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MUCH has been written recently about Americans' scandalous incompetence in foreign languages. The final act of the Helsinki Accords, signed by the United States, the Soviet Union, and the European states, commits all signatory states “to encourage the study of foreign language and civilization as an important means of expanding communication among peoples.” The President's Commission of Foreign Languages and International Studies points to the “serious deterioration in this country's language and research capacity” at a time of increased world tensions. “Our lack of foreign language competence diminishes our capabilities in diplomacy, in foreign trade, and in citizen comprehension of the world in which we live and compete,” continues the commission's report. Paul Simon and others have repeatedly pointed to the pitfalls public figures and business executives encounter abroad because they lack knowledge about the language and customs of the people. 1 While it warms the hearts of foreign language teachers to hear public support for the study of languages emphasized once again after years of silence, we are not so naive as to hope for a sudden renaissance of language learning. It is encouraging that many colleges and universities have restored the language requirement for graduation. We have also noted that students are increasingly trying to broaden their career opportunities in recognition of a declining job market. More and more often a business or engineering student will continue studying a language beyond the requirements for graduation, sometimes obtaining a minor, a double major, or even double degrees to make his or her skills more marketable. Frequently students must convince unenlightened counselors that such a course of study can enhance their chances for future jobs and may even mean better opportunities for promotion, higher salaries, and interesting travel abroad.
From the perspective of modern international business, knowledge of foreign languages is extremely important. Let me emphasize that most of our graduates will work in this country, not abroad in American or international firms. They will, however, increasingly be dealing with foreign firms in the United States as well as overseas. Americans with some knowledge of foreign languages and customs have a clear edge in business dealings with these firms. Knowing foreign business methods can greatly enhance an educated approach to problem solving. Today most companies, large or small, engage in international business. Foreign companies no longer simply export to the American marketplace; they are now investing here. Statistics show that during the last three years German investments have increased significantly. Last year Germany's direct investment in the United States exceeded $2 billion. “At the start of 1980, United States direct investment abroad totaled $2 billion—roughly four times the $52.3 billion that foreigners have invested here. But the gap is closing. Foreign investment in the U.S. doubled in the 1950s, doubled again in the 1960s, then quadrupled in the 1970s.” 2 In 1978 there were 170 German firms in the states of Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. By 1981 there were more than 400. 3
An increased amount of German investment will require bilingual skills in marketing, engineering, business, and law. 4 Through such direct investment, the average employee enters the international business realm by working for a foreign-owned company and by learning to relate to managers who are foreign nationals. Internationalization is felt not only in the boardrooms but throughout the firm. German companies usually supply personnel only to fill top-level management positions—and occasional temporary training positions—in foreign-owned companies. When bilingual American employees cannot be found, German personnel are transferred to fill middle-management positions, frequently in engineering, business, and marketing. Our profession can help train Americans for such positions by offering business language courses. Dieter Weissbach, vice president-engineering of EM Industries, Inc., explains what happened at EM in this regard.
In our company we employ a few Germans in solid positions who are bilingual. We were not particularly looking for German employees but could not find Americans, especially for such leading positions, who were at least able to read and speak German fairly well. Since this is essential for the necessary communication with the parent companies in Germany, many good positions in foreign-owned companies are blocked for Americans in their own country because they did not develop language skills. These, by the way, would also help them in many cases where American companies have affiliates in Germany, or even in the case of pure international business partnership. 5
German companies and German investors are the leaders in the internationalization of economy and business in the United States. Of course Japan and other countries, especially the Arab nations, are also very much in evidence. But the German companies seem to be more aggressive in this expansion than the other European Common Market countries. Also the similarities of German and American business practices, economic theories, and capital investments make Germany the single most important foreign investor in the United States. The relatively small country of West Germany has an economy larger than that of the United States west of the Mississippi. German tourists spend more than $500 million annually in the United States. Worldwide, German is spoken by 110 million people and commonly used for business in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and the USSR, and of course in East and West Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Many business leaders in Latin America are ethnic Germans who speak German.
If we look at the economic product, that is, the total value of the goods and services produced, we see that German-speaking nations have the largest product—$667.4 billion—of any language group except English. The Federal Republic of Germany is ahead of the United States in per capita income, and Germany is economically twice as large as Spanish-speaking Latin America and Spain combined. The Federal Republic of Germany is the largest economic lender of the European Common Market. The German Democratic Republic is an important member of the COMECON, the communist trading bloc. Familiarity with business and with business practices in these two countries affords an American a good introduction to the rest of Europe, both East and West. These few facts should illustrate that no reasonable business person would ignore such a large market.
The American public is nevertheless slow to shed its insularity and reluctant to participate fully in global sharing if it cannot dominate. Recently it was reported that “even while attention was riveted on the American hostages in Tehran, our tarnished image in the world, rising oil prices, and a faltering economy, a Roper poll revealed that 49 per cent of Americans surveyed believed that foreign trade was either irrelevant or harmful to the economy to the United States.” 6 Some, more astute university students demand courses that will help them work effectively in an international world.
One serious problem in creating and building up the new business language courses in our college and university curricula is staffing. Most of us in the profession have been trained in literature, or perhaps linguistics, or foreign language education. Not all faculty can be expected to do research, to publish, and to perform teaching and service tasks while working themselves into this highly specialized new teaching field. Many even question the validity of the profession's involvement in such an endeavor. Young assistant professors without tenure cannot afford the time to learn how to teach a business language course properly. Yet they are often the ones called on to teach “service” courses such as business language. Frequently a faculty member is given only a few weeks notice to teach such a course. Then, too, our reward system sometimes fails to consider that teaching such a technical and cultural course, requiring constant updating, demands far more preparation time than an elementary or intermediate language course.
A number of years ago, when we began thinking seriously about offering business language courses at Purdue University, we experimented with a special section of fourth semester, which developed the four language skills, with emphasis on reading. Since most students took only four semesters of a language, this seemed a reasonable time. We soon realized, however, that the subject matter—business German/ French/Spanish—was too complicated for that level. The students lacked adequate backgrounds both in the languages and in business management. Our business German/French/Spanish courses at Purdue are now numbered 424 and have twenty semester hours as prerequisites, including a review grammar and composition course, a phonetics course, and a conversation course beyond the first four semesters of language study. Now each of us teaching the subject can structure the three-credit course on a much higher, more intense language level, making constant use of the target language in the classroom as well as in assignments. Guest lecturers from the foreign business world can be readily understood and appreciated. Materials on film and tape are much more easily absorbed. Some of our students in these courses have just returned from our junior-year-abroad programs in Hamburg, Strasbourg, and Madrid and speak the languages fluently. This semester, two of my students are enrolled both in Business German and Business French; both have spent time abroad. Our business language courses count toward the minor or the major in the language or in German area studies. Purdue University offers students a combined double major program in the schools of humanities and industrial management. In addition, students can be awarded two degrees on graduation: a B.A. in a foreign language or in German area studies and a B.S. in general management or industrial management.
Let me now describe Business German, a course that I designed and that I have been teaching for about four years. The details may be useful to anyone teaching such a course, in German or another language.
The texts used in Business German are:
Baumchen, Franz. Deutsche Wirtschaftssprache füt Aüslander . München: Max Hueber Verlag, 1973.
Heidemann, R. H. W. Export Marketing: German. London: Longman, 1978.
Sachs, Rudolf. Deutsche Handelskorrespondenz. München: Max Hueber Verlag, 1969.
Watson, Hilde W., and S. McGuinn. German in the Office. London: Longman, 1978. 7
We also use as reference and supplemental texts Eichborn's Wirtschaftswörterbüch, Tatsachen über Deutschland, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Die Frankfurter Allgemeine, Wirtschafts Woche, Deutschlandnachrichten, German Press Review, and the Christian Science Monitor.
All these texts are used regularly in class as well as for assignments. The texts are supplemented by slides, tapes, and films. The students see Deutschlandspiegel regularly. The course exposes students to German business practices, the terminology and idioms of German business language, and the structure and content of German business letters as well as telex. Students learn to understand and appreciate the differences between German and American business styles. Articles from magazines and newspapers give students an up-to-date look at business, “German-style,” as it is conducted within the Federal Republic of Germany and internationally.
On each class day two students present five-minute oral reports in German on some aspect of current events in the German business world, based on articles read in Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, and Wirtschafts Woche. Students write business letters, business reports, and their résumés. At the beginning of the semester each student chooses a German firm and works with that firm all semester. The following are examples of the written projects students do in connection with their chosen firms: a letter to the firm asking for information about it, an advertisement of the firm's product, an announcement of a job opening in the firm, a job application for that position, a chamber of commerce report from an American city trying to convince the firm to open a branch in that city, and finally a “Jahresbericht,” annual report, which is really an extensive term project.
There are numerous oral presentations in class, such as salesperson-customer dialogues, radio and television interviews, and job interviews. Various kinds of marketing projects are also presented orally in class, including how to market a new product by comparing it with existing products and how to introduce and market specific American products (large refrigerators, cars, air conditioners, fast-food restaurants, Sunbeam shavers, cosmetics) in Germany. Students write dictations, take quizzes, and do a written and an oral final.
Depending on availability, guest speakers are also invited to the class to lecture on subjects like the German government and elections, the European Common Market, and international marketing. Our guest speakers have included a representative of Lufthansa, a representative of the Dresdner Bank, the owner of a medium-sized business in Germany, and the manager of the American branch of a German firm. Fortunately, Purdue University's Krannert School of Industrial Management is quite renowned and frequently has guest speakers and guest professors from the business world. Through a personal agreement with the school I have available for my course any guest speaker who speaks German or represents a firm in a German-speaking country. The Executives-in-the-Classroom Program in the Krannert School has sent directors, vice-presidents, and presidents to address my class. Each of them has stressed the importance of knowing a foreign language well. I cannot overstate the valuable contribution the guest speakers make to the course.
It is of course impossible to cover the field in just one semester. But if we keep in mind that these students are advanced students of the German language as well as advanced students in the business school, the task won't seem quite so overwhelming. The topics I include in the course are economic geography, political parties and elections, the economic system, employment, personnel management, social insurance, labor relations, codetermination, compensation and fringe benefits, the structure of German firms, unions, insurance, marketing, the Common Market, intra-German relations, COMECON, relations with developing nations, electronic data processing, accounting, transportation, the postal system, banking, radio and television, and German cultural life and social behavior.
For students who complete this course and wish to gain practical experience in a German industry, I have initiated an “internship abroad” program. This work experience, which can be for a summer, a semester, or a year, is tailored to fit the individual. After much groundwork, I have established this program with the director of the German steel industries, who helps place the students in Germany. Eastern Michigan University and the University of Cincinnati offer other internship possibilities. Even though Business German is a challenge, I find it a very rewarding course to teach.
Christiane E. Keck is Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Purdue University. This paper was presented at ADFL Seminar West, June 1982, at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota.
1 The Chicago Tribune had this to say:
American businessmen blunder about the world like buffoons: When General Motors marketed its Chevrolet Nova in Latin America, sales were few. No one realized that no va in Spanish means “it doesn't go.” With a hasty name change to Caribe, the car sold well. Through inept translation, Schweppes Tonic Water was advertised in Italy as “bathroom water.” Similarly, a laundry-soap ad in Quebec promised users “clean genitals.” In Germany “Come Alive with Pepsi” was translated as “Come Alive Out of the Grave with Pepsi.” And the Parker Pen Co. inadvertently suggested in South American advertisements that its product would prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Language has not been the strong suit of either our presidents or government. Former president Carter made a gaffe heard around the world in Poland in 1977, when a State Department interpreter expressed Carter's wish to “learn your opinions and understand your desires for the future” as “I desire the Poles carnally.”
And it was a good thing that Deng Xiaoping, China's senior deputy minister, brought with him an interpreter skilled in English in 1979. Otherwise his discussions with Carter would have gone uncomprehended. The government had no interpreter capable of simultaneous translation from Chinese to English.
At the recent Ottawa economic summit meeting, President Reagan had to ask Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau for a translation when world leaders began chatting informally in French. (Connie Lauerman, “Fear of Languages Costly: Is U.S. Getting Lost in the Translation?” Chicago Tribune, 25 Aug. 1981, sect. 2, p. 1)
2 R. C. Longworth, “Foreign Investments Turn U.S. Economy into Babel of Accents,” Chicago Tribune, 11 June 1981, sect. 10, p. 1.
3 Eike Jordan, director of the German-American Chamber of Commerce in Atlanta, in the introduction to German in Georgia: German Language Skills and Career Opportunities (Atlanta: Goethe Institute, 1981), p. 4.
4 Karl W. Hebebrand, senior vice-president of Siemens-Allis, German in Georgia, p. 15.
5 Dieter Weissbach, vice president-engineering of EM Industries, Inc., German in Georgia, p. 9.
6 Connie Lauerman, Chicago Tribune, 25 Aug. 1981, sect. 2, p. 3.
7 The texts used in Business French at Purdue are Mauger et Charron, Le Français commercial, and Ivan de Renty, Lexique de l'anglais des affaires.
The texts used in Business Spanish at Purdue are Nelly Santos, Español comercial; Carmen Rodriguez de Roque y Margarita Baez de Abreu, Princípios de commercio con fundamentos matemáticos; Luis Gonzalez del Valle y Antolin Gonzalez del Valle, Correspondencia comercial rondo y forma; and El Pat's.
© 1983 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.
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