Cross-Cultural Communication Through Food
ATYORA creates hosted cultural dinners for multicultural company teams in Germany: a host from another culture cooks, sits at the table and shares the story behind the food.
Food improves cross-cultural communication at work because a shared meal gives colleagues an easy, personal reason to ask each other questions. In a multicultural team, colleagues bring different languages, habits and ways of speaking to work. Good communication in such a team means understanding the people behind different perspectives, not only exchanging information. A meal gives that understanding a relaxed, low-pressure starting point.
Food Opens the Conversation
At an ATYORA Cultural Dinner, a traditional dish is the first thing that makes colleagues curious about one another. Guests can ask the host where a dish comes from, who taught them to prepare it and when it is served at home. A question about food is easy to ask, even for colleagues who rarely speak to each other in the office. The host shares the story behind the menu at the table, and open conversation with the whole team follows. Guests meet a culture through a person and a dish, rather than through a presentation about it.
From Culture to Connection
At ATYORA's dinners, cross-cultural communication grows from a shared experience rather than from instruction. When colleagues hear the memory behind a dish or the tradition it belongs to, they begin to see each other beyond job titles and departments. A relaxed table makes it easier for colleagues to ask questions, compare experiences and notice what they have in common. Employees join the dinner as guests while the host does the cooking, and anyone who wants to can help with the final steps of the meal. No colleague is asked to speak for their own country or background.
How the Dinner Supports Communication
ATYORA brings its Cultural Dinner to company teams in Berlin, Hamburg and Rostock. Each dinner can be hosted in German, English or both, so colleagues who do not share a first language can follow the whole conversation. Persian cuisine is among the menus available from the start, and menus from Turkey, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Syria and other countries are joining soon. A hosted dinner creates room for the kind of conversation that rarely happens in a meeting room.
Where Communication Begins
Communication in a multicultural team does not have to start in a meeting, and ATYORA's Cultural Dinner starts it at a shared table instead. A shared table is an easy place to begin, because food gives every colleague something to ask about. Food opens the conversation, and the host's story gives it meaning.
Moments worth gathering around.
Ask about a pilot experience at atyora.com.