Culture Map of our Group

low context------------------------------high context (1~10)

Direct negative feed back------------------------------Indirect negative feedback (1~10)

concept-first------------------------------application-first (1~10)

egalitarian------------------------------hierarchical (1~10)

consensual------------------------------top-down (1~10)

task-based------------------------------relationship-based (1~10)

confrontational------------------------------avoids-confrontation (1~10)

linear time------------------------------flexible time (1~10)

Luka: Low context(1), indirect negative feedback(10), application-first(10), Egalitarian(2), consensual(2), task-based(5), avoids-confrontation(10), flexible time(10) 

Nils: Low context(2), direct negative feedback(4), concept-first(3), egalitarian(2), consensual(2), relationship-based(6), avoids-confrontation(6), flexible time(8)

Patrick: low context(3), indirect negative feedback(7), application-first(5), egalitarian(3), consensual(3), relationship-based(7), confrontational(4), flexible time(6) 

Lee: high context(8), indirect negative feedback(6), application-first(6), hierarchical(9), top-down(9), task-based(4), avoids-confrontation(7), linear time(5)

Confrontation and Language Lesson 9

Once again, we had to hold our 9^th meeting online, where talked about different foods of each country. First, in the case of Switzerland, Switzerland has developed its own food in each region due to various climates and topography. Swiss people like potatoes, cheese, wine, milk, eggs, butter, onions, jam, sausages, brad, cream sauce, etc. Fondue, raclette, and Rösti are the most famous meals which people identify with as original Swiss food. Secondly, characteristics of Croatian food are largely divided into coastal and inland regions. Seafood dishes have been developed in the coastal region, and the inland area is famous for its meat dishes. Crni rizoto, Kobasica are representative food in Croatia. Third, Germans usually eat meat-based meals. They eat pork, bread, sausages, potatoes, and so on as a staple food. Beer and sausages are famous. Lastly, Korea is suitable for rice farming due to its geographical and climatic characteristics, so rice is the main food and various foods have developed in each region. Also, it is famous for stored food. Representative foods are Kimchi and Soy Bean Paste Stew.

There were differences in accepting disagreement depending on cultures in our group as well. First, South Koreans are 'avoids confrontation' and 'emotionally unexpressive' culture as graph shows. The culture of avoids confrontation is common in business. For example, it is okay to disagree with boss’s opinion on 1-on-1 meeting. However, it is impolite thing to express opposite opinions in a formal occasion. South Koreans have been used to a vertical education system and culture since they were children, thus they could not experience many debates in childhood. Hence, this cultural factor formed the basis of the general avoiding confrontation culture in South Korea. Moreover, the vertical culture is one of the artefacts of the 'emotionally unexpressive' culture of South Korea. There is a social recognition that excessive expression of emotion would be a weakness in social life. Croatia is very similar on this matter with South Korea. 

In Croatia, management decisions are taken by employees in a group, characterizing a collectivist culture. Moreover employees lean moreso towards compromise rather than confrontation, making them very agreeable. Also, people tend to not express their emotions, in the workplace as well as in daily life. Especially for men, to express their feelings it is considered to be a sign of inferior masculinity and weakness. Women tend to express their feelings in daily life however not so much in the workplace. These avoiding confrontation and emotional unexpressiveness cultures mostly have to do with the values of the country, Croatia being a highly practicing catholic country, in turn making it patriarchal.

Language lesson 9

We learned expression of first greetings

Croatian(Luka)

Odakle si?= Where are you from?

Ja sam iz ...= I'm from....

Drago mi je= Pleased to meet you

Swiss German(Patrick)

Vo wo chunsch du? = Where are you from

I chume vo... = I am from....

Schön di könne z lere = Pleased to meet you

Wohär bisch Du? = Where are you from?

Ich bi vo ...= I'm from....

Fröit mi =Pleased to meet you

German(Nils)

Woher kommen Sie? = Where are you from?

Ich komme aus....= I'm from...

Ich bin erfreut Sie kennenzulernen = Pleased to meet you

Korean(Lee)

어디서 오셨나요?=Where are you from?

나는~출신입니다=I'm from~

만나서 반갑습니다=Pleased to meet you

Building Trust and Language Lesson 8

Our 8^th meeting was held online because we were all on the road. We talked about Christmas celebrations of each country. Firstly, in Switzerland, Christmas is one of the biggest days of the year. Bells and yodels are heard throughout the street and Christmas markets are held. They usually spend Christmas with family and have dinner. Secondly, in Germany, Christmas is also an important day in Germany. Christmas events are held nationwide, and Germans spend Christmas with their families at home. Third, in Croatia as well, Christmas is one of the most important days of the year, like the two countries mentioned above. Christmas markets are held, and they also spend Christmas with family. Overall, in European countries, Christmas is an important time for families to gather together to confirm bonds, close the year, and wish for the well-being of the new year. Finally, in Korea, Christmas is not an important holiday at all. Therefore, Koreans enjoy Christmas in their own way. Furthermore, Christmas events are held for commercial purposes rather than religious purposes.

Even in our group, there were differences in how to build trust in each country. First of all, South Korea is a relationship-based culture. Thus, building good relationships with people is just as important as job performance in any field. In Korea, you can build trust by drinking or spending your free time together. So drinking is one of the most important business tasks in Korea. Through this accumulated human network, you can benefit in many aspects such as employment or promotion. However, the relationship-based culture of South Korea also has side effects. It is one of the causes of social equity in South Korea. For example, bribing to form a relationship or promoting an incompetent person better than an able person. Moreover, some experts insist that if the relationship-based culture in South Korea continues, corruption, which is treated as a chronic problem in Korean society, will continue. Croatia is also a relationship-based culture. In the business environment Croatian's prefer personal contact, seeking to meet business partners in a less formal setting. Moreover, a lot of positions are earned through friendships, relatives or connections in general. Especially a good position in the company, managers will often give to for example their nephew neglecting their ineligibility or unqualification. This also especially the case in government or governement related organizations.

Language lesson 8

We learned Christmas greetings and New Year's greetings from other countries

Croatian(Luka)

Sretan Božić!= Merry Christmas!

Sretna Nova godina!=Happy new year!

Swiss German(Patrick)

Schöni Wiehnachte = Merry Christmas!

Es guets Neus! = Happy new year!

Frohe Weihnachten=Merry Christmas!

Es guets Nöis= Happy new year

German(Nils)

Frohe Weihnachten!=Merry Christmas!

frohes neues Jahr=Happy new year

Korean(Lee)

메리 크리스마스=Merry Christmas!

새해 복 많이 받으세요=Happy new year

High and low Context Culture and Language Lesson 7

We held our 7th meeting in the park at the campus. We walked around the park and talked about the World cup, which is currently a hot topic around the world. Furthermore, we addressed relevant sports in each of our home countries. Football was obviously the most popular sport in all four countries. Furthermore, apart from football, skiing is popular in Switzerland, and Swiss people learn skiing when they are small children. In addition, Switzerland also shows strong performance in ice hockey and tennis. In the case of Croatia, basketball, handball, waterpolo, tennis, and skiing are popular other than football. In addition, Croatia national handball team won 2 gold medals in Olympics. In the case of Germany, basketball, handball and ice hockey are popular. Germany has one of the most competitive handball leagues in the world. Motor sports are also one of the significant sports in Germany. Lastly, baseball and esports are getting more and more famous in Korea. Most students enjoy online games in Korea. A lot of interest in online games leads Korea to one of the strongest countries in esports around the globe.

 Our group considered translating sentences as one of the main problems in high context team. This is because high context culture people are reluctant to directly express what the want and they tend to use ambiguous expression, which leads misunderstanding of other team members who are not familiar with high context culture. In addition, interpreting message of high context culture is not also easy for people from same high context culture. According to our Lee who is one of our group members, he is from Korea, which is high context culture. Reading air is the most important business skills in Korea. It indicates how important interpreting hidden meaning is in high context culture. Therefore, you should avoid direct expression to the other person in high context team because they can see you as rude. In addition, listening more carefully and checking your understanding is also helpful to prevent cultural misunderstanding in high context team. The rest of our group members have not experienced communication problems in the Netherlands until now, coming from neighboring low context countries, and they  think that they would not experience communication problems in the Netherlands as most our group members have experience with staying with people from different cultures and they know how to communicate with foreigners. Furthermore, if there is a problem, they have confidence to overcome the barriers based on what we have learned through this class and our experience. 

Language lesson 7

We learned expression 

Croatian(Luka)

kako si= How are you?

Oprostite=Excuse me

koliko ovo košta?=How much is this?

Swiss German(Patrick)

Wie gohts dir=How are you?

Entschuldigung= Excuse me

Was choschtet das?=How much is this?

German(Nils)

Wie geht es dir?=How are you?

Verzeihung=Excuse me

Wieviel kostet das?=How much is this?

Korean(Lee)

어떻게 지내?=How are you?

실례합니다=Excuse me

이거 얼마인 가요?=How much is this?

Blog Presentation

 

The mountain and building: The drawing of a mountain and a building is supposed to highlight the different sceneries and nature of each country. It is common to see nature-friendly landscapes with mountains, trees and lakes in Switzerland, Croatia, and Germany and the cities are smaller in size and in how they spread. On the opposite, in Korea, you can find many modern cities including high buildings and skyscrapers and huge urban areas that spread across the country.

The clock: The clock puts emphasis on monochronic and polychronic cultures. Germany and Switzerland, Croatia are monochronic cultures, which prefer to focus on one thing at a time and without distractions or interruptions. However, Korea is polychronic culture. Polychronic cultures think that time is free-flowing, and changes depending on each situation.

The podium: The podium represents the difference between collectivism and individualism. Germany and Switzerland, Croatia are individualistic society, which value the pursuit of personal goals, rather than the goals of society. However, Korea is a collectivist society, which focuses on the group's needs by working together as opposed to focusing on individual needs.

Two people shaking hands: Different cultures also have different ways of greeting each other. Learning about these contrasts through theory but also in your everyday life can help you to better understand the cultures. This means that our group members can better understand other cultures through language lessons. This is because there are cultural characteristics in greeting words  Furthermore, we can speak simple greeting words of each countries.

Speech bubbles: We believe that the most effective way to understand new cultures is by communicating with one of our group members. By meeting with our group and talking to each other we discovered several interesting similarities and differences. 

Culture Shock and Language Lesson 6

We held our sixth meeting at a cafe in the city. We talked about the military of each country after reading a newspaper about the current situation in the Ukraine and Russia. It was very interesting to discuss because each of our countries has unique laws on the army. First of all, in Switzerland it is mandatory to serve in the army. Hence, all Swiss men must serve in the military for 245 days. Patrick also finished his military service in 2020. Germany was one of the conscription countries until 2011. However, it was changed to a volunteer military system in 2011. Croatia is also one of the volunteer military system countries. Lastly, South Korea is a conscription country like Switzerland. All South Korean men must serve in the military for 548 days. Lee finished his military service. In addition, some experts state that Korea's hierarchical societal structures has been greatly influenced by the military. 

All our group members are in an adjustment stage in the culture shock model. Indeed, all our group members experienced culture shock in the Netherlands. The degree of culture shock varies from person to person. For example for Nils, Germany and the Netherlands are quite similar in many aspects and therefore it was easier for him to adjust to a new culture. Similarly, for Luka, coming from neighboring Belgium, the similarities of the culture simplified the issue of adapting to a new culture, preventing significant culture shock. Among our group members, Lee especially experienced a big culture shock compared to other group members. This is because Korea is very different from the Netherlands in terms of language as well as culture. For example, Lee found it difficult to adapt to a horizontal relationship with student and teacher because Korea has a strictly vertical relationship pertaining to teachers and students. However, he managed to overcome it with a positive attitude, even suffering re-culture shock upon returning to his home country during the holidays. Through this experience of culture shock, he bore witness to the fact that everything depends on mindset, leading him undergoing a paradigm shift, seeing the world from a broader perspective. Moreover, he is in the adjustment stage now. For Patrick coming from Switzerland, he suffered a mild culture shock. Switzerland is a different culture in many ways to the Netherlands. Namely, the lack of mountains gave him headaches, thus not being able to hike as he was used to regularly in his village in Switzerland.

Language lesson 6

We learned expression for food in lesson 4

Croatian(Luka)

mrkva= carrot

krumpir=potato

luk=onion

jabuka=apple

slatki krumpir=sweet potato

Swiss German(Patrick)

Rüebli =carrot

Härdöpfel = potato

Zwiebele=onion

Öpfel =apple

German(Nils)

Karotte=carrot

Kartoffel=potato

Zwiebel=onion

Apfel=apple

Süßkartoffel=sweet potato

Korean(Lee)

당근=carrot

감자=potato

양파=onion

사과=apple

고구마=sweet potato

DMIS Model and Language Lesson 5

 

At Lee's apartment, during our fifth meeting, we had drinks and snacks together while enjoying the outstanding view from his balcony. We discussed house structure or philosophy in our respective countries. People from Germany, Switzerland and Croatia usually live in big family houses. The advantages of these houses are that they offer more freedom, space and even an own yard. On the contrary, most Korean usually live in apartments. This is because Korea has a large population compared to the size of the country, so most of them live in apartments to use the land effectively. The advantages of apartments are that there are fewer repairs and cleaning to do and it is easier to manage compared to a house.

 All our group members are in the Ethnorelative stages of the DMIS model. So, we can know that all our group members seem to adapt well to the new culture, even though it varies from person to person. First, Lee said that he is in the adaptation stage because he can change his actions and personality to fit other cultures. However, Lee was not in the adaptation stage upon arrival. When he first came to the Netherlands. he underwent stage 4, which is called 'acceptance'. Although he already knew there is a lot of cultural differences between Korea and the Netherlands before he arrived in the Netherlands, the cultural differences made him shocked. Furthermore, he faced struggles in changing his mind to fit the difficult culture. However, through communicating with his foreign friends and studying cultural differences, he found the means to overcome stage 4. Luka likewise said he is in the adaptation stage. According to Luka, he was never in the stage of acceptance. Since he already lived in Belgium for a while, he was used to cultural differences. Even so, some aspects such as the bicycle culture and punctuality as well as the overall cold attitude of people, such as employees at banks or supermarkets, left him with some adapting to do.

Language lesson 5

we learned various expressions of each country

Croatian(Luka)

Have a nice day = ugodan dan

Have a nice meal = dobar tek

Have a good journey = sretan put

Swiss German(Patrick)

Have a nice day = I wünsch dir e schöne dag.

Have a nice meal = En Guete!

Have a good journey = Gueti Reis!

German(Nils)

Have a nice day = Schönen Tag noch

Have a nice meal = Guten Appetit

Have a good journey = Gute Reise!

Korean(Lee)

Have a nice day = 좋은 하루 되세요

Have a nice meal = 식사 맛있게 하세요

Have a good journey = 좋은 여행 되세요

Cultural Misunderstandings of our group and language lesson 4

 

Our fourth meeting was held on the roof of Lee's building. Lee offered us some soda, meanwhile we talked about the weather in our respective countries. This turned out to be interesting since each of our countries had specific characteristics of their own. Switzerland is hot and dry in summer, cold and snowy winter. However, the weather is subject to quick alterations, thus unpredictable. Germany is likewise hot and dry during the summer, the temperature doesn't drop much. However it rains a lot and the humidity is high in winter. Croatia is famous for its Mediterranean climate, with warm summers as well as cold and occasionally snowy winters, though not as cold compared to other european counterparts. Korea is especially hot and humid in summer, and cold, dry, in the winter.  

All members of our group possess a different background. Therefore, each member had unique experiences of cultural misunderstandings. First, Lee encountered cultural barriers in class. When Lee first came to the Netherlands, he thought that foreign students are very rude because they call the name of the teacher upon asking something to the lecturer. It is very rare and rude for a student to call a teacher by his/her first name in Korea. Korea has high power distance and collectivist cultural traits compared to the Netherlands. Thus making them very sensitive in relationship and hierarchy. Moreover, when Korean people talk to people of higher position than them, they refer to them by job title rather than name. This is an example of a cultural misunderstanding that occurred to Lee.

Our team members gave solutions to solve the cultural dilemma. First, it is to be open-minded. This could help in facing an uncommon situation, that you perhaps wouldn't face in your country, overseas. Hence, the lesson is to be open-minded and prepare to accept new things. The second option we came up with was learning about new cultures in advance. This would be really helpful for you to adapt to a new culture, since it can give you a headstart to understanding and accepting cultural diversity as well as preventing potential culture shocks.

Similar to Lee, Luka also experienced a teacher-student power distance misunderstanding, coming from an extremely highly ranked power distance country, Croatia. Additionally, Luka encountered a cultural misunderstanding in terms of punctuality. Coming from a country where people tend to be very inpunctual as well as superiors being lenient towards this issue, this led to him facing fierce backlash from his superiors and Dutch friends in The Hague to his suprise. Solutions for the last two, as discussed by our members, include the same adaptations as in Lee's case.

   

Language lesson 4

We learned familial expressions in lesson 4

Croatian(Luka)

family= obitelj

parents=roditelji

father=otac

mother=mama

children=djeca

Swiss German(Patrick)

family=famile

mother=mami

father=papi

children=chind

German(Nils)

family=familie

parent=eltern

father=papa

mother=mama

children=kinder

Korean(Lee)

family=가족

parent=부모님

father=아빠

mother=엄마

children=아이들

Hofstede's six Dimensions of Culture and Language Lesson 3

 

The Lustrum event at the breathtaking beach bar on campus was a good opportunity to compare our cultures. We drank a beer together and enjoyed listening to music played by the DJ, which led to us discussing about different genres of music played in our countries.

Each group member respectively contains different Hofstede's dimensions. Upon comparing each countries' dimensions we found that Korea and Croatia have characteristics of collectivism and Switzerland has characteristics of individualism. Also, we interestingly showed different reactions to the same situation, namely having a question while in class. For instance, Lee and Luka said they would ask it after class or by mail. It is not common to ask or present in class in collectivist countries because they think that their personal question may interrupt the class. However, Patrick said he would ask it during class. He argues that the reason we take a class is to learn new things, also we pay for these classes.

Further, we talked about uncertainty avoidance. Korea had the highest uncertainty avoidance, followed by Croatia and Switzerland. As the figures show, Lee had the highest uncertainty avoidance. For instance, Lee said he always prepares solutions for all possible scenarios, in order to be ready for the worst and even least predictable. He also said that communicating with strangers is the most difficult task for him. However, Patrick, who had the lowest uncertainty avoidance, cherishes 'uncertain' or new situations and is at ease with talking to strangers. Luka had similar characteristics to Lee. Conversely, he said that he doesn't feel as anxious as Lee when facing uncertainty and doesn't prepare for 'what if' scenarios, approaching situations with more spontaneity.

Language lesson 3

In third language lesson, we learned how to congratulate and love expression. 

Croatian (Luka)

Sretan rođendan = Happy birthday

Volim te = I love you

Swiss German (Patrick)

Härzlichi Glückwünsch zum Geburtstag = Happy birthday 

i ha di gärn = I love you                                     

Korean (Lee)

생일축하합니다=Happy birthday

나는 당신을 사랑합니다 = I love you  

Working with Kluckhohn's Variations in Value Orientations / Language Lesson 2

 

Today was a great day to get some coffee at the Central Station and chat about how well we adapted to the student life in the Netherlands so far. During our coffee break we talked about the financial situations of our representative countries and compared living costs. Unsurprisingly, Switzerland turned out to be the most expensive one. Patrick often gets confronted with people assuming that all Swiss people are simply born rich, although this is not matching reality. Salaries are indeed among the highest in the world, but so are the living costs, which equal out the economic situation in Switzerland.

Although all of our group members live in rather nature dominating cultures, Luka, Patrick and Nils consider their cultures characteristics in view of the relationship to nature as Harmony (live with nature), while Lee defines his culture's characteristics towards nature as Mastery (dominating nature) We found this out by having a closer look at the major cities in South Korea, Croatia, Germany and Switzerland. For example, cities in Switzerland and Croatia focus on harmony and balance of nature by keeping a lot of green spaces in the city center and building around mountains and rivers to sustain the natural environment.  However, cities in South Korea definitely focus more on what benefits the people rather than nature. 

Furthermore, in the case of relationships with people, Luka, Patrick and Nils on the one hand are shaped by individualism. We were all raised with the idea that individual success, materialistic possession and social status are of high importance. Lee, on the other hand, sees his culture formed by collectivism, which means that a sense of belonging and togetherness is valued far higher than individual success, which is called we-oriented. In Europe and North America, where individualistic tendencies are strong, the relationship between ordinary people is horizontal, and in countries in Asia, where collectivism tends to be strong, hierarchy is important.   

Language lesson 2

Once again, we exchanged basic expressions of our languages with the other participants of our group. This time, we learned the following sayings:

Croatian (Luka)

Dobro jutro = Good morning

Dobar dan = Good afternoon

Dobro večer = Good evening

Swiss German (Patrick)

Guete Morge = Good morning

Guete Tag= Good afternoon

Guete Obe = Good evening

Korean (Lee)

좋은 아침입니다 = Good morning

안녕하세요 = Good afternoon / Good evening

German (Nils)

Guten Morgen = Good morning

Guten Tag= Good afternoon

Guten Abend = Good evening

Talking about Hall's six Key Concepts of Cultural Differences/Language Lesson 1

 

Since it was a sunny day in the Netherlands, our blog group decided to have lunch at a picturesque park called De Haagse Bos, which is located near Den Haag Centraal. After lunch we went for a walk to explore the entire park, which offered a little escape from the loud and busy city life. One of the paths led us to a peaceful place in the middle of the park, surrounded by various trees and deers who have been living there in a nature reservation. Nils could not participate the meeting because he visited his family in Berlin, nevertheless he participated our discussions via video call. 

Our group held interesting discussions about all of Hall's six key concepts and it was mindblowing to realize how different our cultures really were. While Luka (Croatia) and Lee (South-Korea) rather consider their cultures to be high context, Nils (Germany) and Patrick (Switzerland) clearly come from a low-context culture, where information flow is defined as explicit, direct and clear. Therfore, we noticed a lot of differences in the way we expressed us. In high-context cultures, saying "today is good weather!" to your friend or family means "Let's go out today!" In low context cultures, this expression simply states that the weather is nice. Soon we realized that reading in between the lines is very important in high context communication. When it comes to low context communication, clear expression and the words itself are more important.

While standing in line for a bus to arrive, we talked about personal space. Hall distinguishes four relationships and their appropriate distances (public, social, personal and intimate space), wich all differ from culture to culture and person to person. We often feel interrupted or disturbed when someone enters our personal space. In high context Asian countries like South Korea, the personal space is usually smaller than in European low context countries like Croatia, Switzerland and Germany. At the bus line we noticed that standing close to others affects Lee less than for instance Luka. 

What genuinely felt true for all our nationalities is a linear timeline of executing tasks. We all like to do one thing at a time and work task-oriented. Plans and schedules are very common in our cultures. We therefore all consider our cultures as monochronic. Hall and Hall defined this as "Compartmentalisation". What we all like about doing tasks monochronic is that it allows us to stay goal oriented and not lose focus at work.

Language Lesson 1

During our first language lesson we all learned to introduce ourselves in one of the languages represented in our group.

Croatian (Luka)

Drago mi je. = Nice to meet you.                                                              

Zovem se... = My name is...                                                                    

Hvala = Thank you.

Swiss German (Patrick)

Freut mi  = Nice to meet you.

I heisse = My name is...                                                                        

Merci = Thank you.

Korean (Lee)

만나서 반갑습니다 = Nice to meet you.                

저의 이름은  = My name is...

고맙습니다 = Thank you.

Why is it important to study Intercultural Communication?

 

We are currently living in the era of globalization. Nowadays, it is easier than ever before in history of mankind to travel around the world or live in a different country, mainly due to major technological advances in the transport and communication system. In addition, more and more businesses are gathering competent people all over the world. Therefore, we are constantly exposed to new languages and cultures. Suddenly, understanding our own culture is not enough anymore. In order to live and work in an intercultural and multilingual environment, which our planet is, it is absolutely necessary to understand the norms and basic assumptions of other cultures as well. 

Communicating with different cultures turns out to be a more challenging task than previously expected. First of all, this can be explained through the fact that every person´s identity is inevitably shaped by their culture. Our culture has a huge impact on the way we communicate and see the world and society around us. It is basically a paradigm that we partly get taught and partly create ourselves through experiences in our childhood, teenage years and adolescence. Furthermore, studying Intercultural Communication helps us getting over cultural barriers. In order to adopt this intercultural sensitive attitude, it is necessary to change our paradigm, the way we see the world around us. 

In conclusion, it is crucial to study Intercultural Communication because we can merge into a more understandable society and get rid of stereotypes in today's world of globalization.

Introduction of Group Members

                 Patrick                           Luka                         Nils                            Lee

Patrick

Born and raised in a small village in Switzerland, I grew up rather isolated in nature, which always played a pivotal role in my life. I am 22 years old and spend most of my free time with physical activities such as football, running, swimming and biking. Furthermore, I like to express my creativity through writing short stories, with the ambition of publishing my own novel one day. Since I grew up in Switzerland, a multilingual country, I have always held a strong interest in language. I am fluent in Swiss German, German and English and also have an advanced knowledge in French, Spanish and Dutch. Last year I moved to San Diego, California to improve my English even further, as I believe that English will also be the number one language in years to come and it will help me a lot in my career.

Luka

My name is Luka, I am 19 years old. I come from Croatia, indeed from the capital Zagreb, also my birthplace. I am the youngest of four children, involving two sisters and two brothers. I speak Croatian, English, French plus a little bit of Spanish and German. During the course of my youthful life I have lived in Romania for four years, in Croatia for six years, in the Netherlands for one year, and in Belgium for nine years. My hobbies consist of playing football and basketball, hiking, windsurfing and supporting my local football club Dinamo Zagreb. In my free time, I also enjoy spending time in the nature, breathing in the fresh air as well as watching football matches.

Lee

My name is Kangwon Lee. I was born in South Korea and I'm 25 years old. My family consists of my parents, my younger brother, and myself. I can speak Korean and English. As soon as I was born, my family moved to Japan because of a doctoral degree of my father. Therefore I was living in Sendai in Japan for five years. However, unfortunately I cannot speak Japanese. Thanks to this experience my parents were not opposed for me to study abroad although my age is not young. My hobbies are watching YouTube and workout.

Nils

My name is Nils Lüdemann, I´m 19 years old and from Berlin, the capital of Germany. I played a lot of Tennis when I was younger, but I am really interested in football and visiting football matches. In addition to that I like to capture my memories on my camera or create short videos. I also have a passion for dogs and that is why me and my family recently got a dog. My father is from France, therefore I speak German, English and French and I learned some Spanish in school. A few years ago I spent one year on Vancouver Island as a school year abroad to make new experiences and improve my English skills.