Course content

ʺWhen yes means no! (or yes or maybe)ʺ, a book by Laurence Brahm on doing business in China, alerts us to the pitfalls of communication in an alien culture. In the era of globalisation, the need for intercultural communication competence is key to success in public, private and professional life. How do we survive and succeed when we want to do business in East Asia? How do we communicate effectively within a different culture? How do we develop empathy within an alien cultural context? How do we cope with cultural differences? Our fieldwork courses explore practical and theoretical approaches to intercultural communication competence. Multi cultural Singapore servers as an example for approaches to intercultural competence. Using Singapore as a platform for fieldwork and total immersion in the East Asian cultural context, we shall investigate, explore, and practise intercultural communication competence with a focus on Singapore, the Chinese world and global issues.

Course structure 

Our fieldwork courses are taught as block seminars in Singapore during the Autumn Break, preceded by kick off sessions and preliminary meetings in St. Gallen and followed by debriefing sessions.

The course is structured in such a way that it combines lectures, field research and insights from experts. Students will work in teams to research in the field and present their research in the end in front of the class.

Read here about last year’s course. 

For further information and to find out when the next course takes place, please refer to the course information sheet on the HSG website under course directory.  

Application procedure 

The course is open to all Master programs of the University of St.Gallen. The course will be held during the midterm autumn break in Singapore. There are a total of 21 seats available, which will be assigned trough official bidding. For further information, please approach  Prof. Dr. Daria Berg directly.