Stereotypes! Americans are loud, British are cold, Chinese are inscrutable. That kind of thing. When we meet a problem or setback in international meetings and negotiations we all tend to retreat into our views of national stereotypes. But what if those stereotypes were true?
Nowadays executives in and outside the UK have to ‘meet’ on the phone in audio ‘conference calls’ and, less often, video conferences in what is for them a second language. They may be colleagues on the continent having to conduct meetings in English or English native speakers having to participate or run meetings in French or Spanish etc.
At SIMON & SIMON we sometimes receive enquiries from people who would be interested in working in cross cultural training. Drawing on his many years of experience Barry Tomalin outlines for other trainers – and companies – some of the approaches and methodology to consider when putting together a successful cultural training programme.
Today Spanish is the world’s fourth most commonly spoken language, after Chinese, English and Hindi. Spanish is the official language of around twenty countries, spoken in more than 40, and the mother tongue of over 400 million people. Spanish is at the moment the second language of international communication, and is being increasingly used in economic, political and cultural relations.