38 http://www.business-spotlight.de 2/2014tence is, to an extent, about interper-
sonal skills in an international envi-
ronment. But in the business context,
there are a lot of other factors that are
also relevant. That’s not to play down
the role of communication or of in-
terpersonal skills. But a business per-
son also needs to know how cus-
tomers think in different cultures.
How do people see quality? The con-
cept of quality is not universal. Is
quality perfect engineeringor is it ro-
bustness? How do people manage
each other in different cultures? In-
terpersonal skills are absolutely im-
portant, but they’re not the whole
story.Are social media and the internet
making the world culturally more
homogeneous?
This is another very important de-
bate. At one level, cultures are com-
ing together. In the retail business, we
go to Starbucks or McDonald’s in dif-
ferent countries. You also have
emerginga top management elitethat
is international. Members of this in-
ternational elite tend to get on very
well witheach other and the nation- elite [i(li:t] [wg. Aussprache]
emerge [i(m§:dZ] entstehen
engineering Technik
[)endZI(nIErIN]
environment Umfeld
[In(vaI&rEnmEnt]
fluent [(flu:Ent] fließend
get on well with sb. gut mit jmdm.
[)get Qn (wel wID] UK zurechtkommen
grass roots [)grA:s (ru:ts]Basis
homogeneous [wg. Aussprache]
[)hQmEU(dZi:niEs]
intern [(Int§:n] Praktikant(in)
interplay [(IntEpleI] Zusammenspiel,
Wechselwirkung
issue [(ISu:] Angelegenheit,
Frage
link sth. [lINk] etw. verknüpfen
lose touch den Kontakt ver-
[)lu:z (tVtS] lieren
mindful aufmerksam, acht-
[(maIndf&l] sam
play sth. down etw. herunter-
[)pleI (daUn] spielen
retail business Einzelhandel
[(ri:teI&l )bIznEs]
there’s more to ... than da ist mehr an ...
[DeEz (mO: tu )DÄn] als
the whole story hier: alles
[DE )hEUl (stO:ri]“At one level, cultures are coming
together. But regional identities are
still very strong”
al cultural differences are insignificant
for them. But they have more prob-
lems when they go deeper down into
an organization, where they are con-
fronted with the local culture — even
their own local culture, which they
may have left behind. Universities
have fantastic programmes, like the
Erasmus programme in Europe or
Erasmus Mundi, which is a world-
wide version of Erasmus, where you
see young people getting internation-
al experience at an early age. I re-
cently had lunch with a colleague
who brought an internalong who is
probably in her early 20s. She is
studying law and speaks fluentJapa-
nese. That’s a normal thing for the
new generation, but beneath the
surface, cultures are still there and
they’re maybe even becoming
stronger. You’ve got regional identi-
ties coming out in the European
Union very strongly. Here in Ger-
many, you have Bavaria, with a
strong regional identity, and in the
UK, you’ve got Scotland, which is
thinking about becoming indepen-
dent from the UK. It’s also a bit dan-
gerous when people who come from
the elite class lose touchwith what’s
happening at the grass roots.How would you describe the interplay
between language and intercultural
communication?
Obviously, language is a product of
people’s culture, and you can tell a lot
about people’s culture from the lan-
guage they use, even sometimes the
individual words. There are words
that are untranslatable. So you have
the word gemütlichin German, forexample, which is a concept that you
can’t easily translate into good En-
glish. At one level, language is a re-
flection or a product of culture. But
there’s more toculture than language.
I don’t think it’s enough just to think
about language training for people
and add a bit of culture. The problem
is when you combine the two things,
which I’ve tried to do in my career:
part of my job was originally to link
language and intercultural training.
We decided against that because once
you start dealing with cultural issues,
you are also dealing with people’s
feelings and emotions. Sometimes, it’s
problematic if you are trying to de-
scribe difficult feelings and emotions
in a foreign language. In intercultur-
al training, we help people becomeINTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION INTERVIEWRecommended reading
The number of books on intercultural com-
munication can seem endless. Here, in-
tercultural expert Robert Gibson lists his
top three:
Cultures and Organizations: Software of
the Mind,Geert Hofstede et al. (McGraw-
Hill). An influential classic for readers in-
terested in the background of intercultur-
al communication.
International Dimensions of Organization-
al Behavior,Nancy Adler (Thomson South-
Western). For readers interested in organi-
zational development.
The MindfulInternational Manager: How to
Work Effectively across Cultures,Jeremy
Comfort, Peter Franklin (Kogan Page). For
readers with business experience.36-40 Interculture mainB 2_14 14.01.14 13:46 Seite 38