Improve Your Foreign Communication Skills

Peace Corps volunteers get between three and six months of cross-cultural training before they travel abroad to teach English, accounting, or forestry. The average businessperson, on the other hand, trots off to a foreign land with no training at all, except perhaps for a quick glance at a guidebook.

Businesspeople who ignore the rules of doing business abroad are the sources of many a sad tale: The American who lost his temper in Thailand and never clinched a deal there again, or the attorney who lost a case in Singapore because she did not give her opponents a way to "save face" gracefully.

These stories don't have to happen. Today, language schools such as Berlitz and the San Francisco-based International Effectiveness Centers (IEC) offer courses in both foreign languages and foreign business customs. A good translating company can also give you some tips.

While it is a rare host who expects you to understand every custom in his or her country, your business deals will likely depend on how much deference you show toward the local norms. Do you politely greet a Thai secretary in her own language, for example, or do you demand loudly, in English, to talk to her boss? When your Japanese host greets you in the morning, do you complain about the beds or compliment your host on his excellent choice of accommodations?

There are no hard rules in any culture about how to make someone comfortable. But being polite, following local customs, and keeping a modest sense of humor will go a long way. Here are some other tips:

• Take time to get a guidebook, such as Doing Business in China. When you buy a guide, read it carefully — a quick glance on the airplane isn't enough.
• If you take a foreign language class, take a cultural studies course at the same time. A number of language schools teach both types of classes, and some community colleges now do so as well.
• Travel books aimed at women are now much more common. You could also talk with other women who have traveled to the same country. It's important to understand the differences between how men and women are supposed to act in a particular country.
• Even when you speak mainly English, learn the country's basic greetings and how to say them properly. You may not get the accent absolutely correct, and the natives may chuckle at you, but your effort will send two critical messages: I care about your culture and I respect your ability to speak English.
• Know that you'll make mistakes. If you do, ask for help and don't be afraid to correct yourself. A sense of humor goes a long way.
• There's no substitute for spending a week or two in your new business partner's native land. Get to know the people with whom you'll do business. Your work will be much easier — and a lot more fun.