Many physicists will study or work overseas at some point during their careers. Indeed, the field’s international nature means that even those who remain in their home countries will regularly interact with colleagues from around the globe. While being exposed to new cultures can be enriching, cultural differences can also create challenges for physics graduates who choose to do further study overseas, accept a short-term secondment or research post in another country, or even just attend a foreign conference. Fortunately, the downsides can be minimized with some planning and insider knowledge.

Consider Clive Alabaster, a Norway-based British physicist who is a co-director and consultant at White Horse Radar. His work has taken him to a wide range of countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, South Korea and – while in his former role as a lecturer at the UK’s Cranfield University – Saudi Arabia. Alabaster says that he read up on all of these countries before travelling, but before his Saudi trip, he also sought advice from the university’s international-affairs office and an Arabic-speaking colleague who had previously worked there. From them, he says, “I learned if somebody passes you something, you must accept it in your right hand and pass it right hand to right hand”. At mealtimes, Alabaster adds, you will keep being offered food in Saudi Arabia until you decline it. “It’s perfectly okay to decline, but if you have accepted it onto your plate you should finish it,” he says.

Speaking the language

Alabaster also recommends learning at least some of the local language when working abroad, even if your working language is English. “If you can say ‘please’, ‘yes’ and ‘thank you’, people will look very kindly on that,” he explains. But as with most things, the more you put into studying a language, the more you will get out. Erik Lucero, an American-born physicist who is now a research scientist at HRL Laboratories in the US, served as the “international ambassador” for his PhD research group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He says that as well as boosting his language skills, classes in basic Japanese “helped prime me for the culture” before he travelled to Japan to promote the group’s research at the country’s RIKEN institute. By talking to colleagues who had worked in Japan, Lucero also discovered that having business cards is “a big deal” there because that is how people exchange details. In the US, he adds, “I wouldn’t have ever thought of needing them, especially as a graduate student.”

Some communication differences are less easily dealt with. Elizabeth Tasker is a physicist at Hokkaido University in Japan, and has previously worked in Canada and the US after studying in her native UK. In contrast to people in these other countries, who typically nod their heads to signal agreement and understanding, Tasker notes that “Japanese people nod and smile to show they are listening, but they may not be understanding anything. This leads to many misunderstandings and strange conversations.” She advises that anyone who comes to work in Japan from overseas should “be prepared to roll with the mistakes”, adding,”You will be misunderstood so you always need a plan B!”

When in Rome…

Another way to maximize your effectiveness is to look out for, and adapt to, differences in working practices. For example, after discovering that Norway’s working hours are shorter than the UK’s, Alabaster says that he now avoids arranging meetings there before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. Management styles can also differ widely. Sylvi Händel, a postdoctoral researcher in physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has previously worked in Australia and studied in the UK, has experienced this first-hand. In her native Germany, she says, “When you have done something wrong or not completed a task…people are very direct and will tell you. In the UK, people will rather suggest an alternative idea to you, so it is a totally different approach.”

Keep in mind though that some differences that you encounter will be personal rather than cultural. When it comes to business negotiations, “Aggressive, passive, hard-working, lazy, selfish, constructive, honest and devious approaches exist everywhere,” says John Hassard, a UK-born physicist at Imperial College London, who has founded companies in Qatar and Bahrain. Hassard, who is currently based in Qatar, but has also worked in the US, Japan and Switzerland, advises finding out about any specific procedures relevant to the country you are working in before starting business negotiations. Otherwise, though, he recommends treating everyone the same.

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Social interactions

For Händel, the biggest cultural challenge of working abroad is meeting and making friends with people outside of the work environment. “I usually deal with the problem by joining a local sport or hobby group,” she says, adding that it is “helpful to engage in watching the ‘national sport’ with colleagues, just to get in touch with people”. Similarly, Lucero connected with colleagues in the physics lab he visited at China’s Zhejiang University by inviting them to play the tile game mah-jong, which is, he explains, “very culturally relevant to the Chinese”.

Social differences are more numerous than professional ones, according to Riccardo Sturani, an Italian-born physicist who is currently on a four-year research contract at the Universidade Estadual Paulista in Sõo Paulo, Brazil. A veteran observer of cultural differences, Sturani has studied in Italy and France, and worked as a postdoc in Finland, Switzerland and Italy before moving to Brazil. He says that Finland gave him the biggest cultural shock because it took more time to get to know people there. “In Finland, people tend to interact less with you on a human level because they don’t want to invade your privacy,” he says. “It’s because of their natural shyness and their way to show respect and consideration for you.”

As challenging as working overseas can be, many physicists find it well worth the effort. “Of course it’s hard to jump-start a new life in a new city,” Sturani says. “You don’t even know where to shop for food, let alone who to go out with at the weekend. But you usually know your colleagues already because you’ve met them at conferences, and I like the challenge and excitement of learning new languages and being part of a different culture.” There can be professional advantages as well. Although he has never lived outside the US, Lucero says that he feels “very fortunate to have been able to go abroad and see how other people in the world do great physics”. He adds “For my own growth as a scientist, seeing the slight differences in their approach to the work was very important for me to reflect on and I’ve tried to integrate these different approaches into how I work now.”