International Trading Supplement: First Impressions

BACKGROUND CHECK. Dealing with the special circumstances of different cultural backgrounds is no easy task in situations like this. Start with John Dough’s appreciative opening line to the host in his first country, Germany. Does he use the host’s correct title, get his or her name in the right order and pronounce it smoothly?

Or was it more like: "First I would like to thank Ernst for that wonderful introduction and for the opportunity to address such a distinguished gathering . . ." Some of the eyes in the front row may have rolled with that one. Bringing out Director X’s first name in front of everyone may be acceptable in the United States, but it is usually not good form in Germany, France or Northern Europe.

As part of his extended international business trip, our speaker is also scheduled to address a group of investors in Russia. Well prepared for his appearance, he begins his speech by addressing his hostess Mrs. Anna Nikolevich Mendeleva. He refers to her as Mrs. Mendeleva from the podium, even though she has invited him to use the more familiar "Anna Nikolevich" otherwise.

Although he knows Russians have a fine and ironic sense of humor, he refrains from starting with a joke. He is in banking, and too many banks have failed for his audience to find anything funny about this subject. Because he wants to win their trust, he makes every attempt to establish direct eye contact with his listeners. Knowing that Russian negotiations are often stormy, he allows emotion to creep into his voice, something he will avoid in most other parts of the world.

Our speaker then visits Latin America on his international tour. He knows titles are very important here and people should generally be addressed by their title alone, such as "Professor" or "Doctor."

However, when a surname is called for, he occasionally finds himself confused. Most Hispanics have two surnames, one from their father, which comes first, followed by one from their mother. Sometimes the two surnames are separated by a "y" (which means "and" in Spanish). Only the father’s surname is commonly used when addressing someone verbally. For example, Señor Sixto Ortiz Martinez would be called Señor Ortiz, and Señorita Ana Maria Gutierrez y Ramos would be Señorita Gutierrez.

In Latin America, our speaker does open with an amusing, well-chosen anecdote: "My brother works for the government of the United States of America. He was involved in getting approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, better known by its acronym NAFTA. Last year there were discussions about Chile joining NAFTA. Of course, once NAFTA expands outside North America, the name has to be changed. They considered dropping the initial ‘N’ and just calling it the American Free Trade Agreement, or AFTA. This seemed like a good compromise until someone pointed out that the word "afta" means cold sore in Brazil. There are a lot of things we’d like to increase intra-hemispheric trade in, but herpes is certainly not one of them!"

This was a good anecdote for several reasons. While it’s funny, it does not denigrate anyone or anything in Latin America. The speaker also increased his importance by revealing that his brother works in government. Finally, he uses the full and proper name of his country, the United States of America. Just saying "United States" is not sufficient in Latin America, since other countries also use that name, including the United States of Mexico.

SERIOUS BUSINESS. A week later, John Dough heads for Central and Northern Europe, where he will appear before groups of executives from large companies. In Germany, following his very proper thank-you to the host—even using a few words of German—our speaker attempts to "loosen things up" with a joke. Unfortunately, this does not have the desired effect.