SIETAR stands for the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research. It is the world's largest interdisciplinary network for professionals working in the intercultural field.

ELC's goal is to help you and your organization succeed in Bulgaria and enjoy your stay

Whether you are relocating or traveling internationally, selling to customers in Bulgaria or simply working in a diverse business environment, our cross-cultural program will help you bridge the cultural gap. Let us help you avoid the pitfalls and costly misunderstandings of intercultural communication with our effective cross-cultural services.

A working knowledge of the basic character of Bulgarian culture will minimize unpleasant surprises (culture shock). Our program will give you insights in advance and enable you to interact successfully. By focusing on the cultural roots of national behavior, both in society and business, you can foresee and calculate, with a surprising degree of accuracy, how others will react to your plans and make certain assumptions as to how they will approach you.

Areas of study include cultural characteristics, values and beliefs, business etiquette, communication and negotiation styles, effective management, routines of daily life, and many other topics (like finding a decent restaurant!).

Our Clients about us

Debra McFarland, former USAID Mission Director for Bulgaria:

"We signed up a course entitled The Bulgarian Wine Culture. This is one of the cross-cultural learning opportunities offered by ELC. This is a small company made up of bilingual adult learning specialists, ethnographers, and nature protection specialists with a love and knowledge of Bulgarian culture.

We spent a couple of hours learning about the importance of wine in Bulgaria's culture through music, dance and food. Then, we put our new knowledge into practice at Vinaria with the help of ELC's wine expert. We tasted some truly great wines and met some wonderful people. Now, when I open a bottle of good Bulgarian red wine, I know a little more about Bulgarian history and culture and know what to look for in a good Mavrud, Gamza and Misket.

It was truly an enjoyable experience and I would encourage others to participate in future cross cultural programs offered by ELC."

Joel Froese, MBA Enterprise Corp

I found ELC's cross cultural programs to be the single most valuable part of our cultural training. Svetlana and her staff are exceptionally knowledgeable and tremendously helpful. I am convinced that-in some ways-we learned more about Bulgaria than some lifelong residents of Sofia. Rural Bulgaria really is different than the cities, and unless you have a facilitator like ELC, you simply will not get a flavor for or an understanding of the country as a whole.

Best of all, most of the learning occurred as part of our excursions-it was actually fun! Each trip and associated activities were carefully planned; itineraries & briefing material were emailed to us ahead of time, but thankfully formal presentations were kept to a minimum. Instead, informal discussions and debriefings along the way proved to be just as effective and more engaging.

Some of the more memorable experience I had were: seeing life in several small towns south of Sofia, visiting and having lunch with a nearly self-sufficient farming couple, a nature hike in Rila National Park, meeting park official and hearing about his challenges in the operation of the park. I enjoyed our hands-on Bulgarian cooking lessons, and a hike in the magnificent Rila Mountains with our very own botanist (Dimitrina-ELC co-founder.) On our visit to the renowned Rila Monastery and associated religious and cultural sites we had discussions along the way about Bulgarians' attitude toward religion which was extremely insightful.

I highly recommend the services of ELC Ltd. for anyone doing business in Bulgaria or staying for an extended time.

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