This paper deals with the interaction between hard and soft factors in the field of international co-operation. The training modules presented range from personnel recruitment and online support to re-integration and intercultural knowledge management.

The effectiveness of multi-cultural advertising depends on the extent to which the message is understood in other cultures. Successful international advertising presumes a knowledge of the specific social, cultural and communicative conditions in foreign countries.

This paper considers the role played by cultural differences in advertising reception and customer behaviour in Hungary and (West)Germany. With the help of examples from the field of marketing, values, norms, customs, taboos and the role of language and stereotypes in advertising are discussed in order to show how these elements of culture influence the content and design of advertisements.

As small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increasingly become global players, it might be felt that they are disadvantaged interculturally in comparison to large companies. But their typical all-rounders (rather than specialists) have advantages in dealing with a relationship- rather than task-oriented culture, and disadvantages of size can be offset by networking and synergy.

This article presents data of face-to-face communication in intercultural training. Besides teaching culture-specific knowledge, training in intercultural communication typically aims at promoting, for instance, awareness, understanding, a change in perspectives and attitudes, and the relativisation of judgements. These efforts to develop transcultural points of view take place within the dynamics of moral communication such as assessing and stereotyping. All teaching activities are likely to elicit moral contexts and have to take these into account. Useful hints for conducting educational dialogue for successful intercultural learning can be extracted from the results of conversation analysis.

Sati ("suttee", or Indian widow-burning) has been a highly sensitive subject in the debate on cultural relativism. In this essay, sati is approached from three directions - as an Indian religious and cultural phenomenon; as a Western discourse, supposedly a proof of Hindu backwardness and cruelty; and as it has been viewed by Indian feminists.

This article examines intercultural communication between Philippine and German colleagues in development cooperation projects in the Philippines.
In interviews, Filipinos and Germans were asked about their perception of cultural differences between the two cultures. The analysis of the interviews as well as selected case studies brings to light some of the underlying causes of problems in the intercultural communication in day-to-day work in development cooperation in the Philippines.
In conclusion, the article suggests ways in which to improve intercultural communication between Filipinos and Germans.