Intercultural Communication and Translation News

SIETAR France
Saturday: January 19th, 2008
In Paris/France
9h30 - 12h30 & 14h00 -17h00
Workshop in english and in french
By Roger Baumgarte, Ph.D.

“Research on Cultural Variations in Close Friendships”

Most interculturalists and other world travelers frequently develop close friendships with people of other cultures. These friendships are often perceived as different compared to those within a common culture. Sometimes these differences broaden one’s social life in enjoyable and rewarding ways. But they can also present unique challenges which are often difficult to interpret even for those well versed in cultural differences.

This workshop will review current research on cultural variations in friendship patterns. The role of culture in friendship runs quite deep and isn’t always predictable from well-established cultural dimensions such as individualism and collectivism. Thus, understanding how people view their close friendships can provide a unique vantage point for viewing cultural differences. Initially, this workshop will approach friendship from a strictly research perspective demonstrating, for example, that even the definition of friendship is culturally influenced. Such research presents a number of troublesome methodological problems, each of which will be explored in turn. Workshop participants will respond to examples of common survey items which will form the basis for much of our discussion.

Then we will move on to the findings from various cross-cultural studies, which will provide ample material for developing insights into the issues that arise in cross-cultural friendships. Interpretations of these findings will be aimed at helping interculturalists understand the nature of their own friendships in addition to exploring the relevance of this research to the clients they serve.

More explicitly, this workshop is intended to:

1. Assist participants in gaining an appreciation of the complexities of doing survey research across cultures and thereby becoming more knowledgeable consumers of the cross-cultural research literature in general.

2. Provide participants with information about the range of cultural variation that can occur in close friendships and how these variations are sometimes inconsistent with common conceptions of cultural differences.

3. Provide participants with insights into their own friendships which cross cultures.

4. Assist participants with developing ideas about applying this research to their counseling and consulting settings.

Roger Baumgarte was born in the U.S.A. completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Detroit and his doctorate in cognitive and experimental psychology at Bowling Green University in Ohio. He taught for 30 years at Winthrop University where he received the highest award for teaching excellence. He spent the 1988-89 academic year teaching at the American University in Paris. At that point, he learned to speak French and over the course of the year, developed new friendships which have since endured. Upon returning to the U.S., he was struck by how differently he perceived these friendships compared to his ongoing friendships at home. From these experiences, he gained a keen interest in cultural differences in friendship and decided to explore these differences across a number of cultures. He has conducted survey research on friendship patterns in China, South Korea, U.S.A., France and Romania. He spent the 1994-95 academic year teaching for an extension of the University of Maryland in South Korea. For three years, he served as director of the International Center at Winthrop University where he would often interview international students about their friendships with local students. In addition to the research on friendship, he has provided numerous workshops aimed at helping immigrants and visitors adjust to living and working in the U.S.

Address:

Langues et Entreprises, 18, rue de Tilsitt, 75017 PARIS

(mtro Etoile-Charles de Gaulle)

From 9.30 to 12.30 & 14.00 to 17.00

Fees:

70 euros for SIETAR member,

120 euros for non member,

50 euros for student (-26 years old)

Way of payment: by Paypal

We invite you to pay online which is easy, secure and quick. Please click on this following link to pay your workshop fee: www.sietar-france.org

For further information, please contact:

# Christine Longe if you have administrative question.
Email : secretariat@sietar-france.org

Phone: +33 4 93 93 36 59

# Laurence Sicot (President of SIETAR France if you have questions on the workshop itself.

Phone: +33 6 08 99 77 82

The majority of British bosses (97 percent) taking part in a recent survey think that they should make an effort to learn about business etiquette in other countries when travelling abroad, however, over two thirds (68 percent) are embarrassed by their lack of knowledge of other cultures.

Most of the 205 senior managers and directors of major companies based across the United Kingdom who completed the survey (96 percent) rely on the fact that most people in business can speak English, with only 21 percent able to use another language. Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) confess to making a slip-up or having had a bad experience in business etiquette when doing business abroad or with people from overseas.

The research carried out by research by executive communications consultancy,The Aziz Corporation, shows that British business executives are struggling to keep abreast of the complexities of business culture overseas, even though they admit (88 percent) to travelling abroad for business more often than ever before. Just over 80 percent of the respondents state that they often do business with people from other cultures, with 66 per cent regularly travelling abroad on business.

“The fact that top level executives are not sure how to behave when doing business overseas is very worrying for British business,” said Professor Khalid Aziz, Chairman of The Aziz Corporation.

While most businessmen would be confident in visiting Western Europe or the United States, over half admit they would be daunted by the prospect of visiting countries with a perceived difference in business cultures, such as Japan, Asia or the Middle East. Before embarking on a business trip, 74 per cent seek advice on rules or etiquette with which they may not be familiar. Despite this, 52 per cent admit they find themselves ‘playing it by ear’ and taking the lead from those they are meeting or travelling with. 14 per cent claim they have no time or resources to undertake any preparation. Only 13 per cent of British companies offer training to help bridge the cultural gap.

Despite their cultural ignorance, the survey finds that most Britons are keen to provide a welcoming and tolerant atmosphere for overseas visitors. Indeed, the British place more value on the comfort of foreign visitors than they do their own. Nearly 80 percent of respondents believe people from other cultures visiting Britain should have the right to feel comfortable dressing as they would at home, whilst 70 per cent feel that the British should receive the same treatment when abroad themselves.

Read more > Aziz 

Targets for the recruitment and retention of staff from minority ethnic communities are on course to be met across the core Home Office, a report published today revealed.

The eighth annual Race Employment Targets Report shows progress against the Home Office’s 10-year race equality employment targets. The Border and Immigration Agency, Identity and Passport Service, the Forensic Science Service and the core Home Office areas all exceeded their aims.

The news comes just days after a new mentoring scheme aimed at preparing black and minority ethnic (BME) staff for leadership roles in the Civil Service has been put into action.

Read more > Home Office 

Belgium’s newly crowned beauty queen has been drawn into the bitter political feud that has left Brussels without a government for six months after it emerged that she cannot speak the language used by half of the country.

Alizée Poulicek, a 20-year-old language student, was booed by the audience when she failed to respond to questions in Dutch before being crowned Miss Belgium at the weekend in Antwerp, in Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north of Belgium.

Miss Poulicek may be multilingual in French, English and Czech but political correctness demands she also speaks Dutch, the language spoken by Belgium’s Flemish majority, whose demands for more autonomy are behind a political crisis that has lasted almost 200 days.

Read more > Belguim

Google Inc. has been taken to court in China over the translation of its name, according to reports Friday.

Mountain View-based Google is translated “Guge” in China — a name belonging to Beijing Guge Sci-Tech Co. and registered at the Beijing Municipal Industrial and Commercial Bureau on April 19, 2006. Google’s “Guge” was registered on Nov. 24, 2006.

Associated Press reported that Beijing Guge Sci-Tech wants Google to change its Chinese name and pay legal costs, and says the double names have caused confusion and hurt its business.

Google counters that at the time Beijing Guge Sci-Tech registered its name, there were reports circulating on the Internet about Google’s name choice, AP reported.

To Google, the name represents songs from the valley, an allusion to Silicon Valley, AP reported. The Beijing company said the name means the sound of grain singing during autumn, or a cuckoo singing in the spring.

Read more> Google 

JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, has found nearly one-half of large Web-site decision makers had translated content on their sites into another language to optimize for international search, suggesting solid recognition for the evolving global marketplace. By contrast, fewer than one-quarter of these same decision makers had engaged in localization or adapting site content to a specific language, country, or culture by taking into account nuances such as local terminology and consumers’ preferences.

These findings are outlined in a new report published by JupiterResearch, “International Search: Benchmarking the Global Search Marketer,” and focus on the ever increasing need for marketers to do more than simply translate content. Search marketers must build the localization piece into their campaigns or risk misallocating their globalization spending.

“True localization, rather than just translation, is essential to international search,” explained Vice President Zia Daniell Wigder, lead analyst of the report. “ Direct translations of a site are unlikely to include the most commonly used search terms, resulting in a site that can be understood by the local audience but may receive little traffic if it fails to appear in search results.”

The report also states U.S. marketers are lagging behind European counterparts, which were more likely to use or plan to use international search tactics such as language and location targeting. The relatively smaller size of European marketers’ home markets and the proximity of foreign markets make the international piece an important part of many search campaigns.

“Localization can add significant costs to simple translation efforts, but this next step is becoming increasingly necessary. The unfortunate thing is that more U.S. marketers than those in Europe do not fully understand the need, said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch. “The simple truth is U.S. marketers risk leaving substantial revenues on the table if they fail to look beyond basic language translation.”

The complete findings of this report are immediately available to JupiterResearch clients online at www.jupiterresearch.com. For details on JupiterResearch’s methodology, visit www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/methodology or email press@jupiterresearch.com to request a detailed methodology statement. For additional information on this report or JupiterResearch’s Web Globalization research service, visit www.jupiterresearch.com or contact Kieran Kelly, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Client Service, at 1-800-481-1212 or researchsales@jupiterresearch.com.

About JupiterResearch

JupiterResearch provides unbiased research, analysis and advice, backed by proprietary data, to help companies profit from the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on their business. The company helps online businesses make critical decisions about technology selection, spending, staffing, and Web site effectiveness; advises consumer-facing companies with online advertising, marketing, and customer service strategies to understand, attract, convert and retain customers; and guides technology vendors and service providers on market opportunity, positioning, product definition, and pricing. JupiterResearch is headquartered in New York City and has offices throughout the US and Europe. For more information, visit www.jupiterresearch.com.

The Translating and Interpreting (T&I) Program in the School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning at RMIT University was commissioned in late 2006 by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) to:

• conduct research into whether there were problems of language proficiency with NAATI accredited practitioners
• assess the quality control mechanisms in place within the language services industry and
• compare NAATI’s testing procedures with those of comparable overseas organisations.

The researchers were asked to recommend changes to the quality control mechanisms in the industry and to NAATI examinations, if they considered they were indicated in the outcomes of the research.

The methodology adopted was to conduct a national survey of a representative sample of language service providers and consumers, professional associations for translators and interpreters, ethnic organisations and Chairs of NAATI examining panels. Focus groups were planned for Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. A separate survey form was sent to a number of international organisations.

The research showed that, with a few minor exceptions, Australian respondents were generally not concerned about the English proficiency or proficiency in languages other than English (LOTE), of accredited practitioners and in particular those accredited at the NAATI Interpreter and Translator levels in particular. Most of the concern expressed about language proficiency was over practitioners in unaccredited or recently accredited languages, plus to a degree a small number of specific major long-accredited languages, usually from East Asia. The survey data suggested there are widely different responses from medical and legal consumers on English proficiency, with medical consumers more likely to feel that the situation is getting worse.

The impact of perceptions of poor language proficiency on service providers was overshadowed by other concerns, many of which were related to ethics and professional conduct. Among consumers of language services, concerns about language proficiency were mixed with concerns relating to the variability of accredited practitioner behaviour and demeanour, ethics and professional conduct. There were concerted calls for both groups for better training and monitoring of standards.

Read the full report > NAATI Report 

HOUSTON, TX, December 12, 2007 – Expatriate families know it’s not always easy when your family is relocated by a corporate move, a military transfer, a missionary or diplomatic assignment or an overseas educational opportunity.

In fact – more often than not – it’s a huge challenge for parents and children alike which requires support.

That’s the topic of the 10th Annual Families in Global Transition International Conference at the Omni Houston Hotel, March 6-8. The conference theme is: “Supporting the Family: Accomplishing the Assignment”. (www.figt.org)

The conference is a grass-roots “think tank” for internationally mobile families.

“Expatriate families and their needs are often overlooked. This is the only conference in the world that brings together representatives of the corporate, military, missionary, diplomatic and educational sectors,” said Joyce Blake, executive director of the nonprofit organization that sponsors it.

Human resources personnel, relocation experts, educators and counselors attend to discuss the challenges and benefits of living abroad and returning home. Recertification credits are offered through the Human Resource Certification Institute.

Five pre-conference, skill-building workshops are offered, which include:

• “Welcome Aboard YOUR Cultural Transition Journey: A Family Resiliency-Building Program

• Navigation Tools for Successful Expatriate Transitions

• “Could You be an Expat Entrepreneur?”

• “International Marriage Mentoring: 12 Conversations”

• “Wise as Doves and Innocent as Serpents: Promoting Organizational Health in International Settings”

Concurrent sessions focus on:

• Third Culture Kids (TCK’s)

• Family and organizational transitions

• Repatriation, HR, ROI and educational transition

• Cross-sector best practices

• Concerns of expatriate teenagers and spouses

Space is limited for the 3-hour, pre-conference workshops. Visit www.figt.org to register and learn more about the sessions and presenters. For information about conference fees, registration and schedules, visit www.figt.org or call 317-888-9678.

# # #

About Families in Global Transition

Families in Global Transition (FIGT) is a 503c3 nonprofit organization that offers conferences and year-round benefits through its Associates Program and expanding educational websites. Sandy Thomas, Director of USA Girl Scouts Overseas, of Girl Scouts of the USA, is president of the FIGT 11-member board of directors. Information can be obtained about the organization at www.figt.org or by calling 317-888-9678.

The quest of mobile phone scientists to overcome the remaining obstacles to communication has begun, with work on a program to translate Chinese and Japanese restaurant menus.

Speaking from the Nokia Research Centre in Helsinki, James Waterworth told The Times: “Most phones now have cameras and can plug into the internet. When you take a picture of text, it can then be run through a database.” Nokia hopes that the manifold mysteries of Asian menus may thus be revealed to Western travellers.

In Beijing, tourists will be equipped to avoid mudsnake and bullfrog. In Tokyo they will no longer find themselves unintentionally dining on raw horse meat or fermented bean curd.

The device could be useful in restaurants where an English translation of the menu is available. Many a traveller has been confused by “Salty egg king steams the vegetable sponge”.

Such titles arise from direct translations of Chinese names that incorporate the method by which a dish is prepared. Phyllis Fairfax, 30, a discerning London diner originally from Hong Kong, explained the riddle of the Salty Egg King. “I make it myself,” Ms Fairfax said. “It simply refers to eggs that have been soaked in concentrated salt-water. The ‘king’ is a description that tells you that the dish is upmarket. It might equally be translated as a ‘royal salty egg’. Then the vegetable sponge is probably just a bed of vegetables.”

Read more> Times Online

The International Telecommunication Union, UNESCO and ICANN will collaborate on global efforts to forge universal standards towards building a multilingual cyberspace. The three agencies organized a workshop on this subject during the second Internet Governance Forum (IGF) taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 12 to 15 November 2007.

The Internet is a key factor in developing a more inclusive and development-oriented information society, which stresses plurality and diversity instead of global uniformity. Multilingualism is a key concept to ensure cultural diversity and participation for all linguistic groups in cyberspace. There is growing concern that hundreds of local languages may be sidestepped, albeit unintentionally in the radical expansion of Internet communication and information. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) recognized the importance attached to linguistic diversity and local content, with UNESCO given the responsibility to coordinate implementation of the Summit Action Line.

Read more> Summit