Intercultural Communication and Translation News

Foreign players will have to talk a good game under new immigration rules that are due to come into force in the autumn. Players from outside the European Union will have one year to learn English and to pass an exam to prove that they have mastered the basics. If they fail, they will be forced to pack up their boots and head home.

The measures are part of the new points-based visa system that the Government is introducing, which has been backed by Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager. “Personally, I am for the rule,” Wenger said. “I believe that if you go to a foreign country you have to have the ambition to speak the language. If you want to understand the culture of a country, it is very difficult if you do not speak the language.”

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Expatriate executives, who were the flavour of the season when India was riding high on a 9%-plus growth rate, are now becoming the first ones to get the pink slip as Indian industry, hit by the slowdown, starts looking within the country for inexpensive hires.

“Many of the expatriate executives, who have been asked to leave, are subject experts. Their value diminishes in a downturn as companies are no more expanding, and thus don’t need people to guide in a new venture,” says K Sudarshan, MD of executive search firm EMA Partners’ India unit.

Since October 2008, there has been a spate of replacements of expat executives with Indian professionals at the senior level.

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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.

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