Smoothing over a cultural mix-up with the team
A real situation from the OGIMA community · Expat Life
The scene
Your Berlin-based NGO team has just finished a strategy call with field staff in Nairobi, and something you said about deadlines landed wrong. You pull two people aside in the office kitchen to sort it out before it calcifies into resentment.
Why this moment is tricky in Germany
German directness around deadlines is often experienced as rude in high-context cultures (East Africa, Southeast Asia, parts of Latin America). The repair move — acknowledging the framing as yours, not theirs — is crucial in cross-cultural NGO work where shared language hides unshared norms.
Rehearse it before it happens
This situation is practised out loud in OGIMA: you speak, an AI conversation partner answers back, and you rerun it until the real thing feels routine.
Prefer to read first? Our guide covers this territory: Du or Sie? Navigating Formal and Informal German