I am presently in Salzburg, Austria for a week long study-abroad program with SJSU. The topic of our session is "global citizenship", and a strong theme is communication. Given that Chapter One in the text for Comm 144 "Organizational Communication" talks a lot about communication in a global context, there is an impressive amount of overlap.
Because of increased global migration, the emerging global economy, and increased multiculturalism, there is an even greater need for changing not just what we communicate, but how. Words and their meaning come under even greater scrutiny not just when translating from one language to another, but also when "translating" from one culture to another. The text talks about the experience of McDonalds in India where they named their burgers "Maharaja Macs" in order to appeal to the local market. We heard similar examples in this morning's session with Dr. Jaehne about efforts in Behjing, China to update the poorly translated signs in English prior to the Olympic events this summer. Examples that he cited were signs which read "pubic restrooms" (No "l") and something like "gently the tender shoots mildly" which was supposed to mean "Stay off the grass".
Avaliação Parcial - Empreendedorismo
15 years ago
1 comment:
The text for our class does a pretty good job of taking a global view of organization, although still clearly through the lens of social scientists living in the west and more specifically the U.S. Your experiences in Salzburg should provide us with a new perspective on organizations, organizing, and organizational life.
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