Основы делового английского языка
Часть II
Челябинск, 2015
Contents
Topic 1 Business around the world............................................................................ 3
Topic 2 Business letter............................................................................................... 7
Topic 3 Telephoning................................................................................................... 10
Topic 4 Travelling...................................................................................................... 14
Topic 5 Daily life........................................................................................................ 19
Text of professional orientation for reading and discussion
Text 1 Introduction to accounting.............................................................................. 22
Text 2 The accounting equation.................................................................................. 24
Text 3 Expanding the accounting equation................................................................. 26
Text 4 The double entry framework........................................................................... 27
Text 5 Financial statement.......................................................................................... 29
Text 6 The decision function of financial management............................................... 31
Text 7 Basic forms of business organization.............................................................. 32
Text 8 The tax environment....................................................................................... 34
Text 9 Bookkeeping................................................................................................... 36
Text 10 Economics..................................................................................................... 37
Text 11 Microeconomics............................................................................................ 38
Text 12 Uniform customs and practice for documentary credits................................ 39
Text 13 Social insurance............................................................................................. 40
Text 14 Monetary reform........................................................................................... 41
Grammar
The Present Perfect Tense42
Sequence of tenses45
Modal verbs47
Passive Voice50
Topic 1
Business around the world
Read the text and write down one thing about each nationality that you can remember. Share you have written with other students in the class.
Good manners – good business
Part I
Travelling to all corners of the world gets easier and easier. We live in a global village, but how well do we know and understand each other? Here is a simple test. Imagine you have arranged a meeting at four o’clock. What time should you expect your foreign business colleagues to arrive? If they are German, they’ll be bang on time. If they are American, they’ll probably be 15 minutes early. If they are British, they’ll be 15 minutes late, and you should allow up to an hour for the Italians.
The British are happy to have a business lunch and discuss business matters with a drink during the meal; the Japanese prefer not to work while eating. Lunch is a time to relax and get to know one another, and they rarely drink at lunchtime.
The Germans like to talk business before dinner; the French like eat first and talk afterwards. They have to be well-fed and watered before they discuss anything.
Taking off your jackets and rolling up your sleeves is a sign of getting down to work in Britain and Holland, but in Germany people regard it as taking it easy.
American executives sometimes signal their feelings of ease and importance in their offices by putting their feet on the desk whilst on the telephone. In Japan, people would be shocked. Showing the soles of your feet is the height of bad manners. It is a social insult only exceeded by blowing your nose in public. The Japanese have perhaps the strictest rules of social and business behaviour. Seniority is very important and a younger man should never be sent to complete a business deal with an older Japanese man. The Japanese business card almost needs a rulebook of its own. You must exchange business cards immediately on meeting because it is essential to establish everyone’s status and position. When it is handed to a person in superior position, it must be given and received with both hands, and you must take time to read it carefully, and not just put it in your pocket! Also the bow is a very important part of greeting someone. You should not expect the Japanese to shake hands. Bowing the head is a mark of respect and the first bow of the day should be lower than when you meet thereafter.
The Americans sometimes find it difficult to accept the more formal Japanese manners. They prefer to be casual and more informal, as illustrated by the universal ‘Have a nice day!’. American waiters have a one-word imperative ‘Enjoy!’. The British, of course, are cool and reserved. The great topic of conversation between strangers in Britain is the weather – unemotional and impersonal. In America, the main topic between strangers is the search to find a geographical link. ‘Oh, really? You live in Ohio? I had an uncle who once worked there.’
Answer the questions
1. Which nationalities are the most and least punctual?
2. Which nationalities do not like to eat and do business at the same time?
3. What is the sign of getting sown to work in Britain?
4. How should you greet your Japanese colleagues?
5. What nationality is the most and least formal/
Discussion
· An American friend of yours is going to work in Japan. Give some advice about how he or she should behave.
· Do you agree with the saying ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’? Do you have a similar saying in your language?
· What advice would you give somebody coming to live and work in your country?
Read this article and choose one of these titles for it:
When in Rome …
Travelling abroad
Doing business in Europe
Problems that business people face
Good manners, good business
I didn’t mean to be rude
Part II
nobody actually wants to cause offence but, as business becomes ever more international, it is increasingly easy to get it wrong. There may be a single European market but it does not mean that managers behave the same in Greece as they do in Denmark.
In many European countries handshaking is an automatic gesture. In France good manners require that on arriving at a business meeting a manager shakes hands with everyone present. This can be a demanding task and, in a crowded room, may require gymnastic ability if the farthest hand is to be reached.
Handshaking is almost as popular in other countries –including Germany, Belgium and Italy. But Northern Europeans, such as the British and Scandinavians, are not quite so fond of physical demonstrations of friendliness.
In Europe the most common challenge is not the content of the food, but the way you behave as you eat. Some things are just not done. In France it is not good manners to raise tricky questions of business over the main course. Business has its place: after the cheese course. Unless you are prepared to eat in silence you have to talk about something –something, that is, other than the business deal which you are continually chewing over in your head.
Italians give similar importance to the whole process of business entertaining. In fact, in Italy the biggest fear, as course after course appears, is that you entirely forget you are there on business. If you have the energy, you can always do the polite thing when the meal finally ends, and offer to pay. Then, after a lively discussion, you must remember the next polite thing to do – let your host pick up the bill.
Germany, as you walk sadly back to your hotel room, you may wonder why your apparently friendly hosts have not invited you out for the evening. Don’t worry, it is probably nothing personal. Germans do not entertain business people with quite the same enthusiasm as some of their European counterparts.
The Germans are also notable for the amount of formality they bring to business. As an outsider, it is often difficult to know whether colleagues have been working together for 30 years or have just met in the lift. If you are used to calling people by their first names this can be a little strange. To the Germans, titles are important. Forgetting that someone should be called Herr Doktor or Frau Direktorin might cause serious offence. It is equally offensive to call them by a title they do not possess.
In Italy the question of title is further confused by the fact that everyone with a university degree can be called Dottore – and engineers, lawyers and architects may also expect to be called by their professional titles.
These cultural challenges exist side by side with the problems of doing business in a foreign language. Language, of course, is full of difficulties – disaster may be only a syllable away. But the more you know of the culture of the country you are dealing with, the less likely you are to get into difficulties. It is worth the effort. It might be rather hard to explain that the reason you lost the contract was not the product or the price, but the fact that you offended your hosts in a light-hearted comment over an aperitif. Good manners are admired: they can also make or break the deal.
Дата: 2018-12-28, просмотров: 309.
