Can language help teams cross the cultural divide?

/0 Comments/in , /by

With domestic workforces becoming more ethnically and linguistically diverse, and companies of all sizes increasingly tapping into foreign markets, today’s average business will typically list employees of mixed nationality and race. English may no longer be the dominant language, and personal values may range from compatible to conflicting. That these people get on and understand each other, both in the spoken word and in deeper beliefs, is paramount to the business’ success.

Over the past few decades, ever-advancing technology and cheaper foreign travel have made the world progressively smaller. Even in times of recession it makes good business sense to exploit this heightened accessibility by penetrating emerging markets that are less affected by the crises currently crippling western economies. In fact there is almost no reason for a business not to expand into foreign territory, hence the now common practice of international mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and offshoring. With this often comes relocation of staff for short or longer-term stints, the transfer of skills between countries, and in effect a workforce with huge potential for growth and success.

It would however be naïve to enter foreign waters ill equipped. There is no quicker way to widen the cultural divide than to march into a foreign business or culture and expect them to adopt your language and customs to the detriment of theirs. Successful partnerships, whether with a new or existing market, depend on relationship building, and these relationships can only be formed with a degree of linguistic and cultural awareness.

Language training is key to opening communication channels and to maintaining the free flow of information and ideas within a business environment. Study of any language also naturally embraces the culture or cultures associated with it; you may for example learn about a country’s food or art, government or geography. Even basic etiquette such as greetings, socialising, time-keeping, dress and body language – each of which hold ample scope for faux pas – may be covered through linguistic development, as this often goes hand in hand with cultural sensitivities. Finally, on a practical level, the natural knock-on effect of improved verbal, written, reading and listening skills that come from learning another language will only enhance team communication further.

If organising language training for your company, it is advisable to tailor-make classes so they are geared towards the specific needs of your industry and target market, and thus cover cultural particularities at the same time. This will give staff the skills necessary to build sustainable long-term relationships, manage teams based in different offices around the world and reduce culture shock for any incoming and outgoing workforce. The resulting pooling of talents under a common language can only serve to boost a company’s productivity and inner harmony.

It is with this type of investment that language can go a long way towards bridging the cultural divide.

How can you train people constantly on the move?

/0 Comments/in /by

Blended learning, which combines face-to-face tuition with remote learning, delivers a convenient and flexible solution for those who are constantly on the move.

In today’s business world, where communications, technology and travel are at their most advanced, it is both normal and expected for staff to be on the move meeting clients, partners and suppliers during a typical working week. Ease of availability, granted mostly by mobile devices, combined with increased global awareness and expansion into foreign markets, has meant that many workers, especially those at a higher level, are away from their desks for days – or weeks – on end.

This is all very well when it comes to boosting a company’s global presence and to providing information instantly and efficiently. When it comes to corporate training, however, it can become a logistical nightmare to organise a time and place that suits all staff involved. Traditional classroom-based training becomes a dream of the past as diaries clash, schedules change and emergency meetings take their toll. Staff become disillusioned as they fail to complete their chosen course and, in the case of group tuition, fall back in comparison to colleagues. Company investment in staff reaps little reward and funds are wasted. It is easy to see why some just give up altogether, or put it off for ‘next year’.

This does not have to be case, however. The very technology that puts extra demands on us can save the day when it comes to in-company training.

Blended learning, which combines face-to-face tuition with remote learning, delivers a convenient and flexible solution for those who are constantly on the move. Whilst recognising the utility of an agreed number of classroom sessions, where students can chat to their tutor and engage with fellow participants, it takes advantage of technology such as the internet, television and telephone to provide the remaining tuition at a time and place that suits the individual. In this way the remote component acts as an extension to traditional face-to-face learning, and in many cases provides a more rounded educational experience for the learner than just one of these methods used in isolation. The very variety of technologies on offer embraces different learning styles and as such provides ongoing stimulation and motivation.

Whether used as part of a blended learning package or on their own, the scope is large when it comes to alternative learning methods. Advances in communication have opened the door to approaches that even twenty or thirty years ago would not have been thought possible. Telephone lessons, for instance, are an intensive and effective form of tuition that suit courses such as language training where speaking and listening are paramount; lessons can take place anywhere in the world as long as the trainer has access to a telephone and e-mail, if need be, for follow-up material.

Another relatively new concept is that of the virtual classroom. Without even having to leave the home, office, or even hotel room, a trainee can receive all the benefits of face-to-face training with just a computer, headset and webcam. This equipment enables them to communicate with their own personal trainer, who can supply instant feedback and encouragement, and follow a course that is geared specifically to their needs and learning pace – wherever and whenever it suits them.

Whichever form of tuition is adopted, whether face-to-face, computer-based, telephone or virtual (or a combination of these, through blended learning), a trainee’s progress can be enhanced by between-lesson support in the form of self-study. Self-study can be undertaken in a variety of ways to suit the individual – CDs, textbooks, online courses, television, radio or podcasts – and again it is perfect for those on the move as it does not require commitment to a regular time or place.

Corporate training, whether on an individual or group basis, can therefore enjoy greater flexibility than ever before and be adapted to suit even the most restrictive work schedules. Any company wishing to embark on a training programme need not dread the marrying of timetables that may have once been prohibitive to its success; instead, it has at its fingertips a cost-effective and flexible solution for training staff anywhere in the world.

Focus on Brazil: an economy to watch

/0 Comments/in , /by

Over the next decade, Brazil, Russia, India and China – the ‘BRICs’ countries – are set to become an increasingly powerful force in the world economy. Together they contribute over a third of world GDP growth, and Brazil – the largest country in South America and the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world – will soon replace the UK as the world’s sixth largest economy.

Brazil is indeed in a strong position at the moment. As 2011 dawned, it swore into office its first ever woman President, Dilma Rousseff, who replaced the man who had become the most popular president in the country’s history, Luiz Ignacio Lula de Silva. Big shoes to fill, certainly, but having served within Silva’s government for seven years, Rousseff is keen to consolidate the work of her predecessor and welcome in a new era for Brazil; the eradication of poverty and reduction of inequality being two major challenges.

Rousseff’s drive to tackle poverty may well be helped by Brazil’s potential as a major global oil producer. Recently-discovered offshore oilfields such as Tupi and Libra have provided billions of barrels of oil over the last few years, their discoveries making Brazil one of the world’s top 10 oil producers. Future oil revenues will be valuable in funding the reduction of poverty as well as investing in areas such as education and technology.

President Rousseff’s term in government will also see Brazil host the Rio Plus 20 global environmental summit, in 2012, and the FIFA World Cup in 2014.

Those wanting to make the most of Brazil’s huge potential by doing business here may consider language training in Brazilian Portuguese, which can be critical to establishing relationships and to future success in this fast-developing country.

On a similar vein, cultural training is helpful for employees who are looking to relocate to, or spend a prolonged period of time in, Brazil; not only does cultural training help to prevent culture shock, it can give a valuable insight into your target destination’s core values, local business practice, hierarchies and gender perceptions within the workplace, how to address your counterparts and more. Like language training, it can give you a step ahead of your competitors when it comes to integrating into and understanding Brazilian life.

Cactus Language Training offers all types of language and cultural training for relocation and other purposes. Specialising in tailor-made language training for businesses and individual needs, training is available in many different formats and in languages and locations across the globe.

Cactus uses a so-called ‘full immersion’ method of teaching. What are the benefits of this?

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

What is Full Immersion?

Full immersion in language learning refers to the foreign language (the ‘target’ language) being taught in that language, with no other language being used during the teaching. It is the preferred method for Cactus’ teachers, and is also used amongst Cactus’ partner schools abroad.

We could say that it is learning a foreign language the same way we learned our native language: by ‘living’ it. The student doesn’t only study the language – they live it, in an exclusively target-language speaking environment: the classroom. A well designed, full immersion course can surround students in the language, giving them opportunities to speak and hear it and, most importantly, teach them not to depend on translation for understanding.

Where did Full Immersion originate?

Full Immersion is originally a teaching method where non-language curriculum subjects, such as history, art or science, are taught in a foreign language. The foreign language is learnt alongside the non-language subjects. The first full immersion programmes, in French, began in the USA and Canada in the 1950s and 1960s.

The approach has been found to be successful in language teaching, with students showing better progress, learning more, and more quickly.

How do teachers use the Full Immersion approach?

Good teachers are able to make themselves understood without using the students’ language, even at Beginner level. They use gestures, pictures, objects, dialogues and other means of getting the message across. And they always teach ‘in context’. Students know from the context what is likely to be said – there are only so many variations on what people say to each other in a restaurant, in a shop, at a party and so on. So students already understand what would be said in that context in their own language and are then receptive to learning the target language forms. As the level advances, simple explanation is effective in helping to get meaning across, as long as it is within the range of what the students can comprehend.

Right from the beginning, target ‘classroom language’ is used, ‘open your books’, ‘I’ll write it on the board’, ‘what’s the word for x’, and so on, and students can then generalise their understanding of much useful language in this context over to new contexts.

Teachers will move from a more controlled method of teaching to free practice during the class, so that students feel supported when they start to learn new grammar and lexis. As they become more familiar with it the teacher will give less and less reinforcement, so that by the end they are able to ‘do it alone’. Rather like riding a bicycle and taking off the training wheels, improvement is smooth and progressive.

What is the student’s role?

Sometimes it’s difficult for people who are new to the method to understand how it works – particularly with beginner learners. It’s ideal if the students are aware beforehand of what to expect. However, even if students don’t know what to expect, a good teacher will make it easy for them by teaching from Day 1 through means that make the meaning clear. Students have to work hard. It is so easy to freeze and panic and think they will never understand. A good teacher knows this and helps by encouragement and demonstration and example. Importantly, students need to go over what was covered in class immediately after the class and again the evening before the next class: this revision is essential to make it stick. And students should always ask teachers if, after putting in some effort, they still don’t understand.

Students should be prepared to speak up and take risks and not be afraid to get it wrong; students should just say whatever seems ‘right’, and keep trying: they will learn from their own and their classmates’ mistakes, along with judicious correction from the teacher.

Is learning through Full Immersion similar to how we learnt our own language?

Although there are differences between the way we learn our own language as a child, and the way we learn a second or subsequent language as an adult, there are many similarities, and immersion learning exploits these similarities. Hearing and seeing language in context, simple listening and repeating, and trying things out and receiving feedback are features common to learning our first language and learning a second language in an immersion setting.

The secret is to ‘train’ yourself to ‘think’ in the target language, and to resort to translation as little as possible. Initially, students think in their own language, translating somewhere between the thought and the spoken word, until eventually there comes a point where suddenly the thinking is happening in the new language – (and even, some say, the dreaming! )

On the other hand, translation is in fact a natural resort for students when they are trying to fully understand a word or phrase in a foreign language. If used deliberately and appropriately and in moderation by the teacher, translation can be very useful in the language learning process. It’s a question of balance.

What about learning the culture of the target language country?

Ideally, full immersion would mean full contact with the culture too, such as may be experienced in the target language country. However, students don’t have to go abroad to experience the target language culture. In a good class, the student will learn much more than just grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary, also getting a good idea of the history, culture and sociological aspects of the target culture. At Cactus we take the view that the teacher is the student’s connection with the culture, and the classroom is the world of the target language for the learner. Class time is short, so this language world needs to make the most of all the time available to surround the student in the language: to fully immerse them.

What are the advantages of Full Immersion, in a nutshell?

There are many advantages to learning in this way, but the main benefits of the Full Immersion approach are:

1.  You learn faster! Once used to the method, you should pick up pieces of vocabulary more naturally and quickly.

2.  You learn to speak more naturally. This method trains you to think in the target language, not translate word for word.

3.  You’ll have the confidence to use what you have learned. Because you are ‘living’ the language in the classroom, you will be better prepared to use it in ‘real’ scenarios.

4.  You will understand the spoken language. Because you are used to hearing the language spoken, you will be able to understand it in real-life situations.

5.  You develop good pronunciation. You get maximum exposure to the language and are encouraged you to use it, helping you to develop speech patterns and pronunciation.

6. You gain a cultural insight into the language and the people who speak it.

7.  It’s fun! You will be using the new language straight away, which is a lot more motivating, engaging and fun than studying language theory.

Cactus offers a range of part-time language courses in locations around the UK and North America. We also work with language schools all over the world to provide language courses at a range of levels, lengths and formats. For anyone interested in a more bespoke type of training course, we also offer tailor-made and corporate language training options all over the world. 

Forecasts of increased international movement among staff highlight the need for language training

/0 Comments/in /by

A recent report predicts a 50% increase in the number of staff relocating abroad for work – what are the implications of this?

A recent report issued by the global giant Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) predicts that the number of people working abroad will increase by 50% over the next decade. The report, ‘Talent mobility 2020: The next generation of international assignments’, a compilation of data sourced from 900 companies, shows that international assignments by staff have already increased by 25% over the last decade, a trend that is set to double over the next ten years.

What are the factors behind this and what are the implications for the future?

Statistics like this are not to be ignored as they have a significant impact on work practice across the globe. Brought about in part by the rise of emerging markets, the ease of foreign travel, changing demographic needs and companies searching for new revenue streams, the globalisation that we are witnessing will see many more thousands of employees leaving their home country for foreign soil – and even the number of locations to which they are re-locating is increasing, as companies explore lesser developed locations.

The implications of such large global movement cannot fail to have implications. Businesses, for a start, are likely to need to evolve their international work models so that they can efficiently manage the relocation of high numbers of staff between countries. Tax systems and immigration laws can present immediate obstacles, and further down the line investment into local infrastructure can become be a factor, especially in lesser developed countries – both to help employees live and work comfortably and also to maintain a synergic relationship with the host country.

One bonus that businesses may however see is a lesser need to offer financial incentive to staff to work overseas. Not only is it seen as good business sense to have staff employed in the places where they are needed, it also appears that these staff – especially younger workers – are eager to work a stint abroad. The report quotes that, of 4,200 graduates, 94% expect to work more internationally than their parents and 80% actually want to work abroad as part of their own personal development.

Of particular interest to Cactus is the news that 70% of these graduates expect to use a non-native language at work. If relocation abroad is to be fluid and of benefit to all parties concerned, investment in language training cannot be overlooked. Indeed, a recent article in Re:locate magazine (www.relocatemagazine.com) cites language and cultural training – along with home search and spousal support – as ‘examples of policy elements that provide untold value and [which] can make or break an assignment’. Rather than be considered as luxury extras, support services such as this should be given priority when it comes to aiding a staff member to settle in a foreign country. Committing the cost early on could prevent further cost from a failed relocation down the line.

Cactus Language Training offers all types of language and cultural training for relocation and other purposes. Specialising in tailor-made language training for businesses and individual needs, training is available in many different formats and in languages and locations across the globe.

Language opens door to new markets – the increase in Arabic, Russian and Mandarin

/0 Comments/in , /by

At a time of global economic downturn, tapping into new markets has never been so relevant to the success, indeed survival, of businesses worldwide.

As recession deals its harsh blows to flailing western economies, drawn deeper into a spiral of unemployment, inflation, negative home equity and soaring energy and fuel prices, it is becoming clear that we need to look further afield, on a global scale, to maximise our earning potential.

With a market in recession, as is now the case with the US and many countries in Western Europe, one of the best things a business can do is diversify – not necessarily product, but clientele. Forming strategic partnerships with emerging markets such as Russia, China and the Arabic world is one such critical step. These developing markets are less affected by the crises currently deflating confidence in western economies and, perhaps more importantly, are still doing well despite the economic decline that surrounds them. They have up to now received investment from developed countries, they have built financial reserves from recent growth, and they harbour newly affluent locals who, although not as brazen in their spending as their western counterparts, have money to spend and investments to sniff out. They are keen to be at the forefront of the global economy and this may be their time.

So, how best to get in on the act with the developing powerhouses of China, Russia and the like? One key factor that cannot be overlooked when it comes to gaining access to foreign markets is the importance of language. Long-term partnerships with any new market depend on relationship building; these relationships in turn are formed through linguistic and cultural awareness. English may be the accepted tongue when it comes to international communication, but there can be no underestimating the importance – if not supremacy – of other languages on a regional scale. Often the quickest way to open doors is to speak to someone in their own language and, in a world where English rules, where it’s the easy option, the effort to speak your target market’s language and understand its culture will not go unnoticed.

Let’s look at Russia. This is a country whose economy is thriving off oil exports and military manufacturing, fast emerging as the energy-producing superpower of Europe. Culturally and in business, Russian as a language is spoken by some 270 million native and non-native speakers, and it is used extensively across Eastern Europe, along with German and Polish.

Further east, China’s official language, Mandarin, is now spoken by a billion people worldwide. Although English is increasingly taught and spoken in this booming economy, anyone aspiring to do business in China will be at huge advantage with native knowledge or even proficiency in Mandarin – especially away from the big cities. Being able to communicate on a ‘personal’ level is valued no more than in Asian countries.

And finally, Arabic. Spoken by more than 250 million Arabs, this ancient language of the Qu’ran spans North Africa, from Morocco in the west as far east as Iraq. Finance, oil and intelligence depend on it, while, as with many foreign cultures, businesses with knowledge of the language have the edge when it comes to understanding nuances, customs and beliefs that often go unnoticed in English.

Any business aspiring to infiltrate these emerging markets would therefore do well to adopt a strategic approach to multi-lingual communication. Updating a website so it is accessible in multiple languages, recruiting native speakers and outsourcing translators are useful steps. Yet utilising the workforce that you already have is arguably the most effective way to embrace the new multi-lingual environment that lies ahead.

Linguistic and cross-cultural training will provide employees and businesses with language skills attuned to their particular markets and an appreciation of the cultures within which they want to work – an investment that will reap long-term rewards. Cultural awareness in particular may be easy to overlook, but it is key in building successful relationships, preventing costly misunderstandings, managing multi-cultural teams and reducing culture shock if employees are relocating.

Language in this sense really does help to open doors, and investing in an emerging market equipped with the appropriate knowledge is a step that could potentially both rescue and future-proof your business.