Cultural Orientation 101

It can be hard to know what is polite to say to people from other cultures. How do we greet one another? Is it polite to interact physically? Does this person's culture consider drinking a taboo?

All of these questions are fair to ask, and we specialize in knowing these kinds of details. Here at IRC, we interact with people from a wide variety of cultures, and have navigated these same questions ourselves in the office and during outreach to these communities. Interacting with different people always requires that we remain aware of our assumptions, and that we keep tact and patience in mind as we get to know one another.

Below are some images of the countries where many of our clients come from. To learn more about their customs and to understand some basic etiquette, click on the country below.