Cultural diversity is a constant part of our society – people with different cultural backgrounds live next to each other and through new media we hear and see everything that happens on the other side of the world. Today we celebrate this cultural diversity – it’s World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. [...]
Christmas, Holi and Ramadan are famous feasts celebrated by people all over the world. But there are many more religious festivals that are much less well-known. This year, from the evening of Tuesday 13 May until the end of Thursday 15 May, the Jewish community celebrates one of their annual festivals; Shavuot. In Hebrew, Shavuot [...]
According to the World Database of Happiness the average level of happiness of most European countries increased throughout the last decades. People in Germany, however, are less satisfied with their lives than they used to be. The fact that the German gross domestic product has constantly been growing illustrates that an increase in wealth does [...]
In recent years, there has been a steady decline in the foreign language skills of native English speakers. Not only does this skills gap increase the need for English speakers to rely on interpreters with the risk that they misinterpret implicit messages or miss the cultural nuances of what has been said, but it also [...]
“Operating effectively in a global economy relies on the right language skills – and the UK has the worst foreign language proficiency in Europe.” The CBI’s annual CBI Education and Skills Survey 2012 provides bleak reading on the state of UK employees’ foreign language skills. The UK’s share of global exports has gradually declined over [...]
English as the lingua franca we know today is facing challenges that affect its long term stability in the business world. Although many rely on it heavily to communicate across cultures, it may not be long before we say ‘adiós’ or ‘zai jian’ to the dominance of English in business. The need to take Spanish [...]
“The meaning of communication is the response you get.” This means we need to take responsibility for the effectiveness of our communication. We usually blame our audience or readership for any misunderstanding. However, if the message does not get across as we intended, then we need to look at our own ways of communicating. Quite [...]
Listening is probably the most crucial element of business communication yet so often it is sorely neglected. The ability to focus fully on another person and pay complete attention to what is being said appears to be a dying art. It is often said that at best we retain only between 20 and 50% of [...]
The first thing to understand is that conflict in the workplace is a reality. We can either live with it, ignore it or deal with it. We are often faced with conflict from early on in our careers but managing conflict is a key skill for effective management and can make the difference between a [...]
