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Culture speaks louder than words
Appreciating that individuals from different cultural backgrounds have different cultural customs, business etiquette and expectations is vital for success in international business.
Newcastle-based company Williams Language Solutions has just developed a guide on dos and don’ts when travelling abroad in 10 different countries, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Russia, Hungary, USA, Japan, the Netherlands, and Tunisia. “In cultural terms, we explain the best ways to make contact, host a meeting, enjoy a meal of visit the factory or offices abroad”, says Managing Director Stefania Williams.“ The knowledge of cultural differences is also important when meeting foreign guests at home. Nobody wants to offend others unintentionally, and our guides teach those little culture p’s and q’s which are vital in business”.
Each guide was prepared by a linguist consultant with marketing and sales experience in the country with the specific goal of raising awareness about cultural diversities. The guides are available in paperback or downloadable, ideal for internet use and intranet sites, and are also used as part of the cultural awareness training offered by the Company to businesses.
“Business etiquette is part of the cultural marketing programme offered to our clients, together with translations of press releases, catalogues, company documents, and most importantly, localisation of websites. The internet is serving as an international business medium; if you reach the rest of the world with your website your hope is that the rest of the world will then respond in some way, and you must be prepared to it.”
According to Stefania, a linguist should always be consulted when creating a new brand name or logo. She explains that Gerber, the name of a baby food maker, is also a French word for vomiting. “Simple faux pas can sink you,” she says. Learning the customs and culture of a foreign country signals communication competence and shows a great respect for others. Culture speaks louder than words.
For further information on the Travel dos and don’ts guides, contact Stefania Williams at 01912860612 or visit www.translate-it.org.
14/05/2008 at 12:57 pm
The words we use have 7% impact on our communication, which means that 93% is processed through non-verbal communication: gestures, body language, facial expressions are used by all of us consciously and unconsciously in our personal and business relationships. Can we label this 93% with the word culture? I think so.
Some gestures have an international meaning, such as the hitchhiking gesture, others are typical of a particular background, i.e. our cultural baggage. For example, Italians are well known over the world for communicating with gestures as well as with words. Sometimes, they even express themselves only with gestures!
A foreigner visiting Italy, either for business or holiday, should benefit from the knowledge of the meaning of many gestures, which may vary from region to region. It is therefore useful to know as many gestures as possible, to understand others and to be understood by them.
Never underestimate the power of non-verbal communication, it’s vital in intercultural dialogue (many example in our book How to Speak Culturese). Each social category has its own jargon, its symbolical language, and its members communicate by using signs and ideograms. On a screen used to send emails, for example, there are many ideograms to express how to send, receive, reply, or forward a message.
Non-verbal communication helps to see more of a culture and in a better way. A foreigner who simply learns a language can express and communicate as s/he wishes, but s/he may find it difficult to understand an interlocutor using gestures. Gestures are signs, and sign language is a primitive code of communication. Gestures evolve as culture and social aspects change. For example, the ‘telephone’ gesture was once made by rotating the index finger around the ear. Nowadays, we dial a number by pressing keys, that’s why we simulate the receiver with the hand, with the little finger downwards and close to the mouth and the thumb upwards placed close to the ear. In our technologically advanced society, will Italians introduce a new gesture to represent the request ‘email me’? Or…is the internet changing or affecting the way we communicate through the body language? Should the % of the ways we communicate, the “circle of communication” be changed now that many of us mostly communicate via forums, chats, or just from this side of the keyboard to that side of the keyboard?
Stefania
Many thanks to Bruno Munari and his book on Italian gestures for the references in this contribution