Intercultural Communication and Translation News

Britons are likely to avoid foreign holidays because they are embarrassed about their poor language skills

A survey found that only 2% of the 3,000 adults questioned for the survey could ask the way to the toilet in the foreign language they learned at school.

And nine out of 10 said they would be less likely to take a holiday in a country where they have to worry about their limited vocabulary.

The main reason was not that they were too lazy but just too embarrassed to try to speak a foreign language.

Read more: Britons

On a recent afternoon in this east-coast Italian city, you could hear the first snippets of dialogue from the next act of the global economy’s evolving plotline. “Wo jiao Francesco,” says a young Italian man, at the start of a Mandarin lesson in an office conference room. With a quick “Bravo,” for Francesco, Alessandra Brezzi, a moonlighting professor of Chinese from the nearby University of Urbino, begins drilling her seven students on useful workplace vocabulary (ziliao/raw material; caiwuchu/accounting department) and proper Chinese etiquette (introduce yourself with a business card ready; never open a gift right away). Of course, these lessons are by now standard for anyone in the West looking to drum up business prospects in Beijing or Xiamen.

Read more: Chinese 

In today’s digitalised, globalised world, where the words:  ‘cost-effective solutions’ and ‘bottom-line’ are a common language shared across the corporate spectrum.  Finally, issues of families and family support, so long concealed and little discussed within the corporate arena are now enjoying a renaissance.

The focus on maintaining a healthy ‘work/life balance’ is fuelling recognition amongst corporations that revenue is not the dominant factor in achieving the long-term goals of increased productivity and profitability.

Read more: Expats 

A funny little tale of cross cultural ignorance comes in the form of Vietnamese fishermen flying a Malaysian flag as a decoy while sailing in Malaysia’s northeastern waters  – they gave the game away by mistakenly flying it upside down.

This is an unusual mistake, because “Stripes of Glory” as the flag is known at home, carries a blue rectangle in its top left corner emblazoned with a yellow crescent and star, while red-and-white stripes alternate on the rest.Read more: Malaysia 

Diversity practitioners are calling for a new professional association to help them to establish industry standards and define proper career paths, according to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

A report commissioned by the LSC, due to be published next week, has revealed that despite educational and vocational training, diversity experts feel they cannot carry out their jobs effectively as there is an “unstructured” mix of standards and guidance available to them, through ‘on the job’, formal and informal training.

Read more: Diversity 

Alcera Consulting Inc./Alcera Conseil de gestion inc. is proud to announce that Richard Martin will be teaching “Intercultural Aspects of International Project Management” at Université du Québec en Outaouais in Gatineau, Quebec during Fall Term 2007. Richard Martin is founder, president and principal of Alcera Consulting Inc.

Martin brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the topic. He got his formal start in project management back in 1993 as deputy project director of the Canadian Department of National Defence’s project management office for anti-armour projects. He eventually became the project manager for a number of other projects and was intimately involved in the development and testing of complex weapons systems as part of a tri-partite project between Canada, France, and Norway.

Read more: R. Martin 

The Cartus Emerging Trends in Global Mobility: Policies & Practices Survey shows that an accelerated shift from long-term to short-term international relocation assignments is expected by the end of 2009. China’s popularity as a destination is growing the fastest when compared with the U.S., Great Britain and India.

Cartus, a global mobility management and workforce development consultant, conducted the survey with 184 respondents from companies in 25 major industry segments. The organizations surveyed represent more than 83,000 assignees and have headquarters in 19 different nations.

Cartus also identified why these international assignments fail, regardless of being on a short-term basis. The top three reasons were family adjustment, at 71%; assignee personal style, at 48%; and cultural differences, at 40%.

This is easily remedied with intercultural and language training, which more companies are offering. The survey shows that intercultural training was offered by 55% of companies in 2007, versus the 28% offered in 2004. Meanwhile, 58% of companies offered language services for families, an increase from 30% in 2004.

Read more: Cartus 

The government is to review the cases of Iraqi interpreters for the British army who were told they would not receive any special treatment if applying for asylum in the UK, Downing Street said today.

The prime minister, Gordon Brown, has ordered that the cases of the 91 translators should be looked at again.

The translators and their families had been told they would have to apply for asylum in the normal way – by registering when they arrived in the UK – despite appeals from senior army officers.

Read more: Iraq 

Localisation of expatriates is problematic for employers, says ORC Worldwide’s 2007 Survey on International Localisation Policies & Practices for Expatriates.

According to the report, 48 percent of the participants have seen an increase in the use of localisation over the past two years, yet the practice remains tricky.

Obstacles faced by employers when localising – that is, phasing out or removing expatriate assignment terms and conditions – include retirement plans, consistency in developing local pay packages, management preference for individual negotiations, establishing an acceptable local salary in low-salary countries, and employee requests for continuance of coverage for international schools and health care.

Read more: Expatriates 

With a potential billion customers at stake, it sometimes feels these days as if there are almost as many how-to business books about China. However, if you read just one, advises expat expert Robin Pascoe, make it this one………

“The position of HR chief in China is much more powerful than in the West because those who are hired often feel personally indebted.” James McGregor.

James McGregor, former China bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal and the author of “One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China” (a Wall Street Journal book published by Free Press and Simon and Schuster) began his career in China in 1990, at the same time my diplomatic family was posted there.Read more: McGregor