"Your expertise on the culture of our host country prepared us extremely well for our posting."
DRA, participant
DRA, participant
"I had no idea that the same situation can be interpreted differently by people from other cultures. Thanks for opening my eyes!"
Winkels Akademie, participant
Winkels Akademie, participant
"I now feel confident that I can handle cultural differences on my overseas posting. Thank you and well done!"
Nokia, participant
Nokia, participant
"Your trainer managed to teach us practical skills rather than just awareness. I highly recommend it."
Guardian, participant
Guardian, participant
"We now understand what drives different behaviour and how to adapt to it."
City of Port Phillip, Participant
City of Port Phillip, Participant
"Your pre-departure training is a must for anyone relocating to another culture."
Corning Inc., Participant
Corning Inc., Participant
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Cultura FrancaABN 74 865 959 747www.culturafranca.com.au training@culturafranca.com.auTel. (03) 93975409
ABN 74 865 959 747www.culturafranca.com.au training@culturafranca.com.auTel. (03) 93975409Portfolio
Principal Consultants Profile
Lena Belin
Managing Director
Lena Belin is the founder of intercultural consultancy and training company CULTURA FRANCA. She is an experienced intercultural trainer and consultant and a University teacher with over eleven years training experience internationally and in Australia.
Lena spent five years working in Russia for international government and non-government organisations and in the corporate and academic sectors, providing cultural awareness, cultural competence as well as target culture trainings. She has trained and advised on cultural competence development with companies such as Mercedes, Siemens, Corning Inc., the Goethe Institut and the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation. Lena has lived and worked as an expatriate in various countries across Europe and in Australia and speaks English, Russian and German on a professional translator level and fluent French.
She has taught at Melbourne, Monash and RMIT Universities in their Language & Culture streams. At Melbourne University Lena is undertaking a government sponsored research project at PhD level in the area of cultural identity development. She has published on cultural identity and cultural exchange and is an experienced conference speaker. She is being interviewed regularly on cultural competence for magazines such as BRW, NAB Business review and Australian School of Business magazine.
Lena holds two qualifications at Master level – a Master of Education with specialisation in Intercultural Training as well as a Master of Translation studies. She also holds International Post-Graduate Teaching Certification and is a NAATI accredited translator.
Lena’s approach to intercultural training is to deliver comprehensive learning outcomes while providing course participants with the practical skills they need. Her training is interactive, with real-life and up to date case studies and follows adult and situated learning principles.
Edward Belin
Manager Training Services
Edward Belin is the co-founder of intercultural consultancy and training company CULTURA FRANCA. He is a highly experienced intercultural educator and consultant with over 15 years training, research, consulting and policy development experience in the educational sector in Australia.
Edward spent five years working as an Education Officer and an accredited Defence Force Linguist in the Australian Defence Force, undertaking national educational policy and research projects and overseeing the training efforts of several Defence Force units.
He has extensive training and consulting experience for the Federal, State and Local Government Education Departments, delivering training, research and consulting services all over Australia. He specialises in cultural awareness training for Federal Government organisations as well as in pre- departure trainings. His work in the ADF and for Federal and State Governments gives him in-depth understanding of departments’ requirements with regards to training standards, deliverables and outcomes in cultural competence training.
Edward is completing a Master of Education and holds a Bachelor of Science degree and is a TAA04 qualified trainer and assessor. He is also an accredited Defence Force Linguist for Russian and speaks German.
His approach to intercultural training is to balance theoretical with practical knowledge while delivering enjoyable learning experiences to all participants.