From: Germany
Individual account
Antarctica, Argentina, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, India, Iran, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet, Vietnam
01/07/2016 - 31/12/2017
478
Just ended my travelling and photography in Vietnam (10th January - 10th February).
www.kulturhybrid.com/vietnam
Currently working at a school in Cambodia (12th February - now).
Read more about my story and the path we are taking.
www.kulturhybrid.com/cambodia
1. Intro {
My name is Oliver and I'm a cultural hybrid. Let me explain:
I was born and raised in Berlin, Germany but my whole family is originally from Poland and migrated to Germany around 35 years ago. My older brother and I grew up in a very multicultural part of Berlin. Since most of our friends were foreigners it was always important to learn about their cultures, including to understand their family traditions and behaviour. Because of my polish roots and traditions, I visited a catholic elementary school for 6 years where I gained the ability to understand and accept religion. I started playing soccer at the age of 7 and played for 10 years. 4 years on a professional youth level at my sport focused high school. This gave me the opportunity to participate in tournaments in Germany and Europe. As a result, I developed a sense of travelling and expanding my horizon.
Going to a multicultural school, travelling with my team, having friends with different cultural backgrounds and maintaining the Polish traditions created a great foundation for my development as the person I am today: a cultural hybrid.}
2. Personality {
People see me as an open minded, very respectful person and a team player as well as a real friend.
My biggest passion is cultural exchange and expression trough creativity.
My interests are travelling, photography and meeting people.
Loyalty, humility, authenticity, kindness, honesty and a lot of humour are very important values in my life.
My core abilities/values are my high level of empathy, adaptability, passion, humour and modesty.
It is very important to me to work with people and exchange on different levels (language, emotions, etc.)
Besides all the seriousness, I'm trying to stay weird, unique and funny. I am very versatile and interested in a lot of different topics. You can talk with me about the funniest things ever but also about some thoughtful and very serious topics. I need a healthy mix of seriousness and silliness in my life and I reject materialism, racism and violence.}
3. Future {
My plans for the next few years:
• I left my work path to focus on improving my social skills and interests in people, cultures, and volunteering.
• I am planning to spend a few month travelling as a volunteer at different projects abroad.
• I would love to travel around the world and do photography about people and culture.
• After a few years abroad I am planning to combine my former creative skills with the skills I'll gain and improve while travelling and volunteering. I am thinking about to create own multicultural brand with the focus on photography, human culture, charity and creative expression.}
4. Business & past {
I finished my last job as a creative in marketing and communications design. In my past, I preferred working on small creative projects and I always chose experience over the money. I am skilled, but I'm not very into my job area anymore. At least not on the business level. I turned my hobby into my job but it's time to bring it back as a hobby and a form of creative expression and focus on different and more important things in life. Since I worked on many start-ups in my past, I have a lot of experience in creating something from zero and work in an unusual way and conditions. The biggest thing I learned is the ability do adapt on my projects within a short amount of time.
Some facts about my past years:
• I did some volunteer as a teenager at kindergarten, hospitals, and aid agencies.
• I started as a Media Designer after I stopped playing soccer at the age of 18.
• I had a leading role in three start-up companies (Advertising 2006, Fitness & Health 2012, Wellness 2016) which are all still in business and I supported 3 creative start-up companies (Technology, Fashion, Art), which are growing healthy.
• I did a sabbatical in 2012 and spent the most time in Poland where I tried to learn more about my polish roots and the culture. It was one of the most important years in my life.
• I travelled to the border of Tibet, where I randomly met some Tibetan monks and I lived with them for 5 days. No English, Chinese or Tibetan. Just basic hand gesture communication. One of the most amazing and challenging moments that happened in my life.
• I went to Morocco for a week and ended up travelling around for one month. My highlight: I lived for 10 days in the Sahara desert without tap water, electricity etc.
• I like drinking wine and dancing :)
"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." - Paulo Coelho
Feel free to contact me.
Have a look at my pictures: www.kulturhybrid.com
(visit the site with your laptop or desktop PC for a better experience)
Gardening
Building
Babysitting / child care
Elderly Care
General Maintenance
Cooking / shopping
Farming
Other
Help with Eco project
Help in the house
Animal care
Helping with Tourists
Charity work
Language practice
Art project
Help with Computers / internet
Teaching
I can work in schools, on farms, with kids, families, in cities, at remote places, at day or night, inside or outside. As a kid, I really enjoyed building and repairing things with my dad. To be honest, I am maybe not a trained craftsman and there is probably a lot of stuff that I have to learn first, but if you show me what and how to do it, I am sure I will learn it very fast. Same with cooking... well I guess the most things :-) I will bring the enthusiasm, passion and adaptability and you the tasks!
I would love to work on social and cultural projects in the countryside and in remote places. And It's very important for me to have a good relationship with my host and other volunteers. Work is fun and an essential part of my journey but the most important thing for me is the cultural exchange. I am looking forward to learning a lot from you!
My business skills (if needed) are: IT Computer, Marketing, Advertising, Design, Photography, Lead, Coordinate, Mentoring, Talk, Consult, Laugh.
German, English, Polish
29
German Passport / Polish Family / International Mind
Smoker
Driver's licence
Allergies
Special dietary requirements
