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Becoming A Master Student, Concise, Tenth Edition
Dave Ellis
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Chapter 9: Culture In Translation
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Most of the correspondence between American or Canadian firms and foreign firms takes place in English; in other cases, the services of a qualified interpreter (for oral communication) or translator (for written communication) may be available. Even when the language is the same, however, different meanings can result.
Consider, for example, the miscommunication that occurred when these phrases were translated from English into the local language:
| American English: | "The Electrolux is the strongest vacuum available." | | British English: | "Nothing sucks like the Electrolux." | | | | English: | "Got milk?"
| | Spanish: | "Are you lactating?"
| | | | English: | "Come alive with Pepsi."
| | Thai: | "Bring your ancestors back from the dead with Pepsi."
| | | | English: | "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
| | Russian: | "The vodka is good, but the beef is rotten."
| | | | English: | "I'm just tickled to death to be here."
| | Russian: | "Scratch me until I die."
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When communicating with international business colleagues, customers, venture capitalists, and other important audiences, you will often find not only language differences but also other differences.
Continental (European) style calls for the use of periods rather than hyphens or parentheses to separate parts of a phone number: for example, 317.555.1086 rather than 317-555-1086 or (317) 555-1086. Dot-style telephone numbers seem to be gaining popularity in the United States, where they are sometimes viewed as classier and more elegant.
The British (and current and former British colonies, such as Canada) use these spellings: behaviour, centre, theatre, authorise, cheque, labour, legalise, organisation, practise, and programme, among others. Unless your spelling checker uses a British dictionary, it will probably reject those spellings. The British also use holiday instead of vacation; lift instead of elevator; and underground instead of subway.
American put periods inside closing quotation marks, whereas the British place them outside. Also, British usage calls for single quotation marks where American usage calls for double quotation marks. Thus, Americans would type "I see." The British would type 'I see'. Also, British and Continental style omits periods after Dr., Mr., Ms., and other courtesy titles, as well as, after Jr. and Sr.
Americans and the British use a period to indicate a decimal point (1.57%), whereas some other countries (such as France) use a comma instead (1,57%).
American writers use a month/day/year format (such as June 15, 2003, or 06/15/03). Outside the United States, a day/month/year format is the norm (15 June 2003, or 15-06-03). The influential International Organization for Standardization, a 130-nation federation dedicated to global uniformity, has issued ISO 8601, which requires putting the year first, month second, and day last (2003-06-15). Because so many companies seek ISO approval to simplify international trade, this year-month-day style will likely become more prevalent everywhere. (Keep in mind, however, that 20 to 30 years ago, most futurists were predicting that the United States would rapidly convert from the conventional to the metric system of measurement; so far, that prediction has not come to pass.)
How do you think the differences in culture could affect you in the workplace? Do you think different modes of communication, such as email and video- and tele-conferencing will have an impact on global uniformity? In what ways?
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