Intercultural Communication and Translation News

We’ve all seen the adverts where the frightfully English chap puts his feet up, exposing his soles and offending the sensibilities of the local Thai people. Well, this is the real-life version: British businessmen have been meeting clients in India and – shock horror – kissing them, causing much offence in the process.

Now the UK-India Business Council has stepped in and ordered Britons to refrain from greeting people in India in this way. But MBA professors, who lead some of the most cosmopolitan cohorts in education, say that the key to multicultural cohesion is not tiptoeing around stereotypes: it’s just about being sensitive.

“We all try to point out quaint cultural differences, but that’s a bit trivial,” says Professor Arthur Francis, of Bradford School of Management. To smooth the transition of its foreign students, Bradford has produced a guide to cultural differences and how to embrace them. “What’s important is to remind ourselves that when certain behaviour seems odd to us it might just be a cultural difference and not rude. It’s just about being alive to these differences.”

But whether business school students are alive to it or not, differences can occur when highly diverse groups have to operate in the pressurised atmosphere of an MBA course. Each cohort must go through this so-called storming period, when students from different countries must understand why, and how, they must learn to work with each other.

Dr Marie Taillard, assistant professor in marketing at ESCP-EAP European School of Management is charged with sorting out the cultural differences when the MBA students form teams. She talks about the typical group, where the German woman will assume the lead, and quickly get frustrated that her female Italian colleague is always late, and her male French colleague simply wants to take her out for a drink.

“We try to explain that it’s nothing unusual to have these differences,” says Taillard. “It’s just part of working in an international business environment.” She urges her students to set down rules before beginning: that everyone will be on time, that everyone will have a voice, and that no one will leave a meeting without arranging to meet again. That’s the easy part.

“More difficult is where there are problems deciding who is the leader,” she says. “We’ll help them to choose a leader or a different model altogether, where someone takes the lead for two weeks, say. The worst case scenario is when they won’t talk, they’ve tried to ostracise someone they don’t like, and people are coming to me in tears saying they want to quit the programme altogether.”

Read more > The Independent

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With fluctuating exchange rates and companies less willing to keep expats on their payroll, the economic landscape for expats is changing drastically.

Expatriates have always been known for their ability to adapt to new cultures and contexts but the current financial crisis may prove to be the biggest challenge yet for internationals.

The economic landscape across the globe is changing by the day and it is still unclear how that will affect the world and workplace – and the place of expats within it.

Two things are already clearly impacted, though: the costs borne by expatriates in many European cities and overseas assignments by multinational corporations.

A recent survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), for instance, showed that while weakening exchange rates have substantially lowered the relative cost of living in Western Europe for expatriates, it remains the most expensive area of the world to live in. Western Europe boasts seven of the top 10 most expensive cities across the globe and all but two of the Western European cities surveyed are in the top 50, according to the report.

However, those living in Western Europe can take heart in the fact that the relative cost of living in the region is dropping – due, in large part, to drastic declines in European currencies such as the sterling, the euro and the Norwegian krone.

Read more > Expatica

President Obama’s recent trip to Turkey has brought attention back to the country. A nation rich in resources, an established democracy undergoing liberal reforms and the possibility of joining the EU make Turkey one to watch for the near future. An already expanding export market based in the manufacturing industries means doing business in Turkey is rapidly being recognised as a lucrative venture.

Doing business in Turkey however requires understanding the people, culture, etiquette and approach to business. By acquiring cross cultural skills, international business people can maximise their prospects of success in Turkey.

This brief guide to doing business in Turkey offers some key tips on how to approach business in Turkey, the etiquette you should employ and how best to present yourself to your Turkish clients, colleagues or customers.

Doing Business - Meeting and Greeting

When meeting, shake hands firmly. When departing, it is not always customary to shake hands although it is practised occasionally.

In the business context most women will shake hands with men. However, this may not be the case in Eastern or rural Turkey where people are more conservative. If unsure, wait for the woman to extend her hand.

When addressing a Turk the most common method is to call a man by his first name followed by ‘bey’ (pronounced bay). So, Ertan Gonca, would be Ertan Bey. Similarly a woman’s first name would be followed by ‘hanim’ (pronounced ha-num).

Where professional titles exist such as Doctor or Professor, always use them either on their own of before the first name. Curiously this is also the case with many other professions such as lawyers ‘Avukat’, engineers ‘Muhendis’ and managers ‘Mudur’.

When doing business in Turkey, initial meetings should always concentrate on relationship building. Engage in some light conversation to establish rapport. Questions about children will be welcomed. The Turks are proud of their country and will enjoy answering questions on their culture and history although be sure to avoid political history. Most Turkish men love football (soccer) and usually support one of three teams: Galatasaray, Besiktas or Fenerbahçe. Asking after their team’s recent fortunes will always produce lively and animate responses.

Read more > Doing Business in Turkey

The current economic downturn has forced many companies to find cost-effective ways to translate their documents with fewer staff and smaller budgets. Firms that once paid for professional translation now rely on employees who speak foreign languages to translate documents, something that industry leaders say can end up costing firms if these in-house translations are not accurate. As a result, a leading translation company is responding with a new service designed to help firms guarantee the accuracy of these in-house translations.

“A mistake in translation can change the meaning of key documents and lead to misunderstandings, legal problems, or unexpected costs,” said Marcel Vilanez, the founder and CEO of Technovate Translations, a leading translation agency. “That’s why we want to create an affordable way for companies to make sure their in-house translations are accurate.”

Read more > Vilanez

Leading research and workplace innovation company, Career Innovation (Ci) has today published the results of its latest study, Cross-Cultural Development Conversations.

Carried out across 45 leading companies worldwide, the new study has found that although organisations are aware of the need to skill up their leaders to manage the cross-cultural workforce, few have acted to make this a reality.

At a time when the pace and scale of globalisation has never been higher, competition for the best talent remains intense. The effectiveness of development conversations in organisations is known to play a significant role in engaging and retaining key talent. Factoring in the complexity of a diverse and dispersed workforce makes it even tougher to ensure that these conversations are at their most effective.

According to the 45 organisations interviewed (Sept-Nov 08), the business importance of working effectively across cultures is high and rising. Most are already operating complex organizations across multiple regions and almost all (91%) indicated they expect cultural diversity in their organisations to increase over the next 3-5 years, with nearly 50% expecting a “significant increase”.

The study revealed three top factors that impact cross-cultural development conversations:

The directness of communication style
Language differences – especially when people are not communicating in their first language
The need to establish high levels of trust across cultures, in order for development conversations to be effective

Differences between Asian and Western cultures were consistently reported as a particular challenge by respondents with 50% of organisations reporting this as an issue.

Companies identified many key employee development processes that are impacted by these cultural hurdles. For example, 60% of organisations said that coaching relationships can be much tougher to establish in some cultures than in others. Giving feedback can also present challenges, with one company finding that its Chinese employees quit after receiving challenging feedback.

“This issue has a big impact on global organisations”, says Ci’s founder Jonathan Winter. “Although they are increasingly aware of the need to encourage meaningful dialogue with employees about their careers and development, only a few have really taken on board the additional complexities overlaid by the cross-cultural dimension. Left unresolved the cross-cultural conversation gap hits the bottom line in a way companies can ill afford in today’s tough times.”

Organisations who are placing the strongest focus on building their employees’ cross-cultural competence report significant benefits including improved attraction and retention rates.

Following on from this study and Ci’s previous Conversation Gap research, Ci will be developing its existing career tools and approaches to encourage more leaders to develop cross-cultural thinking as part of their everyday style. Winter offers an example of how this will be incorporated, “Our Engaging Conversations multi-rater tool is already helping mangers around the world improve their staff dialogue skills and habits. We’re going to take that to the next stage and incorporate the cross-cultural dimension”.

Does the country of your parents’ or grandparents’ birth fascinate you? Would you consider moving there for a better standard of living?

Britain may once have seemed like the land of opportunity, but now, with the downturn in the economy, thousands of British born people are leaving for the promise of a better life where their families came from originally – in countries like India, Africa, China, Hong Kong and the Caribbean.

In Bangalore alone, the southern Indian IT city, more than 40,000 Indian IT professionals are estimated to have arrived back from the US and UK to take up work. There are exciting career and business opportunities for people with western education and experience, and there is a growing trend of ‘Reverse Migration’ to many countries from the UK.

Ricochet, the makers of Channel 4’s ‘No Going Back’ and “Super Nanny” are producing a new TV series that follows this trend for a new documentary series.

Four 2nd or 3rd generation British families will be given the opportunity to ‘road test’ a new life in the country of their parents or grandparents for several months, to find out about jobs, schools and housing. They might like it so much; they decide they want to stay.

If you and your family are thinking about making such a move, or have always wanted to find out what life would be like where your parents or grandparents come from; then please contact us on the following:

Call: 01273 224 816
Email: familyroots@ricochet.co.uk
Web: www.Ricochet.co.uk