China is the top expat destination followed by the U.S., UK, Singapore and Switzerland, survey reveals.
China is ranked as the top destination for international assignees in the annual Global Relocation Trends report from from Brookfield Global Relocation Services. In second place was the United States followed by the UK, Singapore and Switzerland.
China was also ranked as the top emerging destination followed by India and Russia.
China presents greatest challenges
Paradoxically, China was seen as presenting the greatest challenges to both international assignment managers and assignees due to the difficulty in finding suitable homes and schools, accessing medical care, immigration formalities, tax compliance, communication and knowledge of international regulations, the remoteness of the destinations and increasing costs. India ranked second and Russia third in terms of presenting the greatest relocation challenges.
The survey of 180 multinational firms reveals a significant move by companies to control costs with the number one relocation challenge being the overall cost of assignments, followed by finding suitable candidates and controlling policy exceptions.
Donna Marsh is a business woman and cultural awareness trainer specialising in many fields. Over her 30 year professional career she has visited more than 140 countries. As a strue globe-trotter this has given her a great insight into the field of interculturalcommunication, awareness and skills.
Now this experience has translated itself into a new publication entitled “Yanks in Blighty”. As the title suggests the book is aimed at Americans moving, working or living in the UK who are looking for a better understanding of their new environment and the natives.
Review:
Having readthe book we are pleased to offer a glowing review and thoroughly recommend it to our readers. The one major factor that sticks out in the book is how much ground is covered in terms of topics. Donna leaves no stones unturned in her examination of what the UK is, where it is and how it is. We are given quick, informative facts on subjects such as the present situation the country is in, the Royal Family, government, the cultural diversity of the population, language, transport, housing, health care and of course the weather. In short this book contains probably everything anyone would ever need when moving to the country.
As well as the fantastic details, the book also offers the reader answers to questions they were probably thinking but most authors never thought to answer. Although it may sound trivial, knowing how a washing machine works, how the rubbish (or should I say trash?) is collected and when the sales start are all little things people really do need to know.
The book wins in a lot of ways due to its focus. As it is targetted at Americans specifically wanting to understand the UK it allows the author the luxury on concentrating on what they want to know and specific areas of concern for Americans (rather than some other nationality).
Excerpt:
“As a rule, the British are likely to overlook or at least keep silent about most social behaviour that they do not approve of. Queue jumping a notable exception.”
Where to buy?
You can buy the book by clicking the link below to Amazon or at any decent online bookstore. The ISBN is 978-1-906710-37-8.
The British are known culturally for many things, one of them “reserve”. Reserve relates to the general disinclination to show emotion, feelings or to act in any way that could be viewed as slightly off-centre. The cultural concept heavily correlated with the sense of privacy the British hold.
As a result of British reserve you will note that language is heavily tempered and gestures are restrained. Neutrality and diplomacy in communication are seen as necessary components of courtesy. British reserve does not mean that Brits are boring, lifeless and unemotional. It simply means that in British society people are trained from school-age to be self-contained and not to be open emotionally.
Australians are in two minds about multiculturalism, a long-term survey has found.
They believe cultural diversity is good for the country but they’re worried that cultural differences will stop everyone from getting along.
An 11-year study by a collaboration of Australian universities has found 85 per cent of Australians acknowledge racial prejudice occurs in the nation and one in five has been a victim of racist verbal abuse.
The study found that 6.5 per cent of the 16,000 Australians surveyed were against multiculturalism.
Professor Kevin Dunn, from the University of Western Sydney’s school of social science, said the study revealed that the majority of Australians are pro-multiculturalism but are anxious that the diversity will not be managed well.
“Over 40 per cent of those surveyed feel that cultural differences pose a threat to societal harmony,” he said.
Develop content for your Web site with an international clientele in mind. For instance, be sensitive to cultural nuance, use universal images and metaphors, and develop a slogan that reflects your global outreach, says Ayse Oge, president of Ultimate Trade, an international consultancy based in Encino, Calif. “Include testimonials from internationally known prominent people who use your products. If you have been written up in a well-known publication, include a short piece on it on your front page,” she says.
All these factors will enhance your credibility and help you avoid major blunders. But you’ll need more than an appealing Web site to find and keep international customers, says Peter Zapf, president of GlobalSources.com (GSOL), a consulting and outsourcing firm based in Singapore. “Keep in mind—in addition to the Web content—customer service, logistics, and product delivery and payment,” he says.
Smooth out issues ahead of time with customs duties and shipping procedures, and include UPS (UPS) and FedEx (FDX) international shipping rates on your site in a drop-down box, so your clients don’t get sticker shock when they check out, Oge says.
Be aware that selling outside of your country exposes you to higher transaction fees and a higher likelihood of fraud, Zapf says: “At a minimum, you need to have good fraud management practices in place in order to minimize potential charge backs.”
When it comes to multilingual Web site content, remember that if you include it, you’ll also need a multilingual customer service team to answer telephone inquiries and reply to e-mail. “The key to attracting clients is having content localized for each global market, but this can be costly to maintain, particularly for smaller companies,” says Susan Peters, senior director of corporate marketing and Web strategy at ILOG, a software firm headquartered in Silicon Valley and Paris and recently acquired by IBM (IBM).
The tool will make it easier for web users to understand blogs, websites and messages written in Farsi by Iranians protesting the recent election results.
Google Translate can now convert text from Farsi (Persian) in to English, and from English in to Persian. Google said it was working hard to quickly provide Farsi support for the other 40 languages featured in its translationservice.
“We feel that launching Persian is particularly important now, given ongoing events in Iran,” said Google in a statement. “Like YouTube and other services, Google Translate is one more tool that Persian speakers can use to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa — increasing everyone’s access to information.”
The search giant warned that the translation service was still a work in progress, and was not perfect. “We’re launching this service quickly, so it may perform slowly at times,” warned Google. “We’ll keep a close watch, and if it breaks, we’ll restore service as quickly as we can.”
In Part 1, service representative Valerie receives a call from Lois, a customer from another culture. Valerie speaks quickly and uses slang, frustrating Lois. Valerie is impatient with Lois’ accent and English, and belittles her, despite the fact that Lois has taken the time to learn Valerie’s language. Valerie insults Lois, and loses a customer.
In Part 2, Valerie approaches the same situation differently, adapting to the customer’s unique needs. Valerie speaks slowly, clearly, and properly. When Lois uses unfamiliar words, Valerie seeks to reframe to understand her. Despite being challenged by the communication difficulties, Valerie takes personal responsibility, finds a solution, and ultimately triumphs with yet another happy customer.
It is a well-intended initiative which is meant to offer immigrants a helping hand. Yet now an investigation has found that many of the expensively-produced foreign-language leaflets have never been read.
Documents which have failed to attract a single reader include a pamphlet for gipsies translated into Polish, and a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender directory translated into French.
No-one read the Haringey Women’s Directory when it was translated into Albanian, Bengali, Kurdish, Somali or Urdu.
All were made available by Haringey council, in north London, on its website, which records the number of times each document is downloaded.
A spokesman for Haringey Council said: “Haringey has some 193 different languages spoken. We generally offer translations where required rather than translate routinely.
“Where translations are produced they will be made available on our website as an additional service.”
According to the findings of a survey of 180 managers by London-based consultants Brookfield, more than two thirds of the major multinationals are expecting to post fewer employees abroad this year.
Nannette Ritmeester of the Dutch consultancy Expertise in Labour Mobility recognises the picture. She sees two possible responses to the crisis: either send fewer employees abroad, or economise on the facilities for expats, by cutting back on housing allowances or air tickets for trips back home.
However, spokespersons for Shell, Philips and Akzo Nobel are keen to stress that they won’t be skimping on perks for expats.
“They’re set down in the collective labour agreement – they’re agreed beforehand so you can’t change them,” says a Philips spokesperson.
images and metaphors, and develop a slogan that reflects your 
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