When you're travelling to a new country, the language barrier is, by itself, difficult to cross. Worse still, however, is not sharing the same cultural sentiments. Cross-cultural miscommunication can be pretty amusing and could be the highlights of a trip abroad, but not so if you're there on business. A misplaced gesture or comment astray may evince, not laughter, but a genuine frown.
Maybe you'll be gladder to introduce yourself to a country much earlier.
Once you know where you're going, a good place to begin your trip is WorldBiz, an exhaustive site providing business and cultural profiles of over 120 countries. For instance, if you have Germany on your itinerary, concise reports on everything from introducing yourself and making your English easier for the German ear, to subtle rules of negotiation, their drinking culture and courtesies of visiting a German home are available - giving you an instant picture of its people.
For traditional countries like Japan, explanation of concepts like Ringi, Ringisho, and Newamashi convey the highly tradition-bound decision-making process. There are comprehensive Pre-departure Reports for each destination while the Business Briefings section encapsulates international business protocol. The site also provides links to the daily news of each country.
Mostly a mirror site, Business Culture offers the same information in a slightly different format.
Billed as a site on 'Business Etiquette and Culture in US Top Trading Partner Nations,' Executive Planet also has a lot of communication help for major countries. The information here is available in the form of short articles like 'What you should know before negotiating', 'How to address someone', 'Acceptable public conduct', 'Popular topics of conversation', 'corporate gift-giving', and so on.
When you look at a country, say London, you also get links to other useful sites giving business traveller information, the city's history, venues and other resources for corporate events. Business Traveller also has some city guides with info on getting around, business hours, entertainment, hotels, eating out and even tipping.
If you really wish to plunge into a country's history and culture, About does it for you. A search engine of sorts, this place has a huge collection of informational articles and informal opinions on any given country.
More to the point, the Mirriam Webster International Business Communications gives you useful details such as postal address elements, native names, locality and street names, and even personal or official titles for a few countries.
While visiting these sites will make you more secure, conveying all you know to your foreign business partner may be a bit dicey. Making the effort less treacherous is TravLang. Simply go to its Foreign Languages section, choose a language you know and one you want to learn, and it throws up the most useful sets of words you need to know in an alien country. The choice of languages include Creole, Hawaiian, Japanese, Yiddish, Gujarati, Bengali, Espanol, Spanish, and more.
Translated words are subdivided under the heads -- Basic Words, Numbers, Shopping/ Dining, Travel, Directions, Places, Time and Dates. Basic Words lists foreign terms for 'Yes', 'No', 'Thank you', 'I don't understand', etc. Shopping / Dining covers asking how much an item costs, ordering, and asking for the bill. Importantly, most words have pronunciation guides, each word bearing a sound file.
There are translating dictionaries too. So if you came to, say, Poland, and fell in love with someone, visit this section, choose Polski and type 'love'. You will find all combinations from "I love you" to "I'm crazy about you" -- just the way they say it in Poland. Beware of translating idiomatic expressions yourself though - When Pepsi's slogan 'Come Alive With Pepsi' was translated into Chinese for their market, it read 'Pepsi Brings Back Your Dead Ancestors!'
While Travlang ensures survival, Your Dictionary is the complete kit. With over 240 language dictionaries, it covers even little-known ones like Kazakh, Macedonian, Saami, and more. There are also speciality dictionaries in English for law, computing, business, finance, etc., as well as a dictionary of Chinese-Japanese-Korean Buddhist terms. You could start learning a whole new language.
When it comes to formal greetings, new languages still remain a gamble you don't want to take. Eglobal Greetings is a paid service offering bilingual greeting cards that are promised to be grammatically and culturally right.
While communicating with your counterpart in his / her own language can be a pleasing experience, English still remains the language of international business. There are a number of places you could go to in order to brush up on your English. Like this page which has tips on making business, technical and scientific speeches. A simpler site is Better English for common abbreviations used in telexes, faxes and business letters. It also contains grammar exercises, explaining, for instance, 'When do you say 'per mile' and when 'a mile'?'
To learn English at a sustained pace and get certified, visit the British Council page and look for its BEC (Business English Certificate) exams, a series of proficiency tests designed to meet international business needs of learners of English as a foreign language.
Last stop, some good reading on this truly foreign business, at Speaking.com which hosts insightful articles on business in general, etiquette, communication, international business, management, multiculturalism.
Off to the new country, then, with much groundwork done. All you need now are simpler things like a spirit of adventure, respect for another way of life, and a little bit of love.
Quick links of sites mentioned in the article
WorldBiz
Business Culture
Business Traveller
Executive Planet
Mirriam Webster International Business Communications
TravLang
Your Dictionary
Eglobal Greetings
Better English
Business English Certificate Exams
Speaking.com
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