Hello and Moin!
As a multilingual academic with a flair for the theatrical, I am here to educate and inspire you. Drop me a line if you’re interested in a direct cooperation or if I can assist you with your language and culture needs.
Podcast: Language and Culture with Dr.J
The Lia Experiment
Description
This episode starts off a one-year challenge with Lia, who would like to improve her English. Lia is a 40-year-old German HR manager, and she feels held back in her career because of her deficiencies in English.
cultureum.com @cultureumdrj
Third Culture Kid, Kyle Akins, and the Sociocultural Effects of Multiculturalism
Description
Recorded before a live audience at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, this episode kicks off Season 5 of the podcast and starts a discussion about the many sociocultural aspects of multiculturalism. In this episode, I speak with Kyle Akins, the son of a US-American diplomat and a Japanese mother. Kyle has already lived in 8 countries around the world, although he is only 19 years old. The interview looks at how Kyle views his international upbringing, hones in on his social and individual development in this multicultural context, and explores his personal experiences in the various countries.
cultureum.com @cultureumdrj Linkedin: Dr. Henriette J. Runte
Music Speaks – with conductor Mercedes Días Garcia and composer Juan José Colomer
Description
An intimate chat with two brilliant musicians about the meaning and the development of contemporary music. Filled with personal anecdotes and examples, this episode brings you into the world of a composer and that of a conductor, and allows you to hear how they approach the art of communicating through music.
Students from the Sophie-Barath-Schule on Language, Culture, and their Lives
Description
The students from a private Catholic school in Hamburg, Germany speak about the role of culture in their every-day lives – from the food they eat to the languages they speak. Each stemming from a different cultural background, the students offer insight into what it means to be mono, bi, or multicultural.
sophie-barat-schule.de cultureum.com @cultureumdrj Linkedin: Dr. Henriette J. Runte
Although the bulk of the podcast episodes is in English, I believe in promoting all languages, and I bring you occasional interviews in German, French, Spanish, and Hungarian.
BOOKS
The power of the written word is something I discovered at a very early age, and I have been using it and developing it for a good part of my life. Through my books, you find out about the many facets of the woman that I am today. I bring you different genres, and I show you how there is a book for every occasion!
Literature can enrich every aspect of our lives, and this is something I can nurture in you as well!
DESCRIPTION
In Life with Coach Pop, Henriette Javorek takes her teenage novella and responds to it as a grown woman. She juxtaposes the vivid impressions of her childhood with her adult views and commentaries about her father’s immigration. Life with Coach Pop is by turns emotional, philosophical, and humorous. It is innocence revisited and history told through personal memories.
In 1982, while at an international competition in West Germany, national Olympic weightlifting coach, István Javorek defected, leaving behind his wife and only daughter in a country still under the control of the Ceausescu dictatorship. Separated for over two and a half years, the family was reunited in the United States. Seven months after coming to the US, Henriette Javorek, then 12 years old, wrote a little novella that traced her family’s journey from Transylvania to Texas and depicted with great naiveté and emotion the dramatic events and hardships surrounding this turning point in her life.
DESCRIPTION
We Fade to Green explores a family’s struggle to come to terms with cultural differences. It tackles the question of how we grow old, and it offers a beautiful alternative to how life could be, with the answers hidden in our front yard! Written from the perspective of Margit, a highly perceptive and mischievous middle child, We Fade to Green is a humorous, emotional and imaginative modern-day fairy tale that is sure to entertain and touch young and old alike.
When Margit’s Transylvanian grandparents no longer manage to live on their own, they move in with their daughter and her family in the US. Throw in three kids of different ages and a black cat, and you might think you’ve figured out the story. But We Fade to Green will surprise you and take you on a family adventure that will both tickle your funny bones and pull on your heartstrings.
BIOGRAPHY
Having been born in Romania to Hungarian parents who later moved to the USA, I was destined to learn multiple languages.
My early childhood was spent in the Carpathian Basin, where I picked up Hungarian, Romanian, and a little Russian. During my teenage years in Texas, I was introduced to English, French, and Latin, but continued to speak Hungarian at home. My affinity with France intensified while I completed a PhD in French Literature and could take advantage of extended stays in the Hexagone. During my college years, I learned Spanish through close friendships with Latin American exchange students.
Theater and literature have always tied together my love of languages and cultures, and I have been writing and performing from a very early age.
My academic career has allowed me to gain 30 years of teaching experience from working at universities around the world. I have also been active as a communications consultant, both in the private and the corporate sectors.
Hamburg, Germany has been my home since 2001. I am married to a German anesthesiologist and we have three wonderful children together. Since 2008, I have been the Academic Head of Modern Languages at the university here, in Hamburg.
In 2020, I created CULTUREUM to share the expertise I have gathered over the years, to further delve into questions of effective communication and identity, and to channel my creativity through speaking and writing.
SERVICES
PRIVATE AND CORPORATE
COACHING
- Enhancing Language and Communications Skills, be it in your mother tongue or in a foreign language
- Developing Sensitivity for Global Communication
- Team Building and the Written Word
- Burnout Avoidance and Creativity
PUBLIC APPEARANCES
(in person or digital)
- Cooperations with cultural and educational organizations
- Literary readings
- Speeches and lectures
- Conference moderator, presenter, host
- School visits
PLEASE CONTACT ME FOR AN INDIVIDUAL OFFER
info@cultureum.com
Cultureum 