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/conductor Twitter: @paulmacalindin Email: [email protected] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/macalindin/ Build Your Cultural Competence In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories. Every other week there is a guest with broad international experience and lots of cultural insights. I interview real people with real stories. To subscribe directly using iTunes or Stitcher, Click here, or here (or click any of the images below). How To Get In Touch With Culture Matters I'd love for you to get in touch. There are a couple of ways you can do this: Via this website: Just use the “Ask Your Question” tab on the right of the screen and leave a voicemail Email me at [email protected] Send me a Tweet: @chrissmit Finally Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far, and to listen to my Podcast. I hope you will be back for the next episode of the Culture Matters Podcast!