Immanuel Valpapuram

"After few weeks of being regular at International Citizen Hub Lund, I was able to understand various aspects of Sweden and its culture by learning the language. This helped me to appreciate cultural differences and made it easier to cope with new ideas and communicate with native speakers. Thus, it helped me to gain a network of nice people for life."

Adapting to a new culture could be difficult, as an international arriving in Lund. I can say that International Citizen Hub Lund (ICHL) made my life easier as they quote "Your home away from home".

The dark side of cultural differences was minimized dramatically through transparent and voluntary drop-in meetings. I had the opportunity to meet interesting international people and ICHL volunteers as well. I felt at home whenever I attended drop-in meetings, I also had the opportunity to meet with Swedes and I made good friends.

Delighted with information

Speakers and participants at International Citizen Hub Lund always delighted me with loads of information whether it be technical, professional or personal like a few to mention, Ideon Breakfast, Tax Agency, School Curriculum, University Curriculum, SFI Courses, Job fairs, Indian shops, etc., and encouraged me to start learning Swedish.

After few weeks of being a regular at International Citizen Hub Lund, I was able to understand various aspects of Sweden and its culture by learning the language. This helped me to appreciate cultural differences and made it easier to cope with new ideas and communicate with native speakers. Thus, it helped me to gain a network of nice people for life.

Just ask and seek support

I also understood that Sweden culture is built on trust-based values, hence thus by expanding our network we also trust those we bring into our network. Consequently I started to get to know several people through clubs, meet-ups, job fairs, workshops, parks, etc. In fact, I asked many questions to learn and also get help from various people whenever I needed, thus I suggest just ask and seek support from Swedes and other internationals those in similar situations, which will be beneficial too. There are nice people around to help you with good piece bits of information. Also share your experience and culture. Volunteering at International Citizen Hub Lund or other organizations will also help to you connect to with a new community.

As I am an open-minded person, it helped me in many ways whenever I travel internationally. So I recommend to maintain an open mind to face various challenges that one may experience. It can help to learn and discover new challenges and deal with what you never thought that you would face but this that will help broaden your vision.

Developed new skills and felt energetic

Being open minded person in a new place, we pushes us ourselves out of comfort zone despite of liking it or not. We subsequently developed new skills like increased confidence, flexibility, and responsibility and felt energetic. Importantly one should avoid negative thoughts as this will only complicate after few weeks.

This was the most relevant and linking fact for me to be at International Citizen Hub Lund. On the very first day I was well-connected to the people around.

There are several programs conducted at International Citizen Hub Lund through by great volunteering work and from the employees that comprises create of seminars, workshops, mentoring and Kick-Start Program to mention. It was immense pleasure being part of Kick-Start Program, I like to thank ICHL for the most wonderful series of sessions, and it was fruitful and amazing time for me along with other participants.

Interesting speakers

I had the opportunity to meet interesting speakers: Christina Rundcrantz from BBi Communications. I thoroughly enjoyed her talk about workplace culture in both Sweden and Denmark. It stimulated me to understand better the differences that exist between the two countries, just across the bridge!

Another profitable talk was about Interview tips by Marie Sandman from Nora Talent Sourcing. She was fabulous and helpful not only to me but also to many of the participants that benefited through KSP. It was a unique experience that enabled me to understand the job market and I discovered how I can create a network.

Get the confidence to deal with challenges

In an increasingly multi-culture city like Lund, through International Citizen Hub Lund we can expand our network and get the confidence to deal with numerous of challenges. The various lectures on updated diverse topics, provides an opportunity to listen to distinguished guest speakers. Also, one can get chance to learn leadership skills by serving as a volunteer.

We can thoroughly enjoy and feel proud of being part of International Citizen Hub Lund. This service organization which aims to share information in order to conquer your dream, achieve your agendas, helps you to grow uninterruptedly and learn from everybody. It also helps you to recognize how you can identify new peers and reach out to them. your peers, Along with helping to identify recognize you as a valuable expert and a treasured asset to for anyone. They also and helps to provide you an with eye-opening ideas and solutions to generate faster in brilliantly achieve your tasks, helps to generate an environment where everybody is encouraged to ask questions; last but not least, through the hub you can act faster and smarter as you get easier access to a lot of numerous information, guidelines and support.

/ Immanuel Valpapuram

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