Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Cross-Cultural Communication Resources / Links


Cross-Cultural Communication
You will find a wide variety of links here (about half of which can be found in Figure 15-3 on page 512 of the text). Some will help you write and speak in languages other than English. Some will help you understand the culture of other places and people. And some will help you understand how to do business with those from other cultures.
You can order your business card here for use in Japan, China, and Korea.
This online learning center for international communication at the University of Antwerp offers theory, exercises, and cases on intercultural communication in three languages: Dutch, English, and French. Using an electronic translator (or your own foreign-language skill), you can see what readers in these different cultures prefer to see in such documents as résumés, press releases, and persuasive messages
This U.S. government site “provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.”
The Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) is hosted by the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Particularly helpful are the “Country Resources,” found under the “Resources” link on the left menu bar.
An interesting comparison of words in American and British English can be found here, as well as a link to differences between American and British spelling.
This intercultural communication and translation firm offers guides to etiquette and protocol in over 50 countries.
Brief sketches are provided here on the customs of various countries related to their business practices and social interaction. Each includes cross-cultural comparisons on Hofstede's dimensions of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and language contextualism.
This free website has easily accessible links to dictionary websites in many languages (organized by language).
This site contains links to various sites about English idioms and slang, mostly American.
This site contains information on doing business in over 40 countries. It covers such topics as gift giving, making conversation, dressing for business, making appointments, and much more.
This website of the U.S. Commercial Service (under the International Trade Administration) offers assistance of all types on international trade. Of particular value are its Country Commercial Guides, regularly updated for each country (access these through “Find Opportunities>Market Research” on the left menu bar and then click the “Market Research Library” link).
The Federation of International Trade Associations is a nongovernmental organization promoting international trade. Their site has links to over 8,000 international-trade related websites on such topics as maps and geography, weights and measures, international business terms, trade law, and currencies. (A good place to start is “Really Useful Links” in the “Tools of Trade” section of the main menu bar.) Some links lead to free resources; some are for paying members only.
Sponsored by Michigan State University in the U.S., this site contains extensive resources by country and state, including not only geography, history, and vital statistics but also news, trade, and industry information.
This site enables users to search websites in many languages and then translate the results.
The purpose of this website for the International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, is to promote international trade. Through the “Press and Publications” link on the main menu bar, you can access the agency’s latest publications, including its monthly newsletter, as well as previous articles and reports.
This is a popular educational website started by an Australian statistics enthusiast. It offers maps, flags, and country profiles, but its greatest strength is statistics on many countries, which the site will graph for you.
The title of this site says it all. You can find the languages geographically using a color-coded map or by language family using categorized links.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)—originally the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC)—is an organization of 30 member countries who share their knowledge and resources on “more than 70 developing and emerging market economies.” You can search for information by topic or country.
Systran provides a page that will translate text as well as complete webpages between English and many other languages.
You can see current local times for major cities around the world as well as set up your own personal clock with just the cities you need.
An interactive bar lets users move between time zones, displaying the difference from GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) as well as naming the countries in each zone.
This site gives users a full range of services, from basic words, including pronunciation, to maps, dictionaries, currency rates, world facts, and more.
This is the U.S. government’s main diplomatic website. The “Countries” link on the main menu bar gives you access to the site’s Background Notes. These provide extensive, frequently updated information on the land, people, government, history, and so forth of all countries with whom the U.S. has relations.
On the website of this non-governmental organization you can access recent issues of theUSCIB’s journal International Business and news articles for free. (You must belong to a member company, law firm, or organization to access additional material.)
On the website of this non-governmental organization you can access recent issues of theUSCIB’s journal International Business and news articles for free. (You must belong to a member company, law firm, or organization to access additional material.)
All the pieces here are about English words and phrases from a British linguist’s point of view—what they mean, where they came from, how they have evolved, and the ways in which people sometimes misuse them.
This site provides easy access to online dictionaries for various languages.
This interactive site will translate words, phrases, and even complete websites between English and Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese as well as Chinese, Russian, Korean, and Japanese.
 
source:  http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073403164/student_view0/bc_resources.html

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