مکالمه

BEC : Global - Conversation

AJ: Our topic now is the idea or the subject of global business. I’m not going to say globalization because that has some connotations which are a little negative sometimes, but more just this idea of global business. That business is becoming global and that most economies in the world now are connected. Things are commonly manufactured in one place and possibly packaged in another and designed in another country and then actually sold in other countries. This is all very normal now.

What this means from a practical standpoint is that we all have to think globally now. We can’t really afford to just be nationalistic or just be in our own little world in our own country anymore. Obviously, this is a strong argument for learning English and becoming a powerful English speaker because English is the global language of business. Like it or not, that’s just the way it is. I’m sure that’s why people study English and business English and that’s what these lessons are all about because you’re going to need to communicate with people from other countries and most likely you’ll be doing that in English.

But, even beyond just the English aspects of it, it’s really important to get a wider, more global world view because people think differently in other countries. They eat differently. They live differently, etc. Everything is different and if you’re not familiar with that there are a lot of culture clashes that can happen. So at the very least you need to, I think, read up on other countries and learn about other cultures, especially if you’re dealing with them in your job or your business or you possibly could.

Travel is another important one. The more you can travel internationally the better, I think, because that will start to open you up and connect you to other cultures, other ways of thinking and living, all of these things. We all have to just become much more global in our understanding, I think.

George: Very, very true. I agree. The world is now the marketplace for just about every business, every business at least that’s big enough to supply a sufficient amount of products. I think about some of the American companies and the impact they have and how much of their revenue is derived from other parts of the world besides the United States.

One right at the top is McDonald’s. I think McDonald’s is probably in just about every country that people want to eat hamburgers or chicken. IMB certainly has been a global business for a long, long, long, long time. Apple is a global business. Home Depot I believe has gone globally. Every aspect of every industry that you can imagine has become a global business.

Take the example of Coca-Cola, there’s a great one. They have made millions and millions and millions of dollars outside of the United States.

That’s a company that was formed right in downtown Atlanta and became very popular in downtown Atlanta and now they are just all over the world.

As you say, the international language of business seems to be English. I’m not going to venture a guess as to why that is, I’m just glad it is because I’m not very good at other languages, but that’s the way it is. So you’re making the first step here in trying to improve your business English skills, your English skills and your business English skills and that’s critical because in a global environment, in a global business world, people from all countries are going to be interfacing with each other and having deals of various kinds across the boarders of many countries.

It could be from Europe to the United States to Asia. There’s quite a range right there. So there’s a lot to be said that we need to think of the world as our customer nowadays.

AJ: Yes, definitely. I mean every time I read the newspaper or read the news there are always stories about the global aspect of business about connections between different countries. South America and China, for example, their economies are now interlinked and, of course, China and North America are strongly connected and China with Europe and Japan with all of those regions.

They’re all just getting woven together and so it’s very, very common now to have business projects within any business that involve people from all different countries. I mean they might be within your same company, so you might be dealing with someone who’s in Japan and then someone else is in Europe and another one is in North or South America and you’re working on a project together. It could alliances between companies where your company is doing a joint project with some company in another country or you have a mix of customers and vendors and they’re all from different companies.

Just manufacturing now is a multinational thing where the parts might be made in one place and then they’re shipped to another country where they’re put together and then they’re shipped to another country where they’re sold.

Then you have to deal with people in all those countries and, of course, when you’re doing that you’ve got the language issue, which you know as we’ve been talking and I think everyone knows that English is the main global language.

Then you’ve got cultural issues, basic cultural issues of just how people communicate, what they believe and their values. Then you actually even have business culture where business is just done in a different. I can speak certainly to Japan because I’m familiar with it, that business in Japan is done in a quite different manner than it is in the United States.

So if you’re American you’ve really got to try to understand how the Japanese think and how they communicate and when they say something what do they mean. Sometimes they’ll say things and they’re using English, but they’re communicating in a different way than an American would and they’re actually saying something quite different.

George: Yes and that’s, hopefully, what we’re trying to help you with here --to get a hold of some of these American phrases so that you can improve your English that way and, as AJ said, there are a lot of different factors when you cross the boarders from one country to another. Some others that come to mind are just the import and export rules of various countries and they’re quite a bit different. Import-export rules, the excise taxes that are imposed and various other kinds of taxes and that doesn’t even speak to the issue of exchange rate of money.

I know the Europeans have tried to settle that issue within Europe by trying to get everybody to use the Euro, but I tell you what folks, there’s a lot of different kinds of currency out there in the world and it fluctuates up and down in value on a daily basis, just as the stock markets and bond markets do in all of these countries in the world. Whereas, it used to be the economy or the markets, if you will --the stock market I’m talking about and the bond market --of a given country were dependent on the economy and what was going on in that country.

Well, today it’s a whole different game because what happens in Japan has an affect on the economy of the United States. What happens to the economy in the United States has an affect on the economy of Spain which has an affect on the economy of Thailand which has an affect on the economy of Canada. So it’s all intertwined.

I’d compare it to doing business in the United States. In the United States you’ve got 50 states to deal with and they all have some different kind of rules and they talk differently too, quite frankly. Even though they’re speaking English there’s different slang and different phrases that they use.

The world today, take the United States, it’s not just 50 states. It’s, what, 300 nations that a company has the opportunity to deal with and the obligation because there are products that are made in every country that are worth sharing with the rest of the world.

AJ: Yeah, I think it’s kind of a change of mindset. I think most people certainly who are interested in business English are aware of all of this. It’s just a matter of being more proactive about it - to really aggressively become more multicultural or to understand the international markets or at least the ones your company deals with or that you personally deal with or that you would like to deal with. So, this is another one of those little key advantages that you can develop for yourself.

I know in many, many countries and in many companies a high level of English ability will get your better career opportunities. If your English level, your speaking level, your confidence, your ability to communicate in English, if that is all superior to most people in your company that gives you a bid advantage. That will open up new possibilities, new jobs for you that others might not be able to get.

Likewise, if you visit other countries and if you become more comfortable and more skillful at dealing with people from other cultures and become more sensitive to different values, different beliefs, understand how to communicate to other people from different countries, especially if it’s a country your company deals with a lot, that gives you another advantage.

So if your company constantly deals with Japan, for example, then take a trip to Japan. Go on vacation to Japan. Read about Japan. Learn about Japan.

Learn about Japanese culture. Learn about Japanese communication. Learn about how Japanese people do business. All of that will give you an advantage and may open up some new jobs for you in the future.

George: Yeah, it’s kind of like what I used to always tell people about managers. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. How would you want to be treated and how would you want a manager to act towards you. AJ is saying the same thing. If you’re going to be dealing with the Chinese then put yourself in their shoes. How do the think? What’s their culture? What do they talk about? If you’re going to be dealing with the Germans, do the same thing. Put yourself in their shoes. Try to understand their point of view, particularly on the subject that you have to deal with them on.

So, another opportunity to broaden our skills and our knowledge folks and, as I’ve said before, you’re making the right step just be listening to these conversational lessons.

AJ: So, yeah, in every way possible, small and large, become more global. Think more globally. Learn more about other cultures and countries. All of this will be to your advantage in the long-term.

The End.