Joe Lurie

Berkeley, CA

My two decades as Executive Director of UC Berkeley’s International House – a residential/cultural center for more than 500 students and scholars from over 80 countries – helped propel a retirement of teaching and writing.

In my encore, I’ve been volunteering as a career and intercultural coach for immigrants and university students. I have also offered cross-cultural communications training to a variety of organizations and audiences, from Google, American Express to Linkedin and the World Affairs Council – much of it based on my recent book,  Perception And Deception, A Mind-Opening Journey Across Cultures.

Writing in the book about close encounters of a cross-cultural kind among UC Berkeley International House residents from Turkey to Texas and from Thailand to Togo has been a delight, revealing: why there are footprints on toilet seats, why many international students are confused by Americans smiling at strangers, and why an Italian mistook his Sikh roommate for Jesus Christ. I realized why my Kenyan friends didn’t “invite” me to their homes when I was a Peace Corps volunteer or why I thought I was smelling lions when there were none nearby.

Writing the book took new directions as I mentored highly-skilled job seekers from other countries. Many were unable to land jobs because of cultural disconnects during interviews: misunderstandings about eye contact, firm handshakes and highlighting one’s accomplishments.

Helping recent immigrants to understand confusing aspects of the job search culture in the United States has often permitted them to secure employment and maintain their dignity in a strange new land. Through the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning in Berkeley and the Fromm Institute in San Francisco, I have taught retirees about miscommunications and misperceptions across cultures, especially in a globalizing world, bringing fresh insights and a renewed joy in learning. One couple, from two different cultural backgrounds, approached me after a class saying, “Now after 40 years of marriage, we finally understand each other!”

The seeds of my encore experiences begun in 2008 were planted almost 50 years ago when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya. There I was jolted into an awareness of cultural differences which later inspired a 40-year career promoting intercultural understanding, followed by a desire in retirement to continue learning and sharing what I had learned with new audiences.

In the United States in particular, there is, I believe, an undue emphasis on youth, newness and immediate satisfaction. Here, the word “old” has negative connotations, whereas in most parts of the world, “old” is a term of veneration. And while we of “a certain age” have much to learn from youth, especially in the worlds of technology, I have found that young people, when given the chance to interact with older workers, often hunger for the lessons and skills of long experience.