Intercultural Communication and Translation News

NOËL Coward once travelled by passenger liner from Shanghai to London and on an economy class flight back to Melbourne from London with my family after a Christmas/New Year break, I found myself reading his poetic account of the trip, P&O 1930, in his Collected Verse.

Long-haul flights are a drawback of expat life and hauls don’t come much longer than England to Australia. The contrast between Coward’s descriptions of 1930s shipboard life, with its concerts, intrigues and dressing for dinner at the captain’s table, and the cattle truck reality of modern travel made it far from ideal reading for someone who had just heaved their luggage off the carousel.

Of course, comparing a 1930s P&O liner and an A380 “Super Jumbo” in 2009 is to rather miss the point, for over recent decades travel has been democratised. In Noel’s era, most of us would have been stuck in a terraced house, our experience of the world limited to the BBC Home Service. The fact remains, though, that air travel, when measured by most yardsticks, is not overly pleasant. Some dislikes – the food, the toilet facilities and “destroying the planet” – can probably be taken as givens, but here are a few other pet hates you may or may not share.

• Arriving at check in and asking for one of the seats with the extra legroom (I am over six feet tall) by the emergency exit. I am then informed that they are all taken. On boarding the plane, I invariably find them occupied by smug-looking short people.

• Couples (always couples) with 10 pieces of hand luggage, each obviously bigger than regulations allow. They then spend 10 minutes trying to get them into the overhead lockers, all the while discussing it in loud voices, while the rest of us wait to get past.

• The baggage carousel, which always delivers my bags last, regardless of whether I have checked in early, late, or in between.

• The map of the flight path. Some years ago, when my son was at boarding school in Suffolk, I noticed how the frequent drives from Surrey were made worse when I started to recognise minor landmarks: “I’ve just passed that McDonald’s on the A12 near Ipswich so there’s another 53 minutes to go.” The flight path on the “in-flight entertainment unit” allows you to indulge in a more worldly version: “We’re just passing Uzbekistan so it’s another six hours to the stopover in Hong Kong.”

Read more > The Telegraph

Berlin has launched a new “friendliness” campaign to keep tourists flocking to the German capital during a time of economic crisis.

With the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall looming in November and the World Championships in athletics due in August, police, street cleaners, airport staff and taxi drivers have begun wearing special red pins to signal to visitors that they are ready to lend a helping hand.

The campaign, launched this week by the city government and local companies, mirrors a friendliness drive that was launched back in 2006 when Germany hosted the soccer World Cup.

“Berlin has a reputation in Germany of being a rude city, but we’re a rude city with a heart,” said Rene Gorka, head of Berlin Partners, a marketing group that promotes the city.

Read more > Berlin

The experience of living 13 years abroad in four different countries (USA, Sweden, Poland & Italy), and having an intercultural marriage (with children) has certainly made me a bit less Brazilian than I planned. However, it has probably enlightened my multiple perception of my own Brazilian culture (if not complicated it!). My original curiosity drive to discover the world had slowly turned into a ‘chronic cultural shock syndrome’, when the excitement of being a newcomer was replaced by the constant search for the ‘cultureless’ universal essence of humans wherever. It was when I became an intercultural psychologist and coach. My first thought, when asked to describe ‘foreigners through Brazil eyes’, was to elaborate the answer based on the two most striking cultural differences between Brazilians and foreigners (specially from North America, North Europe & Australia): time orientation, and levels of communication.

Read more > Cultural Insights into Brazil

Kwintessential’s website has recently added two new etiquette guides for both Ecuador and El Salvador. The guides offer an introduction to the culture, people and their values (all at a very general level). Rules of business, protocol, and etiquette tips and then provided on a number of areas such as dress, invitations, business meetings and much more.

Visit the guides:

> Ecuador - Culture, Customs and Etiquette

> El Salvador - Culture, Customs and Etiquette

The People

Cameroon has a diverse population comprising approximately 250 ethnic groups that then form 5 regional/cultural groups. These are western highlanders (also called grassfielders), which include the Bamileke, Bamoun, and many smaller groups in the northwest; coastal tropical forest people, which include the Bassa, Doula, and many smaller groups in the southwest; southern tropical forest people, which include the Beti, Beulu, Fang, and Pygmies; Muslims of the northern semi-arid regions and central highlands, which include the Fulani; and the Kirdi, non-Muslims peoples of the northern desert and central highlands.

Meeting and Greeting

* Cameroonian greetings vary between the Francophone and Anglophone areas.
* In both areas, men shake hands with each other.
* In the Francophone south, close friends may embrace while brushing cheeks and kissing the air along with a handshake.
* In the Anglophone north, close friends have a unique handshake in which, as they pull their hands back they snap the other person’s middle finger with their thumb.
* As a sign of respect men often lower their head and avert their eyes when greeting someone superior to them in age or position.
* Some Muslims will not shake hands across genders.
* Since this is a hierarchical society, elders are greeted first.
* Women tend not to look the other person in the eye even if it is another woman.
* Greetings should never be rushed. It is important to take time to inquire about the person’s family and other matters of general interest during the greeting process.

Gift Giving Etiquette

* If you are invited to a Cameroonian’s home, bring fruit, whiskey, or wine to the host.
* Do not bring alcohol if the host is Muslim.
* A small gift for the children is always a nice touch. School materials or sweets are standard.
* Gifts are not always opened when received.
* Gifts are given with two hands or the right hand only; never the left hand.

Read more > Cameroon - Culture and Etiquette Guide

It’s the Year of the Ox in much of Asia - a good time to vow not to be as clumsy as one in matters of Asian business etiquette.

While not all Asians observe the Lunar New Year that dawned Monday, travel and etiquette expert Mary Murray Bosrock says being culturally savvy and knowing how to avoid offending your international clients has never been more crucial.

“We just can’t afford anymore to be the ugly Americans,” she said.

Bosrock, a Sandusky native who has written numerous books on international business etiquette and has taught diplomats at the Protocol School of Washington, started hearing complaints about boorish American behavior while writing for Foreign Trade magazine.

As soon as she wrapped up her interviews with high-level trade officials and turned off her microphone, they would lean in and ask her, “Mrs. Bosrock, why do Americans do this?” - then go on to describe some terrible American habit that had offended or mortified them.

She would find herself stammering, “I don’t think Americans mean to do that . . . .” She started writing down the blunders, trying to find a way to teach others how not to repeat the mistakes.

Read more > Mrs Bosrock

Meeting and Greeting

* Handshakes are the norm. They should be firm and friendly.
* It is good manners to wait for a woman to offer her hand first.
* Maintain eye contact during the greeting process.
* Professional or academic titles with the surname are used in business. Professional or academic titles may also be used with the honorific title (Mr., Mrs., or Miss), with or without the surname.
* If someone does not have a title, use their honorific title and their surname.
* Wait until invited before moving to a first-name basis, which may occur more slowly than on other Caribbean islands.
* Business cards are exchanged without formal ritual.
* Treat business cards with respect. When you receive a card, place it in a business card case. The manner you treat business cards is taken as a sign of how you will treat the relationship.
* Writing on someone’s business card in front of them is considered rude.

Bahamian Communication Style

Bahamians have a lyrical, musical quality to their language which probably descends from their West African roots. Although they are direct communicators they are also quite adept at modifying their language to make it come across as friendly and insensitive. Humour is also very much part of their communication style.

Read the full guide at > Bahamas - Culture, Etiquette and Protocol

Manners maketh the businessman, with a global survey finding Americans and Britons to be the most easily insulted by lack of workplace etiquette, while Australians are among the most offensive.

The survey, by Australian-based international office space provider Servcorp, listed the top five most offensive workplace behaviors as not saying hello or good morning, not offering office guests a beverage, speaking loudly across the room, using swear words and taking calls on mobile phones.

The use of stationery without permission and asking colleagues about their personal lives were also deemed insulting.

The poll then revealed the United States and Britain to be the most sensitive nations in the world, despite 60 percent of respondents believing Japan has the strictest work etiquette.

English and American businessmen were also more easily offended than their colleagues in the Middle East, Japan and China, nations with cultural traditions spanning centuries.

Almost 25 percent of Australians, however, thought it was perfectly acceptable to swear — something the majority of Japanese and Middle Easterners found deeply offensive.

Read more > Yahoo

What Kwintessential say:

Etiquette is no longer about the rules and protocol of dining, invitations, dress and what kind of flowers to buy people. Displaying good manners is now an essential part of learning to do business on a global level.

At Kwintessential we provide international etiquette courses aimed at helping individuals fit in more comfortably when working in foreign environments or offices.

For more information please visit > Business Etiquette Training

Police in Nigeria have arrested scores of motorcycle taxi riders with dried fruit shells, paint pots or pieces of rubber tire tied to their heads with string to avoid a new law requiring them to wear helmets.

The regulations have caused chaos around Africa’s most populous nation, with motorcyclists complaining helmets are too expensive and some passengers refusing to wear them fearing they will catch skin disease or be put under a black magic spell.

The law, which came into force on January 1, pits two factions equally feared by the common motorist against one another: erratic motorcycle taxis known as “Okadas,” whose owners are notorious for road-rage, and the bribe-hungry traffic police.

Some bikers have used calabashes — dried shells of pumpkin-sized fruit usually used as a bowl — or pots and pans tied to their heads with string to try to dodge the rules.

Read more > Nigeria

Nicole Kidman could be left unable to have more children after playing a didgeridoo.

The actress appeared on German TV blowing into the traditional Australian instrument while promoting her latest film ‘Australia’, but Aborigine folklore warns that women who play the didgeridoo could become infertile.

Aborigine language teacher Richard Green warned: “People are going to see Nicole playing it and think it’s all right. But it will mean she has no more children. It is not meant to be played by women as it will make them barren.”

Alan Madden - a cultural officer with Sydney’s Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council - thinks Australian star Nicole and the film’s director Baz Luhrman should have known better - particularly after filming the epic movie on location in the outback of Australia, and using Aboriginal actors in the film.

He said: “I presume she doesn’t know of the taboo, otherwise she wouldn’t be playing it.

Read more >> Kidman