Work Sheet B

1. Politeness is very important in your culture. When you meet people, you must show an interest in them and their family. This is particularly important if you have a request to make of them, as they must be convinced that you like them for themselves – not for anything they can do for you.

2. In your culture when you are talking to people, it is polite to look down except when you have a problem understanding what they are saying.

3. When you are speaking, you should stand several feet away from the person you are talking to. This is so you will not breathe on them and spread germs.

4. To say thank you politely, you put your hands together and bow your head without speaking.

To make our students understand the importance of understanding and valuing other country customs and traditions we ask them to do a culture quiz. After this, the students read the text to see if they were right. Then we organize a discussion and ask our students if Kazakhs have any traditions that may surprise the representatives of other cultures. As we teach Business English and English for Economists, our examples are taken mostly from the business world.

There are many different traditions in addressing people in the world. In some cultures people use each other’s first names immediately, in other cultures, the first name is only used by the close friends and family. And in some cultures the first name is the family name and the second name is the given name.[4]

As the example, we use the text “ A Singaporean – American Encounter”

A partner in one of New York’s leading private banking firms went to Singapore to meet one of his clients. In Singapore there are three different cultural traditions: Chinese, Malaysian and English. His clients were ethnic Chinese.

The banker wanted to do everything correctly, so on his way to Singapore he memorized the names of three representatives he would meet. In the first meeting with the representatives and some business contacts, he began by addressing the top man, Lo Win Hao, as Mr. Hao. As the meeting continued, he made sure to address each representative by name. After a while, one of his contacts passed a note to the American banker. The note said, “Too friendly, too soon”.

After reading the text, the students discuss the following questions:

1. What did the note mean?

2. Why is it important to know about the traditions for addressing your foreign business partner?

3. Have you ever been called by the wrong name or was your name pronounced incorrectly? How did you feel? What did you do? Did you correct a person or correct the mistake?

Using this text as a starting point, we organize a short-term project, in which students compare ways of addressing people in Kazakhstani culture, Turkish, and American cultures. The final product of such a project is students’ short presentations.

Students can understand the importance of culture awareness doing this simple task: Read about the problems companies had in selling their goods. What went wrong?

1. Western companies had problems selling refrigerators in Japan until they changed the design to make them quieter.

2. In Saudi Arabia newspaper adverts for an airline showed an attractive hostess serving champagne to happy passengers. A lot of passengers cancelled their flight reservations.

3. In airline company called itself Emu, after the Australian bird. But Australians didn’t want to use the airline.

4. A TV commercial for a cleaning product showed a little girl cleaning up the mess her brother made. The commercial caused problems to Canada.

5. Several European and American firms couldn’t sell their product in Dubai when they run advertising campaign in Arabic.

6. A soap powder ad had a picture of dirty clothes on the left, a box of soup in the middle and clean clothes on the right. The soap didn’t sell well in the Middle East.

7. A company had problems when it tried to introduce instant coffee to the French market.

8. A toothpaste manufacturer couldn’t sell its products in parts of South East Asia.

9. An American golf ball manufacturer launched its products in Japan packed in boxes of four. It had to change the pack size.

10. A ladies’ electric shaver was sold well throughout Europe but not in Italy.

Here are the reasons of the problems, but they are in the wrong order. Number them from 1 to 10. How many you get right?

1. In Japanese word for “four” sounds like the word “death”. Things don’t sell well four-packed.
2. People thought the commercial too sexist and reinforced old male/female stereotypes.
3. Unveiled women don’t walk with men in Saudi Arabia and alcohol is illegal.
4. 90% of the population came from Pakistan, India, Iran and Arabic was the wrong language.
5. It seems Italian men prefer ladies’ legs unshaven.
6. The advertisers forgot that in this part of the world people usually read from right to left.
7. The Emu can’t fly.
8. The people in this area didn’t want white teeth they thought drake-strained teeth were beautiful and they tried to blacken them.
9. Japanese houses were small and sometimes walls were made of paper. It was impossible for the refrigerators to be quiet.
10. Making “real” coffee was an important part of French way of life. Instant coffee was too casual.

Case study is often used by us to present cultural differences and how they can affect negotiations and business.

Whom should we send?

A US- based computer software company has recently heard from a Nigerian manufacturing company. The Nigerian company has expressed interest in one of software programs. The Nigerian company has invited the US Company to Nigeria to demonstrate the software.

The US Company has been very successful domestically, but this will be the first time it has ever ventured into the international business world. The company would like to expand and begin to build status in the international community. Being successful with the negotiations would help the company very much.

The top managers have come together to plan a business strategy for the Nigerian business trip. They must also decide who the most appropriate person to send to Nigeria to represent the company is. The person chosen must be a highly competent negotiator, able to persuade the Nigerians that the company’s software is the best in the market and exactly what the Nigerian company needs. Therefore, they must think very carefully about the qualities of the person they send.

After comprehension checking questions, we ask students to decide in groups which qualities can affect the negotiations. The students rank them in an order of importance.

1 Very important. 2 Not important

1. Educational background (degrees, universities, attendant)

2. Sex (male, female)

3. Age.

4. Technical knowledge of the company’s product.

5. Seniority and experience in the company.

6. Personal connections.

7. Social competence, good social skills. Social status in the community.

8. Power and authority position within the company (power to make decisions).

9. Symbolic position of authority within the company (no power to make decisions).

10. Respect for authorities and rules.

After the students discussed the qualities, they read descriptions of three possible people of the company could send to Nigeria. One of the representatives is a woman. The students decide in groups who their final choice is and why.

They should take into the consideration the following:

Which of negotiator qualities of the chart their choices have?

Would they consider sending a second person? Why or why not?

Do they think they should consider the characteristics of the other country’s negotiator’s when deciding whom to send? Why or why not?

Then Group A reads Nigerian cultural information, Group И – the US cultural information. They try to find the answers to the following questions:

1. If you are seriously interested in doing business, what qualities are most important in the negotiators you send? Why?

2. How important is age?

3. What gives a person respect in a company?

4. What other qualities are important in a negotiator? What qualities are not important?

5. What is the role of women in business?

6. What is more common, negotiating in groups or alone?

Meeting as a whole class the students discuss;

1. Which cultural differences could cause the most serious problems between the Nigerian and the U.S. negotiators?

2. Based on your notes, what person or people do you think would be most appropriate to send to Nigeria? Does your choice differ from your group initial choice?

3. Who would be the least appropriate person to send? Why?

Next case study is connected with training of the international executive.

Many companies are now helping their employees build their cross-cultural communication skills. These companies offer cultural training workshops and seminars. Each year more and more companies are offering this type of training. They realize the importance of preparing their employees for very different and challenging international business world.

Imagine that you and your group mates are salespeople for a sports clothes manufacturer which has been very successful domestically, but has never had any success internationally. The president of your company would like to try the international market again. This time she would try exporting products to Turkey.

She would like to set up a training program for the sales team (you and your group mates). She has asked you to arrange a meeting to discuss what type of oversea training you should receive. She has given you the following list of possible topics to be converted in training program. The program is designed to help you prepare for both living and working in Turkey. Unfortunately your company can afford only five workshops due to money problems.

Possible training programs to be offered:

History of Turkey social practices;

Turkish language;

Turkish domestic management styles (management within Turkish companies).

Turkish economy;

Turkish distribution practices (distribution of goods in Turkey).

Turkish negotiation styles.

Turkish politics.

Turkish cultures.

Legal aspects of Turkish business;

Organization of Turkish business;

Culture shock.

Which of the topics are most important for an overseas training program? On your own decide which five topics are the most important and rank those five topics in order of importance. 1 = most important. Than share your decisions in small groups. As a group, create one final list of five topics.

Teaching Business English we usually ask our students to prepare country presentation.