Lost in Translation?
How do you say "Cosmopolitan" in Germany? In China? In Bulgaria?
Last month, George Green, chief executive of Hearst Magazines International, flew to Sofia to launch the Bulgarian edition of Hearst Corp.'s famous women's magazine. The celebratory dinner and reception were conducted in English. "The editors and business people [in Bulgaria] all speak English," he says. "It is the language of commerce and industry today."
Mr. Green says he doesn't need to speak anything other than English as he travels the world to meet with publishing partners, with the exceptions of Japan and China, where translators are used. "I won't let anyone who works for me have a conversation in a language other than English when I'm around," the veteran publishing executive says, adding, "If you're in the publishing world, especially the written world, you better understand English."
That may not work in some industries, however. Certainly, English has become the common language at many multinationals. Documents and e-mails are written in English, and English often is spoken at board meetings, even at Asian and European companies.
But failing to speak the native language of a parent company could hamper a manager's advancement and even his or her ability to do a current job well. And whether at companies based in the U.S. or overseas, executives can miss out on informal conversations or risk being misinterpreted, literally, if they don't speak the local language.
Speaking and understanding the local language "gives you more insight, you can avoid misunderstandings," says Jean Young, a California native who speaks fluent German and works for Morgan Stanley's institutional investors group. "It also helps you achieve a deeper level of respect."
Ms. Young works with regulators and financial institutions in Germany and regularly conducts business in German. But when she travels to Morgan Stanley offices in Madrid, Milan and Paris, she says she sometimes doesn't understand when her co-workers break into Spanish, French or Italian. Ms. Young knows a little French and is now studying Spanish. "I would love to be able to join in," she says.
Not only are more U.S. companies now owned by overseas parents -- including DaimlerChrysler AG, Bertelsmann, Diageo PLC and Anglo-Dutch Unilever PLC, to name a few -- but international mergers and acquisitions often mean companies are owned by a succession of overseas corporate parents, each with a different native tongue.
Last week, Germany's Siemens AG bought USFilter, a Palm Desert, Calif., water-treatment business that has been owned since 1999 by France's Vivendi SA. (Vivendi spun off some of its operations, including USFilter, as a free-standing company, Veolia Environnement SA.)
When Vivendi bought the business, some U.S. executives moved to Paris and worked at learning French, says James Force, vice president of communications at USFilter. He believes something similar will happen now under Siemens, with U.S. managers looking to learn some German. "I think it's great if you have some American business people who are fluent or partially fluent in other languages, particularly the language of the parent," he says. "The Europeans are far ahead of us."
At Munich-based Siemens, country managers must learn the local language of their posts: The head of Siemens's China business, Ernst Behrens, speaks fluent Mandarin, for example. All managers must speak either German or English -- but Siemens has a corporate rule about internal meetings: If one or more individuals doesn't speak German, the others are obliged to speak English. (There are exceptions: In France, meetings may take place in French even if one or more attendees doesn't speak French, a Siemens spokesman says.)
Heinrich von Pierer, Siemens chairman and chief executive, says U.S. executives need to be open to learning about other cultures. "I think our American friends have to be willing to come to Germany when they are younger, to learn and to understand the culture in the same way we do it with everyone else around the world."
Robert M. Kimmett, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany and Siemens board member, says he reached a deeper understanding of the company because he could communicate fluently in German with executives and other board members. "Language proficiency gives a [non-German] board member a better grasp of what is going on inside a company," he says, "not just the facts and figures but also texture and nuance."
China and Japan pose even greater language obstacles; they are partially cultural. The languages are hard for Westerners to learn, so many U.S. executives rely on translators and body language. That can widen the communication gap.
At the Zurich-based electrical-engineering company ABB Ltd., Peter Leupp, a Swiss native, oversees 7,000 employees in China and speaks workable Mandarin. He says Chinese employees are reluctant to say "no" to superiors, making it difficult to do business.
Because he isn't fluent in the Chinese languages, Mr. Leupp says he often relies on body language -- and sometimes misreads it. "I have conversations with Chinese employees, and after 15 minutes I say to them, 'What do you want to tell me?' " he says. "They don't want to take risks by saying something that they think I might not want to hear."
ABB made English its official language 16 years ago, when Switzerland's Brown Boveri and Sweden's Asea merged. ABB's then-CEO, Percy Barnevik, hoped speaking English would bridge the gap between the conservative, hierarchical Swiss, who called each other by their last names, and the laid-back, egalitarian Swedes. English is a unifying force at the company, Mr. Leupp says. "We at ABB like to joke that we have one common language, which is bad English."
As English becomes more universal, both foreign and U.S. companies are placing more emphasis on developing employees with specific management skills and industry knowledge, rather than language facility. Jeanne Branthover, a managing director of Boyden Global Executive Search, says she recently placed an American who spoke only English at a Spanish financial institution whose top managers were all Spanish speaking. The company cared primarily about the candidate's sales ability, not his language ability, she says. Still, Ms. Branthover notes: "Language is always going to give somebody an edge, as long as they have the other requirements."
At both Philips Electronics NV, the Dutch consumer giant, and General Electric Co., of Fairfield, Conn., English is the official language and executives aren't required to speak the local language to run a country operation. But both companies have increasingly appointed multilingual country managers. Susan Peters, GE's vice president of executive development, says language skills are an "advantage," and the company closely tracks its multilingual managers.
But speaking only English is "not a showstopper," Ms. Peters says. "You can in fact be a global business leader and be an American too," she says.
Five years ago, Japan's Nissan Motor Co. adopted English as its common language after France's Renault SA acquired a 44.3% stake in Nissan to save it from bankruptcy. But Renault executive Thierry Viadieu decided to learn Japanese, instead of relying on translators, when he relocated to Tokyo from Paris. An interpreter "would have been a screen between my colleagues and me," Mr. Viadieu says. He conducts meetings in a mixture of Japanese and English but says he hasn't mastered the Japanese sense of humor. "I've stopped translating jokes because nobody laughs," he says.
英语不是商界通行证
你在德国如何表达"Cosmopolitan"（全球性的）这个词意？在中国呢？在保加利亚呢？
上月，赫斯特杂志国际(Hearst Magazines International)的首席执行长乔治?格林(George Green)飞到索非亚，推出赫斯特集团(Hearst Corp.)一本著名女性杂志的保加利亚语版。庆祝宴会和接待过程用的都是英语。"（在保加利亚的）编辑和业务人员都说英语，"他说，"英语已经成为商业往来以及行业通用的语言。"
格林说，他在飞往世界各地会晤出版业伙伴时只需说英语，但日本和中国除外，在这两个地方要用翻译。"我不会允许任何为我工作的人当我在场时用英语以外的其他语言谈话，"这位资深的出版业人士说，"如果你身在出版界，特别是文字出版界，你最好还是懂英语。"
但这并非在所有行业都是如此的。英语已无可争议地成为了很多跨国公司的通用语言。文件和电子邮件是用英语写的，英语经常是董事会会议使用的语言，即便是在亚洲和欧洲公司也是如此。
但不会说母公司的本国语也可能妨碍一位经理的晋升，甚至影响他／她做好本职工作。不管他们的公司总部是在美国或是其他国家，同全球员工一道工作的管理人员如果不会说当地语言的话，他们会错过一些和项目有关的非正式谈话，或下班后的聚会。 能说流利德语的加州人简?杨(Jean Young)为摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)欧洲的机构投资者集团工作，她说，会说而且懂当地语言"使你具有更敏锐的洞察力，避免产生很多误解。它还能为你获得更多尊重。"
杨的工作同德国监管部门和金融机构联系密切，而且经常在德国出差。但当她出差去摩根士丹利在马德里、米兰和巴黎的办事处时，如果那里的同事用西班牙语、法语或意大利语说话，她就会有置身事外的感觉。杨懂一点法语，现在开始学西班牙语。"我想和他们打成一片，"她说。
中国和日本给西方人设置了学习语言的障碍，这在一定程度上是文化差异所致。中文和日语对西方人来说都很难学，很多美国管理人员要依靠翻译或通过肢体语言表达含义。而这样做有时候反而会加大交流的鸿沟。 瑞士人皮特?路普(Peter Leupp)供职于总部设在苏黎世的电子工程公司ABB Ltd.。他在中国管理著7千多员工，他可以用中文实现基本的交流。他说，中国雇员一般不会对上司说"不"，这给工作带来很多麻烦。
路普的中文不是很流利，经常要靠肢体语言搞清楚下属的意思。有时候，他以为对方说的是"好的"，但其实说的是"不"。"在和中国雇员交谈时，我会在15分钟后问他们'你们想告诉我什么？'"他说。"但他们不愿意冒险说一些他们认为我可能不想听的东西。"
ABB在16年前瑞典的Brown Boveri和瑞士的Asea合并时就将英语定为公司的官方语言。ABB当时的CEO派西?巴那维克(Percy Barnevik)希望全公司的人都用英语沟通，以消除保守的、等级意识强烈的瑞士人和有些懒散的、更具平等意识的瑞典人之间的隔阂。
路普说，英语的确是公司的一种凝聚力。他说，"我们在ABB喜欢开一个玩笑，说我们有一个通用语言，那就是蹩脚的英语。"
五年前，日本的日产汽车公司(Nissan Motor Co.)在法国雷诺汽车(Renault SA)收购了该公司44.3%股权后采用英语作为公司通用语言。不过，当法方经理Thierry Viadieu五年前从雷诺的巴黎总部调任至日产的东京办公室时，他还是决定要学日语，而不是依靠翻译。
翻译"将成为我的同事和我之间的一道屏障，"Viadieu说。
