06/01/2006 - 06/02/2006

kwintessential launch new intercultural business communication tool

Kwintessential have added yet another intercultural tool to their suite of industry leading resources available for free on their website. At present these include:
Country Profiles - proving insightful guidance on over 25 countries.
Doing Business Guides - etiquette tips on over 20 world countries.
The new Intercultural Forum - which provides a place to ask and answer questions.
Cultural Awareness Quizzes - test your intercultural knowledge.
Intercultural Awareness - a card game based on Trumps but with an intercultural twist!
...and free Intercultural Articles - original material covering everything from etiquette to cross cultural communication.

We are now proud to present the Intercultural Business Communication tool. The idea behind the tool was to combine intercultural research (in this case drawing upon the work of Professor Geert Hofstede) with practical tips. We thought it necessary to introduce people to the academic side of intercultural research and training as when approaching the subject matter it is important to have a framework to work within; once this has been established it is then easier to understand differences in areas such as etiquette, communication styles or behaviour.

Once you use the tool you will see how simple yet effective it is. All you do is choose your own country from a drop down list and another country to compare it with. We then give you a graph that shows, according to Hofstede's research, the cultural differences between them. Not only that, but we then provide you with real tips on things to look out for when you may be doing business in a country or working with their nationals.

Enough talking - try it out yourself - Intercultural Business Communication
Enjoy!

how culture impacts foster care

An ABC News/Time national poll on foster care issues showed 31 percent of non-Whites surveyed answered "Yes," when asked, "Would you seriously consider becoming a foster parent or adopting a foster child, or not?" compared to 19 percent of Whites.

The survey result underscored the belief that cultural backgrounds have an impact on attitudes about foster care. Terry L. Cross, executive director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), said, "Cultural norms, including sustaining strong extended families, handing down of culture and traditions, and establishing a positive identity, contribute to perceptions of our foster care system and notions of your place within that system. What is missing from the survey is how many people would support 'kinship care,' or relative care, over foster care placements in a stranger's home."

Women`s forum champions positive awareness of cultural and gender differences

More than 40 people turned out to listen to this year’s IMEX Women’s Forum presentation on ‘Women in the workplace’ from two of the most experienced and respected women in the international business travel industry.

The ‘two Marys’, Mary Casey, Vice President of Strategic Account Management for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and Mary Power, President of the Convention Industry Council, shared their experiences on how best to manage the differences between men and women’s behaviour in the workplace. A diverse and multilingual audience at The Women’s Forum also discussed issues of cultural difference and business dress code with guests broadly agreeing that gender is generally less influential than a detailed understanding of personality types in 21st century business life.

U.S. executives warn expatriate tax increase may backfire

The sudden, and retroactive, imposition by the U.S. Congress last week of much higher taxes on Americans living abroad has left individuals and companies scrambling to regroup, while many executives and entrepreneurs assert that the move could backfire by hurting U.S. business interests at home and abroad.

us army invest $10 million in hand-held phraselators

Imagine you're a U.S. soldier in Baghdad, you don't speak a word of Arabic and you want to shout a command to a pack of angry-looking insurgents: "Drop your weapons!"

You could perhaps fire warning shots. Or you could take out a handheld computer from your belt strap, use a stylus to scroll through a list of preprogrammed phrases on a touchscreen and then flip the device around to show enemy combatants the command in Arabic.

As it happens, that bulky handheld computer is mainly what the Pentagon has given soldiers for translation purposes. Since placing its first rush order in late 2001, the U.S. military has bought 5,000 so-called Phraselators, a 20-ounce, 31/2-by-7-inch device. Total estimated cost: $10 million.

da vinci code gets vietnamese translation

Issued late last September by the Culture and Information Publishing House, the translation of Dan Brown’s novel into Vietnamese was immediately criticized by readers and language experts over the quality of the translation. The Culture and Information Publishing House temporarily ceased printing the novel and invited translator Duong Tuong to revise the first translation, which was undertaken by Do Thu Ha.

afrikaans not under threat says minister

The development and advancement of African languages would not be at the expense of Afrikaans, Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan said on Friday.

"I want to emphasise that Afrikaans... is being actively promoted and protected by the government, the hysteria of certain academics notwithstanding," he told MPs during debate on his department's budget vote. Afrikaans was probably the third most spoken tongue in the country, and it was wrong to refer to it as a minority language.

bridging the culture gap

After having agreed on all the financial, legal and technical issues, the regional manager of Trans-Oceanic, Mr Ted Goodfellow, went to Riyadh to wrap up the final details and to sign the contract with Arabco. During the meeting with the top Arabco executives Goodfellow said casually, "We, at Trans-Oceanic, are really looking forward to working with you here in the Persian Gulf!"

At that there was a moment of shocked silence on the Arabco side of the conference table. Then the three senior executives arose and strode angrily out of the room, breaking off negotiations. Bewildered Goodfellow looked at the two junior Saudis who had remained behind. "What happened here?" he asked the young Arabs across the table. "Did I say something wrong?" After some hesitation one of the Arabco employees explained that in Saudi Arabia, the body of water in question is called Arabian Gulf. By misnaming it Goodfellow had unintentionally implied that the gulf belonged to Iran - a country which Saudi Arabia at that time considered hostile and threatening.

Such misunderstandings are rampant when companies do business globally. And to iron out such creases in the fabric of relationships it is essential for the executives to be alert to the cross-cultural differences that can wreck even the most promising business deals.

world cup 2006: phrase of the day - one-two

The one-two describes the quick interchange between players usually used to get past a player or two.

word of the day: neoteric

neoteric \nee-uh-TER-ik\, adjective:
Recent in origin; modern; new.

Electronic books, they say, are asking them to make a mental transition -- to veer from their ingrained appreciation for the printed books that fill our nation's more than 120,000 public, academic and special interest libraries -- to depend on a neoteric gizmo that disrupts the sacred union between man and book. -- Charlotte Moore, "Bedtime for binderies?", Austin American Statesman, July 28, 2000

is usa suffering from diversity fatigue?

Has it become okay to exclude again?

Perhaps one of the most treasured of American rights is the freedom of association. This is the right to hang out with whomever we want, wherever we want. It's a complicated right, because when we hang out with "people like us," inevitably someone gets kept out. Where and how to draw the line is a question we all seem to be struggling with right now.

google offers hebrew for gmail service

Google is strengthening its foothold in the Israeli market. The company is launching a Hebrew-language interface for its e-mail service, Gmail. Google Israel says many Israelis already use Gmail, and the new Hebrew-language interface will make it easier for them and Hebrew speakers worldwide to use Gmail in their mother tongue.

Verizon Wireless Customers Can Brush Up On Foreign Language Skills

Put away that passport - with Verizon Wireless' foreign language applications for Get It Now(R)-enabled wireless phones, customers don't have to travel around the world to brush up on their Spanish, French, Japanese or German. With Verizon Wireless, the nation's leading wireless provider, customers get the nation's most reliable wireless network and easily accessible foreign language tools all in the palms of their hands through several applications available through Get It Now.

kuwait to lose tax-free status for expats?

In a bid to find ways to create an extra source of income in the future other than oil, the Kuwaiti government is reportedly looking into the introduction of income tax in the country, as part of an intended tax reform project to be tabled in parliament this autumn. Although the Arabic-language media yesterday reported the Minister of Finance Bader Al-Humaidhi as saying "there is no intention to impose income taxes on individuals," the news left many expatriates and citizens alike reviewing their situation.

preserving a language: tla'amin

Linguists describe the process of translation as decoding the meaning of a source text and recoding that meaning into the target language. The goal of translation is to ensure both the source and target texts communicate the same message. But what happens when there is no source text?

Until recently, the Tla'Amin (Sliammon) language was a purely oral language, passed from generation to generation through stories and song. In recent years, local first nation educators developed a written form of the tongue, racing against time to record the language with the help of the only resource they can access: aging elders.

divided by a common language

An article we came across looks at the difference in use of a common language and cross cultural problems it poses. In this instance for a reception at a hotel:
"....After an hour of discussion, the GM asked why 16 people would wear tuxedos and ball gowns to stand and mingle? We both had a great laugh once we realized that what the U.S. planner meant as “formal� in this case did not mean a black-tie affair, but an elegant setting.

world cup 2006: phrase of the day - made himself big

A term used to describe a goalkeeper confronting an uncoming player. They usually make themselves big by standing up tall and spreading out their arms while charging the approaching player.

word of the day: stormy petrel

stormy petrel \STOR-mee-PET-ruhl\, noun:
1. Any of various small sea birds of the family Hydrobatidae, having dark plumage with paler underparts; also called storm petrel.
2. One who brings discord or strife, or appears at the onset of trouble.

But far from a 'pet' of the Communist regime, Gorky, the "stormy petrel of the revolution," also condemned the revolution early on as a "cruel experiment" with the Russian people "doomed to failure." -- Valentina Kolesnikova, "Maxim Gorky: Hostage of the Revolution", Russian Life, June 1, 1996

Of the unpredictable and constantly angry Paracelsus, for example, the stormy petrel who convulsed the staid medical establishment of the sixteenth century by demanding radical reforms in clinical thinking, he wrote: "This first great revolt against the slavish authority of the schools had little immediate effect, largely on account of the personal vagaries of the reformer--but it made men think." -- Sherwin B. Nuland, "The Saint", New Republic, December 13, 1999