Doing Business in China

Adapted from an article by Jack Daniels at Buyers Bridge Corporation

 

Is your company doing business in China?  Are you thinking about entering the Chinese market?  If so, please read these tips to produce results.

Focus on products that have high labor content value. Products whose selling price is dominated by raw material costs (corrugated stock, sheet metal, bulk wire, chemical feedstock, etc.) aren’t likely to cost less in China than they do at home. Instead, focus your procurement efforts on value ..read more

Funny Translations

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.

Packing for Every Situation with an Eye on Etiquette – adapted from an article by Marybeth Bond

No matter how well traveled you are, it’s always a challenge to figure out how to dress in different situations.  Clothing that is considered normal at home may be inappropriate elsewhere.  For example, baseball caps, sweatshirts and sweatpants can identify you, in some countries, as an unsophisticated foreigner who has no sense of the local culture.

What you pack depends on where you’re traveling.  For instance, many churches in Europe and South America frown upon visitors wearing shorts and/or low-cut, halter-neck ..read more

Festival of the Sun

Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun, was celebrated by the ancient Incas during their winter solstice (on June 24) in honor of the Inca god of the sun. Although it was banned during the period of the conquisadors, it was revived by the Peruvian Quecia Indians in 1944. Today it is a major Peruvian festival which begins in the mountain city of Cusco and proceeds to an ancient amphitheater a few miles away.

Linguistic Borrowing

Freign words that become part of our language:

Malay & Tagalog Words ketchup:from kicap, meaning “fish sauce” launch:a type of boat orangutan:from orang, meaning “man” and hutan, “wilderness, jungle”

Tagalog (northern Philippines) boondocks:from bundok, meaning “mountain.” During the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, the word was adopted by American soldiers, who used it to refer to any far-off or wild place. Later it passed into the general vocabulary.

Bad Translations

Cultural ignorance and bad translations can have catastrophic consequences. By working with Rapport International, you can save your company embarrassing mistakes. Read about these marketing and translation missteps that were costly. A cookbook intended for sale in the Middle East lists one of the ingredients for a recipe as cranberries. The problem is that cranberries are only found in North America. There is also the clothing packaging designed around the color which represents prostitution ..read more

Linguistic Borrowing

Here is a list of Japanese words that are so incorporated in our language that they no longer seem foreign.

futon: a type of mattress. geisha: from gei, meaning “art” and sha, “person.” honcho: from a word meaning “squad leader.” kamikaze: is translated literally as “divine wind,” from the name of a typhoon that saved Japan by destroying the Mongol navy in 1281. karaoke: from kara, meaning “void, empty” and oke(sutora), meaning “orchestra.” In a case of reverse borrowing, the Japanese word okesutora came from ..read more

Forward French Thinkers

As posted in The Global Voice blog by Culture Coach International CEO Kari Heistad; “The French government has put forward legislation that would see women make up half the figures in France’s leading boardrooms within the next five years. In a bill modeled on similar legislation already in place in Norway, all companies listed on the Paris stock exchange would have to gradually add women directors to their boards until they make up 50 percent of board members by ..read more

Linguistic Borrowing

Ann-Marie Imbornoni writes in her article “Gung ho, Tycoon, Amuck” about the linguistic borrowing that has occurred over many centuries. Ms. Imbornoni notes that it occurs “whenever English speakers have come into contact with other cultures, whether through conquest and colonization, trade and commerce, immigration, travel, or war. Many of these borrowed words no longer seem foreign, having been completely assimilated into English.”

Cantonese (southern China, Hong Kong)

chop suey – from a word meaning “miscellaneous bits.” chow – ..read more

English Equivalents

These words do not have direct equivalents in English. Some of them would definitely be useful for English-speakers, what do you think? 1. Yoko meshi (Japanese): literally ‘a meal eaten sideways’, referring to the peculiar stress induced by speaking a foreign language 2. Duende (Spanish): a climactic show of spirit in a performance or work of art, which might be fulfilled in flamenco dancing, or bull-fighting, etc. 3. Guanxi (Mandarin): in traditional Chinese society, you would build up good guanxi by giving gifts ..read more

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