Off the Map

The Language Playing Field

This week has found me embroiled in several multi-hour presentation preparation meetings with 2 Germans, 1 Bulgarian (who studies in the US), 1 Chinese, and 1 Latvian. This unit for our International Strategic Management course is in English - as opposed to my array of German projects in other courses. Finally having a German course in my native tongue has been a valuable window into the fundamental differences in our education systems and culture.

It was almost impossible to cite the origins of any difficulties I encountered working with others in German due to the "fog of language". Was I not understanding them? Was I under-educated? Was I under prepared?

Perhaps the tables have been turned. Regardless, without the language barrier it became clear that the Germans work differently than we've been trained in the States. True to the stereotypes, the Americans wanted to keep things flexible and fill in details on the fly during the presentation, while the Germans wanted to make sure everything was explicitly stated on the PowerPoint slides. This is but one small example, although it gives you a feel for the situation at large. The best part was afterwards: the Germans turned to us and said "We've noticed that we work differently..."

posted by Jason @ 6:23 pm