01/24/2007 - 01/25/2007

Shilpa, Jade, Big Brother and the Need for Intercultural Skills

The recent racism debate emanating from the Celebrity Big Brother TV show in the UK demonstrates the need to incorporate intercultural skills into the education system says intercultural communications expert.

London, January 25, 2007 -- The recent debate and media frenzy over the racist bullying of Shilpa Shetty in the Celebrity Big Brother TV show illustrates the importance of educating future generations to be culturally-savvy.

This is the opinion of Kwintessential's Managing Director Neil Payne, a consultant to multinational businesses and organisations. Rather than see it is primarily an issue of racism, Payne suggests it reflects a lack of knowledge of other cultures, their beliefs, worldviews and especially how to interact with them effectively. It is this lack of intercultural skills that could see the UK lose its place as a world economic powerhouse.

It is undeniable that the world has become smaller. All of us from Canada to Congo have more exposure, contact and dealings with people from other cultures and countries. Within this global, intercultural web we often come across examples of companies, organisations or people who commit cultural faux pas with embarrassing and often costly results. The majority of these incidents come down to simple lack of cultural understanding and soon blow over. Very few stir any real debate and discourse about serious topics such as racism, ignorance or the need to nurture intercultural tolerance. This all changed, in the UK at least, with the "Celebrity Big Brother saga" that has dominated headlines in Britain for over a week.

Jade Goody and housemate Shilpa Shetty fell out in rather grand style. This led to Goody, along with two accomplices, making comments about Shetty that have been interpreted as racist. This led to a record 30,000 complaints to Oftel (the TV regulator), the Chancellor Gordon Brown apologising for the behaviour on his tour of India, Carphone Warehouse pulling its multi-million pound sponsorship with Endemol (the creators of Big Brother), street protests in India, Channel 4 (the broadcasters) coming under huge pressure due to not acting sooner and of course massive amounts of column inches in newspapers as well as becoming the lead story on most domestic news programmes for days. It would be no exaggeration to say that the incident could be the news story of 2007 even though we are only in January.

Whether or not the actions or comments of Goody and her accomplices were racist, as many uphold, is difficult to prove. However, what can be proved according to analysts at Kwintessential is that what led to the whole situation was ultimately down to intercultural communication issues.

Intercultural communication looks at the ways people from different cultures behave, think, speak, eat, etc. By understanding these differences intercultural consultants seek to help people working in foreign or multicultural environments to do so more effectively through educating them on how and why cultures differ and the means of creating synergy between them.

For those that work in the intercultural training field, the events that led to the tense situation in the Big Brother house are all too familiar. In multinational companies many of the same scenarios are played out on a daily basis when multicultural teams work together. People misunderstand and misjudge one another due to their intercultural differences. Communication breaks down completely and a paralysing wall is built between people that seemingly offers no way out. It is only once parties are able to re-trace their steps, analyse situations objectively and apply some intercultural know-how that they start to knock down this wall.

China's Expatriate Population Expected to Grow

China's expatriate population is expected to grow this year, according to a recent study by Hewitt Associates, a global human resource services company. Traditionally that would mean more expatriate men working in China, but the newest tendencies indicate that international career women are entering the Chinese labor market, as well.

Raketu Launches Chinese Language Version

Raketu Communications Inc., the global Internet communications, information and entertainment company, today announced the immediate availability of its Chinese language version.

Currently, all pre-paid customers of Raketu’s "RakOut" dial-out voice over IP (VoIP) service enjoy free calling to over 40 countries. This same service offer will now be available for Chinese speaking consumers, wherever they live in the world, as all calls to locations in these countries are free regardless of where they originate.

“In response to the tremendous interest in Raketu from China, Raketu has released its Chinese language version,� said Greg Parker, President of Raketu. “With our Chinese language release of Raketu, we are continuing to deliver on our promise of localization, enabling our users to use Raketu in their native language.�

How To Master ANY Foreign Language

Today, any language skill on your CV results in an increase in income. Multi- National Companies are willing to pay 20% more to those who can speak another language.

If you are considering learning a foreign language to enhance your career or holiday this report is worth reading.

'How To Master ANY Foreign Language', is written in a easy to follow report format. Don't expect pages of waffle. It contains step by step instructions invaluable to those wishing to learn or improve their foreign language skills. According to it's author / publisher Gary Daniels, 'Most Language Instruction Courses are created by people who have never studied a language. It's no mystery why such products fail at achieving what they promise'.

Science and Language

English is the language of science. So to what extent are researchers who are non-native English speakers at a disadvantage? Bonnie Lee La Madeleine talks to scientists hailing from Japan to Germany......

The nervous Japanese postdoc spent two weeks creating slides, 30 hours drafting a script and 44 hours rehearsing. Altogether, she spent one month away from the bench so that she would not disappoint her supervisors and colleagues during a short informal presentation, in English, before co-workers. Yet they remembered only the mistakes, she says.

Seasoned scientists also feel under pressure when speaking in English. Masahiko Takada at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience admits that, even after years of working in English, "I sometimes feel frustrated when I have to discuss research data with foreign scientists."

Language mastery, be it of one's native or adopted tongue, provides the communicative ease that says: "I am capable." In science, weak English hinders a successful career. Improve your English proficiency, and confidence will follow — or so the people of many non-English-speaking nations believe.

Chinese Internet Use Up 23.4%

China's rapidly growing internet population reached 137 million users by the end of last year, according to a report by the China Internet Networks Information Centre (CNNIC). This figure represents 10.5 per cent of China's population, as well as signifying a 23.4 per cent year on year increase in internet use by the Chinese.

A report by JP Morgan earlier this month forecasted that, at current rates, the United States will continue to be the largest internet user worldwide until at least 2010. However, the CNNIC contradicts this, predicting that within as little as two years China will overtake the United States as the largest internet user in the world.

Word of the Day: dissimulate

dissimulate \dih-SIM-yuh-layt\, transitive verb:
1. To conceal under a false appearance.
intransitive verb:
1. To hide one's feelings or intentions; to put on a false appearance; to feign; to pretend.

He was too drunk to attempt to dissimulate his loneliness. -- Neil Gordon, The Gun Runner's Daughter

Her suffering was largely psychological and easily dissimulated. -- George E. Delury, But What If She Wants to Die?

Spit 'n' Ride

Taxi drivers in China's financial capital of Shanghai are to be issued with "spit sacks" to curb their habit of rolling down their windows and hawking into the road, state media reported on Tuesday.

Phlegmatic cabbies will soon have a sack fixed to the metal grill that surrounds the driver's seat, so that both they and their passengers can make use of it.

Fidelity National Financial Expands Cultural Competency Program

In response to the dramatic population growth among Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Americans in California, Fidelity National Financial (FNF), one of the nation's leading providers of title insurance, specialty insurance and claims management services, today announced plans to expand the company's Cultural Competency Training Program throughout the state of California. The training program enables employees to better understand key demographics and traits of multicultural communities and to improve communications skills with multicultural customers.

Globalization and Localization Association to Host February Networking Event

The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA), an international non-profit association that promotes translation services, language technology and language management solutions, is hosting a regional networking event at Dave & Busters in Westminster, Colorado on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007.

Chinese President asks for improvement in Internet

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday called on government officials to promote and better regulate rapidly developing Internet services in China.

Hu made the call at a study session of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China (CPC), saying officials should "actively and creatively nurture a healthy online culture" that meets public demand. The rapid development of the Internet in China has played an important role in spreading information, knowledge, and CPC's policies, and it has also raised new issues for the country's cultural development, Hu said.

Word of the Day: inscrutable

inscrutable \in-SKROO-tuh-buhl\, adjective:
Difficult to fathom or understand; difficult to be explained or accounted for satisfactorily; obscure; incomprehensible; impenetrable.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright recalled the inscrutable comment of a French diplomat about the interaction of the various European organisations: "It will work in practice, yes. But will it work in theory?" -- Jonathan Fenby, France on the Brink

There is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny. -- Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness