Impact Of The Cultural Element, Language, In International Marketing

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ts affect the operations of multinational firms. The most influential cultural elements are language, education, religion beliefs and ethnic values, Aesthetics, social institutions, and living conditions.

Language and its importance:
Learning a language helps cultural understanding and business relationships. The expatriates must be at least conversational in the host language, particularly when it comes to selling in foreign countries, languages are important. A Dutch sales training expert said, “People expect to buy from sales representatives they can relate to, and who understand their language and culture”.

Difference in language:
All societies have complex languages that reflect the environment in which their people live. Because of varying environments, translating one language directly into another is difficult as the meanings of words differ widely among languages. For example, people living in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere customarily use the word summer to refer to the months of June, July, and August. People in tropical zones may use that term to denote the dry season, which occurs at different times in different countries. Some concepts simply do not translate. Family, for example, has different connotations in different countries. In the United States, it generally means only the parents and children. In Italy and many Latin countries it could mean the parents, children, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and so forth. The meaning of names for family members can have different meanings depending on the context within which they are used. In the Italian culture, the words for aunt and uncle are different for the maternal and paternal sides of the family. The concept of affection is a universal idea, but the manner in which it is manifested in each culture may differ. The word kissing means an expression of affection in the West, but it is alien to many Eastern cultures and even taboo in some. ...