Intercultural Communication and Translation News

For us at Kwintessential the Chancellor’s budget yesterday had some very positive news. As well as measures to get SME businesses growing and creating jobs, the headline grabber was that the government is pinning the future of the country’s growth on manufacturing and in particular green technologies.
Coincidently, the announcement came on the same day that Frost & Sullivan distributed a report stating that the global market for green technologies is set to grow to approximately $800 billion by 2012.  In 2009, global investments in renewable energy power generation (US$140.00 billion) far exceeded that of fossil-fuelled power generation (US$110.00 billion) demonstrating a mood within business and government that such technology is crucial.

“The number of green energy and climate-friendly projects is increasing rapidly in both the public and private sectors in the Asia Pacific,” says Frost & Sullivan Consultant Chukiat Wongtaveerat. “Moreover, high-initiative countries have allocated substantial funds for green investment themes, which include boosting green infrastructure, using low-carbon and renewable power, ensuring energy efficiency, as well as controlling water usage and waste generation.”

As well as the UK, many countries in the Asia Pacific have stepped up investment in green technology. Japan, South Korea and Australia are at the forefront of this drive, while emerging economies such as China and India intend to sustain their current pace of public and private investment in all areas of the environment sector including renewable energy, waste management and green technologies.
In the UK, George Osborne announced changes to environmental legislation that will see more money being put into green funds. He revealed that there will be an increase in capital for the Green Investment Bank, which will see the value rise to £3 billion. This will help boost investment in green technology, he stated, as well as the production of electricity through low-carbon infrastructure.
In 2009 Kwintessential spotted the potential growth in the green technology market. This led to R&D within our translation offering ensuring that we have the right translators with the right industry specific knowledge. As a result we now offer translation services specifically aimed at the sector mainly around assisting British companies export their products, services and technologies.
Yesterday’s news gives us confidence that the future is bright…….bright green.

Indian companies are striving to keep their female employees at work in a culture that expects women to put their familial commitments first.
As soon as a woman marries in India then it is assumed that they will spend their time caring for the needs of their husbands and any subsequent children they bear. Beyond the immediate family unit, Indian culture places a significant importance on extended families and therefore also expects women to care for their elderly relatives on top of their other familial commitments.
Women who work can be treated with disdain, especially by male employees, this cultural attitude means that the rate of female participation (in the workplace) in India is just 34.2 percent.
However, Indian companies are now beginning to challenge this androcentric attitude through a series of inclusive measures designed to encourage women to stay in work. In the future this could even encourage woman to take up careers, especially after university, because they will be assured that any future familial responsibilities will be respected and accommodated for.
The measures range from flexible transportation, to on-site childcare and adjustable working hours. Google, for example, has taxis on call for all employees allowing women to easily get home should there be an incident or medical problem with their children or relatives. Wipro takes this immediacy one step further by running children’s day camps on-site during the holidays to avoid women having to take time off work. Boehringer Ingelheim, a German drugmaker, pays expenses for female employees to be accompanied by their mothers on longer business trips, acknowledging the cultural aversion India has to women travelling alone.
Looking at the actual women themselves several companies have also employed initiatives that help women to prepare to return to work whilst on maternity leave; some firms emphasise the need for women to have career aspirations and work closely to make these aspirations real prospects for the future.
A case study quoted online by Bloomberg Businessweek reveals how Ernst and Young’s Indian operation was determined to help their employee Preethi Mohan Rao stay in work after the birth of her first child in 2006. During her maternity leave, the company called Rao monthly to check how things were and her ability (and desire) to return to work. They were able to persuade her that life with a career and a baby was a possibility; they provided her with a flexible schedule, nursery facilities on-site and a transitory period of one month where she built up her hours gradually.
Ernst and Young’s CEO Mahendra Jain reported that although there was no evidence of the financial benefits of such measures it was “how we do business here”. The company is just one example of the movement to promote equality in the workplace. In India, a country with a male-dominated and –designed workforce, the company has been able to increase its employee numbers by 1000 percent whilst maintaining an equal number of male and female workers.
The company spent thousands investing in Rao’s career and they weren’t about to let her give it up under the cultural pressures of motherhood.
For Rao, now a manager, the move has changed her life, how long before more women are offered this opportunity?

Those looking to expand their businesses internationally or to work abroad are often told they need to be ‘culturally aware’ – but what does this actually mean?

What does Culture mean to me?
Culture is a somewhat arbitrary term conjuring ideas ranging from theatrical productions to religious festivals. To put it simply: it is the way that things are performed (or not performed) in relation to the beliefs or inherent motives of the performer.

When we look at Culture we need to think about thought, processing, reasoning, method and connections. People from other cultures will not be ‘wired’ in the same as you; their alternative way of thinking about the world will affect how they approach business. Subsequently their method/s of processing information and the reasoning behind their actions may seem unusual from your point of you. This difference will affect how they make connections and communicate with other people and how they view relationships, status and society within the workplace.

Sign on the dotted line

The methodology behind the use of contracts can be remarkably different between cultures. It is important to consider these questions:

-Does a contract open or close a deal within this culture?
-Will using a written contract encourage or destroy trust in this business relationship?
-Who will sign the contract and therefore who is responsible for upholding the agreement?
Furthermore ‘Terms and Conditions’ can be employed formally or informally, orally or in writing; it is important to think about how ‘clear-cut’ the use of conditions are in a relevant culture.

Quantity or Quality
The way cultures think affects how they weight the importance of actions. North American culture tends to value ‘Quantity’ –ie. the most done in the least amount of time- whereas Eastern cultures tend to aspire for ‘Quality’, pursuing high standards even if this extends the length of time a project takes.

Information exchange
Effective communication, through whatever method, is key to connecting with another business and building a successful working relationship. For example, if you are trying to make a pitch to a group of people from another culture you must be aware how best they process information and the reasoning behind what they consider a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ proposition.

To do this the method of your presentation is vital. Some cultures relying on making a subjective connection with the presenter, they deem a conversational tone and often humour good practice in a pitch; however other cultures might find this besides-the-point or even unprofessional. Japanese business culture responds to statistics and being told objectively what a project entails.

Abstract Concepts
Understanding certain abstract concepts is also required to facilitate effective communication.  For Western cultures the most important challenge is to understand the, predominantly Eastern, concept of ‘Face’. Apart from its use within linguistic theory (where ‘face’ is categorised as a politeness principle) most Western people would not automatically understand what the principle of ‘face’ means or why it is vital to both Eastern business and society. It basically means that all people have the right to be respected and have their self-respect valued; actions that cause a person to feel foolish, stupid or embarrassed therefore undermines their ‘face’. Similar concepts of ‘respect’, ‘honour’ or ‘promise’ are also seen in other cultures.

Finally
An easy way to remember these cultural hints when in a new business situation is to ask yourself three questions:
a)    How does this person or do these people think differently to me?
b)    How might these thinking processes affect their actions?
c)    How should I adapt my actions accordingly to ensure efficient and respectful communication?

The impending 2011 Census is projected to cost the United Kingdom Government £480 million; a large percentage of this cost is being taken up by the multiple translations of both the Census and its relevant advertisements.

The Census, which will be conducted on March 27th, is a legal requirement for all citizens over the age of 18 and is conducted once every ten years. The last Census was completed in 2001 and cost around £200 million. The significant increase in cost is said to arise from inflation coupled with the biggest ten-year growth in the population the UK has ever seen, which means significantly more Censuses are required than in 2001.

More people also means more censuses in more languages, because two-thirds of the population growth came from migrants who have settled in the UK in the last ten years. Furthermore because immigrant communities are amongst the lowest ‘turn-out’ groups for on-time completion of the Census, the Office for National Statistics (ONS- which organizes the survey) is placing extra money and manpower into ensuring this group completes on time. The Census will be translated into 56 languages, whilst 30,000 people have been employed to help immigrant communities and other low ‘turn-out’ groups to complete their surveys on time.

This expense has subsequently caused many to question the financial viability of the Census just two years from the 2008/9 economic crisis; some have even questioned the validity of continuing the Census at all.

On one hand the Census is important in that it provides a huge amount of practical information for the public services. It helps local councils assess how many primary school places are needed each year and in the future could be vital in planning elderly care for the increasingly aging population. Given the number of immigrants who have set up home since 2001 it is necessary to find out how these ‘extra’ people’s needs has and will affect our public services. Without compulsory surveying we might not be able to systematically gain this information from these communities.

However, despite the Census being labeled ‘compulsory’ almost three million people failed to complete the 2001 edition. Therefore can we really trust the validity of its results when groups such as the immigrant community are under-represented through non-completion? These skewed results might actually worsen our public services if the government subsequently under-estimates the level of care these communities need.

Aside from the practical implications, the Census is a core tool for academics and historians. Researchers can track trends in culture and society since its first implementation in 1801, meaning the Census effectively helps ‘write’ the history of the UK. Without this resource we could not look to the findings of the past in order to predict the possible challenges of the future.

Yet although the majority of people accept these benefits there is still widespread discomfort as to the cost of the Census when the UK has just come out of recession. Some people think that migrants living in the UK should be able to complete the Census in English (or alternatively Welsh) and dislike paying for so translations to be produced. Although it is impossible to know if this is just a Census concern or part of their wider doubts about high immigration levels and its affect on the economy and public services.

With more information available to the us and the government everyday through internet browser cookies and other virtual data storage, perhaps people just feel that it is time that the ONS relied on this existing information instead of spending so much on promoting a survey that many people fail to complete.

The online community ‘asianlife’ published an interview this month with Michael W. Morris. Professor Morris teaches at Columbia Business School and has spent much of his academic career studying cultural diversity in the workplace. This article examines questions like: Is the West more creative then the East? Does the East conform and the West rebel? Can the East be original? Can the West’s creations ever be as socially advantageous as the East’s?

Prof. Morris and American Patent Law broadly define creativity “as a solution that is both novel and useful”. This benchmark is the line that many academics (and non-academics alike) draw between the cultures of the East and the West. Western workers are the supposedly ‘novel’ innovators; they examine what already exists but then fight to find new ways of achieving their goals. On the other hand Eastern workers strive to find new ‘useful’ technologies or methods that will be the most socially beneficial to all. How is this segregation supported?

Researchers often explicate this argument as the result of a Western culture that promotes individualism, ambition and competition against an Eastern culture that centres on social harmony, practicality and collectivism. Surely this is an unfair discrimination of both parties; boiling down to the view that Western workplaces are ruthless to the point of incoherence and that Eastern cultures are conformist to the point of stasis.

Prof. Morris here goes on to raise the counterargument that Eastern artists and architects such as Tadao Ando and Cai Guo-Qiang refute the idea that the East isn’t innovative. He suggests that these groundbreaking ideologists prove that the popular stereotype of the East as less creative is unfounded. The East doesn’t need to worry about moving from a manufacturing-based to design-based economy because it already has ‘creative’ people within its countries. However, doesn’t this argument, despite vindicating the East of ‘novel’ redundancy, actually refute Prof. Morris’ earlier statement that creativity is a dual-core process? He’s saying here that Eastern people can be ‘arty’ and ‘original’, but isn’t he just falling into the trap of bookmarking creativity under Western ‘imaginative’ ideals.

Later in the article Prof. Morris talks about bicultural people being able to exert both the “Western bias toward highly novel/original solutions [and] the Eastern bias towards highly useful/acceptable solutions”. But his own arguments that Eastern people can be creative seem to be based on a skewed Westernised interpretation of creativity. Perhaps the point he should be making is that although Eastern cultures are highly proficient and world leading in ‘useful’ creativity (imagine the modern technological world without the invention of the Walkman, CDs, the Camcorder or a world without printing, the compass or gunpowder) they also can be very successful at ‘novel’ creativity. The West wouldn’t be clamouring to re-make Japanese horror movies, make millions out of Pokémon and Yu-gi-oh! or stage Ai Weiwei’s ambitious installation ‘Sunflower Seeds’ at the Tate, if they did not feel that there was original and innovative thought coming out of the East.

The East is creative in its own way; you only have to visit Tokyo City to wonder at the innovative but socially appliable technology on display. An even better example might be the development of hybrid rice by Yuan Longping; his food source now yields enough to feed sixty million people and worldwide twenty percent of rice is grown from his 1970s hybrid strain. Proof then that the East is powerfully creative in its own way, but also that it is (and always has been) a strong force in the so-called ‘Western’ arts of creativity.

The publication of a new Ofsted report into Modern Language teaching in the United Kingdom (titled ‘Modern Languages –Achievement and Challenge 2007-2010’) has revealed that, although “significant efforts” have been made to improve teaching, students are being hindered by teachers’ “unpreparedness” to use languages in class.

The report follows up on Ofsted’s previous 2008 survey and highlights the main weakness in secondary language teaching to be the unwillingness of teachers to provide students with the opportunities to “listen to and communicate in the target language” in class. This might result in teaching that is restricted to textbooks, pre-prepared ‘conversations’ (where a student uses a language to explain their name, location, interests etc. to the teacher) or restricted grammar teaching.

Students are not prepared for the everyday spontaneities and rules of a language, meaning that they could be left unsure of how to participate in conversation with a speaker in their native location, for example on a family holiday or student exchange programme. The report specifically references that students “were not taught how to respond to everyday requests” and that “routine work” and “spontaneous” usage of languages was often limited.

The problem is the attitude taken towards language teaching. It is widely accepted that starting a child early in a linguistic environment significantly improves their chances of acquiring a second language. Bi-lingual children learn to associate objects, places or feelings with specific words in the two or more languages they use in their everyday life. If students are therefore restricted in the ‘normal’ uses of such languages then they could acquire a kind of external knowledge source that seems to have no relationship to their everyday lives.

Is this a problem with the way teachers are trained to teach languages, within the teaching body itself or is down to the curriculum-driven nature of the British education system? The change to non-statutory status in 2004 has certainly resulted in a decline in the student uptake of GCSE Modern Foreign Languages from 61% in 2005 to 44% in 2010. Again, if students feel that a subject has little relevance to their lives or if they haven’t enjoyed learning a language in the past then how can they be expected to spend two years furthering their education within the field.

Ofsted was clear to praise the work done in primary education, with “good progress” being made; this is important in that if students develop a taste for languages early then they might be more inclined to continue learning them throughout their time in secondary education. Yet more needs to be done to make languages seem relevant and important to the fourteen year olds who will be given the choice as to whether to pick a language to study at GCSE level.

In subjects such as Science and English efforts are often made to contextualize the curriculum to everyday scenarios; from the modern-day translations of Shakespearean colloquialisms to the application of scientific theorems onto everyday issues such as physics and driving or biology and plastic surgery. There needs to be a shift within the curriculum of languages to place more importance on the phattic exchanges of the everyday, rather than the usage of rigid question and answer-based oral examinations.

With more and more schools applying for academy status as the result of the Conservative-Liberal coalition, it will be interesting to see whether a broader less-restrictive curriculum in these institutions will have any effect on both the efficiency and uptake of Modern Foreign languages. Then we may be able to see whether it really is the teaching or the curriculum that is to blame for the state of language teaching in Britain.

A survey by ‘The Challenging Racism Project’ has revealed some encouraging results about the condition of racial relations in Australia. The lead researcher Professor Kevin Dunn, from the University of Western Sydney, said that the results have shown that “Australia is in fact a very tolerant country…but [that] there is a problem with racism [within some areas]”.
In general most people were revealed to be both supportive of and comfortable with the growing levels of multiculturalism. 12,500 people were surveyed over the past decade with 90 percent revealing they supported cultural diversity and nearly 80 percent reporting that they felt comfortable in the company of people from different cultural backgrounds. These findings were also fairly generalisable across all of Australia, supporting the view that the country is adapting well to an increasingly ethnically mobile world.
However, despite the general consensus that multiculturalism is a condition to be welcomed, the vast majority (84 percent) of respondents did state that they believed racial prejudice still existed in Australia. More alarmingly of these respondents 50 percent believed that certain cultural groups did not “fit in” to Australian society.  Could this reveal that an unconscious level of prejudice is still present in the Australian population despite their claims to be culturally-tolerant?
When the researchers looked further into racial prejudice they discovered that the factors most likely to affect tolerance were age, gender, educational level and linguistic abilities. From these factors older Australian-born men who lacked a formal education and only spoke English tended to be the most ‘racist’ group. As an area New South Wales proved to be the most prejudice, in comparison with other states, with the Strathfield region containing the highest levels of racism (in terms of reported insecurity to cultural differences and the figures of reported everyday racism).
As a case study within this area Strathfield is an interesting region; this is because it contains both higher levels of racism and a relatively diverse population. Prof. Dunn explained this paradox as being “not because people there are more racist…[but] because there’s more diversity”. Yet he also countered this generalized claim by stating that “ a person of non-Anglo background is actually less likely to experience racism in [those] places of diversity than if they were in places of less diversity”. Furthermore the survey evidence from other suburbs such as Ashfield and Burwood, which are also culturally diverse, showed no increased level of racial discomfort or discriminative acts.
In general there does appear to be some pattern between prejudice in an area and its level of diversity, but this is in no way a concrete causal relationship. The research raises the point that racism is often highly specific to small areas within a region, so within New South Wales the Far North and Central West achieved good levels of tolerance. Further to this Prof. Dunn also highlights that “longer histories of cultural diversity” and “local programmes confronting racism” play their part in affecting the levels of tolerance found in a region.
Overall, the message remains a positive one; Prof. Dunn hopes that the specific pockets of information regarding certain demographics and areas will help improve local racial strategies as well as wider national policy.