Bienvenue! Bienvenido! Bem-Vindo! Welcome to my blog, a place where I would like to share my musings and learnings on everything culture and connectivity. “What kind of culture?” you might ask. Great question! The word “culture” conjures up very personal connotations and can differ person to person, situation to situation. In this case, I am going to focus primarily on national, ethnic and perhaps some regional culture, but not to be too limiting, may weave in pieces of the arts as well, especially where there is a connection, which there most often is!

So who am I and why would I have anything to say about said subject? My name is Beth Barich, and I like to consider myself a “culturalist” or “culturalista”. As you may have noticed from the welcome above, I love foreign languages and use any opportunity to speak or write in them. The order I chose to write them is of significance to me – perhaps I should elaborate.

The first is French or “Français” which is the language in which I first began to explore cultures outside of my own American, primarily Midwestern, upbringing. As a child growing up in Indiana and for a bit in Tennessee, I loved the way the French language sounded and could not wait until I could officially start studying it in school. It proved to be well beyond worth the wait, and I continued it through junior high and high school and all through college.

I wasn’t satisfied by speaking, reading and writing it in a classroom – no, I had to experience it in connection with the French people. So, instead of spending my first few months of legal drinking age at college bars in beautiful Bloomington, IN, where most “normal” American 21 year olds would have preferred, I went off to France to drink wine, eat cheese and croissants, and experience “la vie à la français”.

Wow, was it an experience! However, in addition to getting a world class study abroad education in international business and French at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Rouen (now NEOMA Business School), I found myself living in a laboratory of cross-cultural communication, nuances and controlled chaos. I lived in a dormitory with not only French university students, but other exchange students from Spain, Mexico, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, the UK and about 10 other countries. We spoke multiple languages, usually united either in French, English or sometimes “Franglais”, and learned to share space, meals, conversation and usually drinks together. I was not with Spaniards, Brits, Mexicans and Germans, but other twentysomething students who dreamed of, worried about and longed for the same things I did. We were all just kids, all of our cultures neither wrong nor right, just different. I LOVED it and never felt more at home and like myself in my whole life. I was hooked! Cross-cultural chaos…SIGN ME UP! It was there in the Fall of 1996 in Pavillon Ango in Rouen, France, that an interculturist and cross-cultural communicator was born. I had the fever and I had it bad.

Since then, I’ve had numerous other significant cross-cultural, or rather intercultural, experiences in my personal and professional life. I would like to some of share those and what they’ve taught me with you, those who are interested in learning and sharing and connecting about culture. I would be honored to spend time with you here, musing and gazing at culture through multiple lenses.

Merci, or thank you, for visiting, and I hope you will join me back here to find out why “Bienvenue” led to “Bienvenido”.

A bientôt! Until we meet again…

My name is Beth Barich and I am an avid interculturalist, change management, organizational development and learning professional. I built my experience through roles at management consulting firms including A.T. Kearney and Andersen Business Consulting (formerly Arthur Andersen) as well as financial services firms both in the U.S. and abroad. I have lived and/or worked abroad in Europe, Asia and South America; speak French and Spanish; and, am learning Portuguese. Currently located in Indianapolis, I work in international relations in concert with the U.S. Department of State, developing programs for emerging world leaders, and with global organizations on improving intercultural communication. I hold my Master of Science degree in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University and Bachelor of Science degree from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Additionally, I have received a certificate in “Leadership Across Cultures”, a global leadership development program.