Euroasia: Language, Culture and Travel

This is a funny ad put out by Berlitz, portraying the German Coast guard. Check it out if you haven’t seen it.

I have so many funny stories about accents. Not “toh-mah-to” vs “toh-may-to” type discussions…but pronunciation that’s way off. Luckily after years of dealing with people with a variety of accents from every major Western and Eastern culture, I’m beginning to be able to make out what people are trying to say.

People speak English in so many different ways. I’m with the camp that believes languages evolve, and as long as you get the message across, grammatical and spelling mistakes are acceptable. As such, my advice to most people learning a second language is to just start practising. Don’t worry about getting it 100% right. Because if you want to work out all the grammar until you get it absolutely right, you will never speak a word in the first two years. The key is to get started. You get the most joy from learning a language by actually being able to use it. Then you’ll have more motivation to learn the grammar and progress to the next level.

Instead of sending Christmas cards (virtual or real) this year, I decided to send my friends and business partners a video message instead. In this video, I talk about what Euroasia has been up to this year, reflections on 2008 and plans for 2009. Check it out when you have a spare couple of minutes.

I wonder how many people are aware of the sheer amount of money generated by the cruise industry using Auckland as a hub. I received an email from my local business association highlighting some opportunities for the local retailers. During the 2007/08 cruise season, Auckland received $123.8 million of total cruise industry direct expenditure, about 60% of the national spend. Approximately 89,600 passenger days were spent in Auckland, around 21% of all passenger days spent in NZ. The forecast for the 2008/2009 cruise season estimates the Auckland region will see direct spending of $128 million. How many industries can boast of such a significant economic contribution?

For those interested, the ships in town soon include:

Friday 21 November: Volendam arrives and has a full exchange of up to 1,440 passengers – who are likely to be mainly American, plus 40yrs. This ship is rated 4 stars. With a full passenger exchange, expect awaiting passengers in town from around Wednesday, and former passengers to linger for a few days afterwards.

Sunday 23 November: Millennium arrives. Another full exchange of up to 2,449 passengers. She also has a crew of 1000. One of the bigger ships to visit this year. Passengers are mainly Americans over 40.

If I was in the retail business I would certainly try to hone in on this market. Businesses that would benefit include those selling luxury goods or health products to baby boomers. What an awesome way to tap into a captive audience of wealthy consumers. Probably far more effective and far cheaper than embarking on a mass marketing campaign in California.

I came across an interview that McKinsey Quarterly conducted recently with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, on Google’s view on the future of business. He discusses how the Internet will change the nature of competition, innovation, and company operations.

I scribbled some notes on my laptop as I watched the video:

• We will become more reliant on technology.
• Device becomes your PA, showing you where to buy, what to buy, best price, best quality etc.
• Time has gotten more and more compressed over history. Process cycles becoming shorter. Older people feeling stressed out. A new generation growing up with this as normal pace.
• The power law: a small number of things highly concentrated. The “long tail” is interesting, but vast revenue still in the head. Counter-intuitive: more concentration of brands, not diversity. Will lead to bigger blockbusters. global scandals, global brands etc
• Need the head and the tail to make the model work.
• Free is better price than cheap. Different business model to what we’re used to.
• With traditional manufacturing, over time pricing moves towards marginal cost of production. Marginal cost of production and distribution of digital services is zero.
• eg Telephony infrastructure is sunk cost. Everything else is next to free. Operating costs minimal. The brand that’s famous is scarce. So model may morph into prepaid cost of phone + free use afterwards
• The internet is a leveller- distribution, branding, access
• Corporations can’t be as controlling. Have to listen to customers etc
• A more porous / transparent company= better organisation
• In the new world, people won’t wait.
• Groups make better decisions than individuals
• Organisations can operate by consensus. But need 2 things. Need someone who enforces a deadline, otherwise you become a university. Leader doesn’t force outcome, but forces a deadline. Need dissent, otherwise you have a king. It’s an art to encourage this.
• The best ideas don’t come from the executives.
• For senior execs, balance is no longer possible. Not PC to say this. But if you sleep, a story breaks somewhere in the world and you lose out.
• Organisations will select executives who are drawn to the sense of speed and rush. Those are the ones who will rise to the top.
• Innovation driven by person with luxury of dreaming up new ideas. Innovation does not come from people sitting in a classroom going through a textbook.
• Innovation comes from you not being under the gun. Need time for reflection
• At Google, 20% time undirected. To think outside box. Look for small companies to acquire
• Google is a “Systematic innovator of scale”. portfolio theory: don’t know which one will make it.
• Executives always want to simplify running of business. But nature of technology to become more complex and more variants. competitive barrier to entry.
• Try to avoid at Google: business unit structure that prevents cross-unit collaboration. This cuts down informal ties.
• If people in organisation understand values of company, they should be able to self-organise.
• the last war is never like the next war. to build a successful global platform requires understanding of interchange points, distribution, channel etc. easy for people to switch over the internet.
• the term platform is overused. unlikely to see single regime for copyright law etc. per country domains – likely to be legal and political challenges to this
• laws are so complicated. to operate globally, need a large team of lawyers.
• cultural information: widespread difference in interpreting of laws. tragedy if laws of one country are applied in another.

Watch the full video here: Google on the future of business

Understand how learning a foreign language helps you develop greater cross cultural empathy. In this video, I share some observations on how you can better understand people from other cultures.

Euroasia offers cross cultural communications courses and cross cultural solutions to people who work across cultures.

Italian is a very popular language at Euroasia, which is curious, because not many people speak Italian outside of Italy. Here we explore the key reasons why you should consider learning Italian.

• Italian is one of Europe’s leading languages, with roughly as many mother-tongue speakers on the continent as English and French.
• Young Kiwis can go and work in Italy for one year under a working holiday scheme.  A knowledge of the Italian language would obviously make a huge difference to anyone’s job prospects.
• Italy is probably the greatest magnet for anyone interested in the history of western art and civilisation; it’s like a vast cultural treasure house.   Even a limited knowledge of the language helps to introduce some of the works of art.
• Three cities in Italy are of paramount interest: Rome as the capital of the ancient empire and the heart of the Catholic church; Florence as the cradle of the Renaissance; and Venice as a unique and unforgettable link between eastern and western European styles.
• Italy has made huge contributions to scientific progress, with Leonardo and Galileo being just two of the most obvious names.
• Since the time of Boccaccio and Dante, Italian writing has been at the forefront of European literature.
• Italy was the home of opera, and many of the world’s greatest works were composed in Italian; even today, Italian is the international language of music.
• Italian food has achieved worldwide fame, and nearly all of us could name a good few Italian dishes and culinary expressions.
• Italy has long been synonymous with fashion, elegance and design; go and see for yourself!
• Italian cinema has long had a worldwide reputation, as have many directors and filmstars.
• Italy is not just “culture”: the modern country has one of Europe’s largest economies.  And Italian cities are not just museum pieces: they are full of vitality and energy, which nearly everyone finds infectious.
• The Italian landscape is incredibly varied, ranging from alpine to mediterranean, and the picturesque villages and small towns give it tremendous character.

Find out more about learning Italian with Euroasia. To enrol for a Italian course, check out the Italian timetable on the Euroasia website. Last intake for 2008 is coming up on 10 November.

A friend sent me this CNNBC video. It’s really good. You can customise this online. Check it out:

I forwarded this on to some friends. On Friday, I received an email back from CNNBC with this message:

“Wow. Thanks to people like you, this nonvoter video has now been sent to over 11 million friends. It’s going out to more than 30 new people per second.

Research shows that this kind of social “nudging” is extremely effective. So we’re aiming to reach 15 million people before Election Day—only a few days away.”

“Studies show that by far the best way to get people out to vote is to convince them that (a) everyone else is voting, and (b) everyone will know if they don’t vote. This video does both—with a smile (or smirk, in some cases).”

German has traditionally been a very popular language in New Zealand. German is the main language of Germany and Austria. It is also spoken in: Switzerland (most of the country), Luxemburg, in small pockets in countries neighbouring Germany or Austria (Belgium, Italy etc.), Namibia; and widely spoken in eastern Europe and the Balkans as a second language

The number of mother-tongue speakers worldwide total about 110,000,000.

Here are some key reasons why New Zealanders should consider learning German.

• German is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union.
• Germany has the largest economy in the EU, and is an industrial giant on the world stage.  Companies and organisations from Siemens to Carl Zeiss, BMW and the Deutsche Bank have formidable reputations world-wide.
• German technology and know-how are widely respected around the world, and organisational skills are immediately apparent when one visits any of the German-speaking countries.
• New Zealand has to engage more with the German-speaking world if it is to establish a stronger base for its exports in Europe.
• Young Kiwis can go and work in Germany for one year under a working holiday scheme.   A knowledge of the German language would obviously help enormously on this particular OE!
• Some of the big cities such as Berlin are among the liveliest in Europe, with an enormous range of events throughout the year, many of them geared to the younger population.
• Young people in Germany seem to be on the same kind of wavelength as young Kiwis; they usually get on well.
• The Germans and the Swiss come to New Zealand in large numbers – and usually love it!
• Germans are usually very environmentally aware, and are often innovators in green issues.
• Germany has a rich cultural heritage, and has made huge contributions to world literature, painting, music and philosophy.
• The German-speaking world has produced thinkers whose ideas have changed the way people look at the world: from Luther to Marx, to Einstein and to Freud.
• People are often surprised by the beauty of the German countryside, with its dense forests and deep valleys, also by the charms of its many historical towns and villages.  Austria and Switzerland have wonderful mountain landscapes.  And with extensive hiking trails, all three countries are a tramper’s paradise!

Find out more about learning German with Euroasia. To enrol for a German course, check out the German timetable on the Euroasia website. Last intake for 2008 is coming up on 10 November.