Language and Culture for International Business Workshop

I participated in a three day workshop on Language and Culture for International Business. The goal of the workshop was to help participants to understand the relationship that exists between foreign languages and international business. This was a very informative workshop where foreign language teachers from different institutions in the United States gathered to learn on how to create business language curricula that are geared toward making business students interested in international business degrees succeed in their internships and later careers.

The importance of structuring our syllabi to accommodate business and for business departments to collaborate with foreign language departments was particularly made clear in the two key presentations by Dr. Keida of the University of Memphis and Dr. Doyle of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In his presentation titled “International Business and Developing a Global Mindset.” Dr. Keida underscored the importance of understanding how the world is changing and the need for the USA to find ways to make their economic presence felt in other parts of the world. He noted that there are emerging economies such as China and India that are already playing a major role in the current global economy. Because countries such as China and other Asian countries are able to produce quality products in large quantities, it is important for the USA to consider not only quality but how affordable such products will be for the consumer. In his presentation Michael Doyle observed that knowing the language of your potential consumer is an important asset.

Within language specific workshops, we were challenged to focus constructing syllabi and programs that can prepare business majors to know how to deal with investors by introducing cultural as well as the language of the clients which is not always English. In fact, it was very clear from this workshop, that it is erroneous to presume that English is spoken and used everywhere in the world. Knowledge of a foreign language allows individuals to communicate effectively.

Finally, I also enjoyed the financial opportunities for foreign language instructors that the workshop availed to me. Such funding opportunities can be realized if foreign language departments work in collaboration with business departments. One classic example of this collaboration is the Wang ciber center at the University of Memphis which collaborates with the foreign language department to prepare students to go for internship to countries such as Germany, France, Japan, and Mexico where the speaking of the local language is critical. The experiences that those who had gone through the program shared with the participants made it a really worthy endeavor.
Leonard