09+Golden+rules

** Exchange as many addresses as possible (email, snailmail, telephone, etc) **
International project work is about trust and trust has to grow. So bare that in mind when ever you are contacting your partner(s). You live apart, can’t visit each other easely so all you have are the long distance communication tools. So if you can’t reach somebody by e-mail it is nice but also very necessary to be able to make contact through another communication system. Specially over the summer when a lot of schanges in education take place (people change jobs, or position in the school; people fall ill or are absent for a longer period. Therefor exchange as many addresses as posible and make an agreement that if one way does not work that you are allowed to use other ways as well, just to make sure the contact is there, is stable and is certain.



**Always reply on inquiries!** Sending an e-mail without getting a reply is in most cases mortal for the future cooperation. It makes you or your partner insecure. You ask yourself the question: What is happening? Did my partner receiv my message? Did I do something wrong? Etc. So second golden rule is: always reply! Even if you dont have time to reply to the questions and/or issues, then just reply that you have recieve the e-mail, that you are busy at the moment but that you will be back with the answers soon or within a week, or ... etc. But always reply!

**Be aware of cultural differences** Although in Europe we have lives that look alike very much there are still often more differences then we might imagine. So be aware of that. Always ask yourself additional question working in international project work. Did I understand this right? What did I understand? Do I think I understood it realy? Asking yourself these questions might help you to realize that sometime you tend to see things from a different perspective, from a different frame of m ind, due to different circumstances during our lives, differences in culture, in habbits, etc. Humor and some guestures have some nice examples. What for one person might be a complement, could turn out for another person (with another cultural background) to be an insult and vise verca.

**Netiquette** Writing e-mails has become one of the most used way of communication. It is cheap, reliable, quick, distances don't matter anymore, etc. But e-mail also can be imposing. You receive one and you feel the urge of replying straight away. E-mails not directly reply on also have the rics of dissapearing. When you receive a lot of e-mails it might interrupt your working process. On the other hand e-mail tend to be shorter and shorter. So be aware of that when you write an e-mail. It is alway a written way of communication. So what in a normal communication process is obvious (like body language, the tone of your voice), you miss in this writing way. Receiving an e-mail have the same ideas in mind. You may not like the tone of the mail, it might by a bit offending. But if so, take your time (sleep on it) before writing back in an equal way. This might hurt your relationship. Tel this you students too. Young people have a tendency to write things without realizing the consequences. You might (especially in the beginning of your poject) check the mail before they are sent out, or even better you collect them and sent them (after checking).

**Set deadlines and keep to them** It is frustrating if your partner does not keep his or her word, by not respecting the deadlines set by both of you. So when you sent deadlines, make sure that they are realistic so you can keep them. It is all about building up a trustfull relationship.

**Make arrangements on the tools used** Although it might be obvious for you to use certain tools, always check if that is what your partner understood as well. I remember one of my first projects a misunderstanding here. We agreed on sending files at a certain date. Form e it was obvious that these where Word files, but instead i recieves Publisher files. It was not a big deal, but I was surprised.

**Invest time and energy to understand each other** As said before: it takes time to understand each other and you need time to build a relationship. So take this time and work on it. It makes a sound bases for the future.

**Don’t be afraid to ask!** It is always better to ask twice and be sure then to get misunderstood.