...mean you can really fit in to that culture. Within the same language there is different dialects, accents, and traditions. I believe you can learn a lot about a culture through its language. The example that I have experienced has been with the Spanish language. The Spanish that I speak is not the same Spanish as all other Spanish speaking societies. The biggest difference within the language has to do with the variety of cultures. I am from Guatemala, Central America, not the same Spanish as South America (many different Spanish’s there), the Spanish speaking Caribbean Islands and Spain. About a year ago I took a Spanish course in Spain, and that is where I noticed how much the language can vary. There is no “perfect” Spanish, because of the variety of different cultures, Spanish has evolved and has caused this interesting diversity. Because of its vast diversity we can learn about the different cultures. In Spain I learned, just from listening to people conversing, some of the culture there. The culture in Spain is very different than the one I am from; one of the many differences I noticed is how open their culture and traditions are (the region of the country also has to do a lot with this), but listening to their kind of Spanish I noticed that the way they speak to each other would be eccentric back in my culture. At first this was a shock to me (the vocabulary they would...
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...largest population of Spanish speakers in the world. Keep in mind, however, that Spanish was not always the primary language of the native people. Before the Spanish influence, many different native tribes inhabited the country; each of them speaking their own dialect. Some of the more popular dialects were the Mayan dialect and the Náhuatl dialect. The northern tribes, known to be the Chichimecs, were hunters and gatherers. They were small, more isolated groups who roamed the dryer lands of the deserts and steppes. The agricultural tribes inhabited other regions of the country and allowed larger populations in their surroundings. Included in these agricultural tribes were the Mayans of the Yucatan, Totonac, Huastec, Zapotecs, Tlaxcalans, Aztecs, and others tribes. These tribes developed civilizations with highly structured temples used for religion, sacrifices, commerce, and their form of government. The Aztecs even used a sort of tribute system to collect taxes and treasures from conquered tribes. The well known symbol of the Aztecs was an eagle with a snake in its beak resting on a cactus. This Aztec symbol has become the national symbol of Mexico. In 1519, the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés, sailed along the eastern gulf coast and anchored off the island of San Juan de Ulúa. Over 500 Spanish soldiers stepped foot on the land, bringing with them a new animal species never seen by the native tribes; the horse. This was the beginning of the Spanish Conquest and the fall...
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...Spanish Culture Location: Southwestern Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay, Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, and Pyrenees Mountains, southwest of France Spanish Society & Culture Spanish Family Values The family is the basis of the social structure and includes both the nuclear and the extended family, which sometimes provides both a social and a financial support network. Today, it is less common than previously for family members to work in a family business, as personal preferences are important and university education is general. The structure and the size of the family vary, but generally, people live until longer lives, have fewer children than before, and fewer people live in their homes with extended family. Familial networks have become less tight. The greatest changes have occurred inside families, between men and woman, and the parents and children because the values that inspire these relations have changed. Religion in Spain The majority of Spaniards are formally Roman Catholic, although different religious beliefs are accepted. During the history of Spain, there have been long periods of where different religious groups have coexisted, including Muslims, Jews and Christians. Still some traditions manifest more like a cultural event than a religious one. During Holy Week, many participants of the processions wear peaked, black hats as the sign of a penitent and walk barefoot, carrying a burden of some kind. Religious history...
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...granted the City’s motion for summary judgment (i.e. ruled in favor of the City without going to trial). The employees appealed. How it all started: In the spring of 2002 the City's Street Commissioner, Holmes Willis, received a complaint that because Street Dept. employees were speaking Spanish, other employees could not understand what was being said on the City radio. Willis informed the City's HR Director of the complaint, and she advised Willis that he could direct his employees to speak only English when using the radio for City business. Plaintiffs claim that Willis instead told the Street Dept. employees that they could not speak Spanish at work at all and informed them that the City would soon implement an official English-only policy. On June 18, 2002, one of the senior employees, Tommy Sanchez, wrote a letter to the HR Director and the City Administrator, Michael Nettles, expressing concerns about the new policy. Sanchez felt that employees had not been given proper notice of the new policy under the City’s Personnel Policies & Procedures Manual and proper procedures were not followed when implementing this policy. Sanchez reported that Willis had told him that Hispanics speak Spanish because of “insecurities” and that Sanchez too would “feel uncomfortable if another race would speak their native language in front of [him]". The letter also requested an investigation into discrimination charges in accordance with the City’s Manual. In July 2002, an English-only official...
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... 3 4 5 9 12 14 15 16 2. General country information 3. Structure of the 10 steps professional selling sales cycle 4. Professional selling behavior in Spain according to the 10 steps 6. Conclusion 7. Sources 8. Appendices 5. The unique characteristics of the Spanish (selling) business culture The 10 step selling process refers to a sequential series of actions by the salesperson that leads towards the customer taking a desired action and ends with a follow-‐up to ensure purchase satisfaction. We will provide the reader with a thorough understanding of the 10 steps of the professional selling sales cycle and will apply this to the 3 1. Introduction ...
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...producing Sol y Canto recordings; Amador Bilingual Voice-Over work in English and Spanish. They capitalized their professional musical talents and native English and Spanish speaking skills to and took the opportunities to put up a business. Rosi Amador, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico was raised by their parents, who are both actors and actresses passed on to her the love of Latin American rhythms and musical style. She moved to the United States to continue her high school and graduated with a degree in Spanish and French from Bryn Mawr College. She briefly worked in retail and administrative roles and served as the manager of the socially conscious Underground Railway Theatre, where she learned how to manage, fundraise, and book performing arts ensembles nationally. Together with her husband Brian, they founded their Latin band, Flor de Cana, which she also acted as the manager. In 2005, she merged her agency with two other booking agencies and became the Vice President of the Roots Agency and its Latin Division Direct until 2007. Brian Amador is from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music, taking up classical guitar, composition and improvisation. He also took classes in flamenco guitar and received a highly competitive grant for brilliant artists by Massachusetts Cultural Council. He was the principal guitarist for the Ramon delos Reyes Spanish Dance...
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... NONE-EQUITY BASED STRATEGY 4 Executive Summary International business meshes across multiple domains most notably market entry strategies and sociocultural variances. Factoring in those two critical aspects and giving them the right amount of attention is the separating line between success and failure. Terralumen, Blue Ridge, and Delta are all successful companies; However, by not observing the basic requirements of international business, the security of this otherwise prosperous enterprise is at stake. Both Terralumen and Delta have shortcomings in the area of international business and Blue Ridge is the only stakeholder in this mix who has the necessary experience and expertise to manage this crisis and find a resolution. Considering the overall profitability of the Blue Ridge brand in Spain and existing investments by each joint venture member, the position from this white paper is to recommend a restructure of the business model to leverage the strengths within the joint venture organization and tailor the Blue Ridge total product more closely to the Spanish market. Dissolution of Blue Ridge Spain Delta and Blue Ridge do not have adequate knowledge of the market; this is supported by the fact that Management for the joint venture came from Terralumen and dissolution would result in loss of necessary expertise, which would hinder Delta’s ability to function effectively in Spain Spanish people have a distrust of foreigners (BRS p.4), it took two years for...
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...in the region, similar to the one made in Spain that brought Tleefonica to be a private com-pany. The expansion didn’t start in Europe, mainly due to a tacit agreement between te;lecommunication companies in Europe, that stated that they shouldn’t invade each other’s market. ( Youngs, R 2000 )“ The single market had opened the floodgates to EU investment to come pouring into Spain. In order to survive, Spanish companies were obliged to begin looking for new markets. Few companies in Spain were competitive enough to prosper in other parts of the EU, needing easier markets elsewhere [CEPAL, 1997: 92]. This was a more robust explanation of Spanish FDI trends than those predicated on cultural factors. While frequently alluded to, the role played by cultural and linguistic commonalities was difficult to quantify and was seen by most Latin American policy-makers as deliberately overplayed by Madrid [Russell, 1999: 24]. If they did not themselves provide the incentive for the explosion in Spanish FDI, cultural factors did, however, help Latin America become the natural focus for Spanish companies seeking for the first time to establish a...
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...Richard Rodriguez, there is a switch. At a young age, Rodriguez was forced by the school system to stop speaking Spanish at home and start speaking English the whole time. Although he became proficient in school, having no trouble with reading or writing in English, there was a price for this advantage Rodrigues gained. Slowly but surely, Rodriguez started to lose touch with his culture, letting it fade away like his memory of Spanish. Aria is just one example of many stories that chronicles a switch between American and Hispanic culture. One must always give, and usually this ‘give’ of the American culture is painted in a very negative light. Many Hispanic-Americans recognize what they...
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...twenty-nine Hispanic employees desiring to speak Spanish, their native language while on the job. This is a case involving disparate-impact discrimination. The case begins with a complaint from other employees not being able to understand what Hispanic employees speaking Spanish were saying over the city radio. Defendant Holmes Willis informed the City’s Human Resources Director. Candy Richardson of the complaint, she advised Willis he could direct his employees to speak only English when using the radio for city business (Halbert Ingulli- Law & Ethics in the Business Environment pp.138). The Plaintiffs then claimed that Willis instead told Street Department Employees they could not speak Spanish at work at all and informed them that the city would soon implement an official English-only policy. The policy concluded to insure effective communication among and between employees and various departments of the city, to prevent misunderstandings and to promote and enhance safe work practices, all work related and business communications during the work day shall be conducted in the English language with the exception of those circumstances where it is necessary or prudent to communicate with a citizen, business owner, organization, or criminal suspect in his or her native language due to the person or entity’s limited English language skills. The use of the English language during work hours and while engaged in City business includes face to face communication of work orders...
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...socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought” (Culture, 2010, pg. 5) Culture of Spain Spain’s culture includes the personal beliefs of religion, the practices of the society, and the attitudes of the people. The Spanish culture has made adjustments to meet the demands of the international and the way of doing business in Europe, but retains much of its older, more comfortable traditions as well. Spain is relatively consistent in its population ethnicity, unlike Germany in which one must bear a German family name to be a citizen. Spain’s ethnicity varies in itself because the different regions within the country. The influence of the Moors from centuries ago still plays a part in the architecture and beliefs of some people. Spain embraces its art and architecture that consists of aqueducts, castles, historic churches, and housing. The largest cities, such as Barcelona, still maintain buildings that are both traditional in style and features. The cities also maintain their small and narrow streets. Various Elements of the Spanish Culture Spain has a rich linguistic heritage. Spain has four official languages; “Castilian Spanish (the most commonly spoken), Catalan (used in Cataluña and the Balearics), Basque (spoken in the Basque regions of both France and Spain) and, finally, Galician. There are also a number of local dialects such as Valéncian and Andulucian” (Spain culture- guide, 2008). These languages...
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...recession that began in mid-2008. In this report I will discuss the history, demographics, major products Spain benefits from, attitudes, beliefs and religions practiced in the country, their main language societal organization and economic development of the country. At the conclusion of this report, it will be known that Spain is a country that the U.S. and other countries will continue to do business with. Spain has a long rich history with earliest signs of inhabitants going back to 800,000 BC. By 1200 BC North African and Celtic tribes settled on the peninsula creating a Celt-Iberian race. In turn, areas of Spain were colonized and fought over by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans and the Goths. Moorish armies from North Africa invaded the peninsula in the 8th century AD and defeated the last Visigoth King and created Europe's only Muslim territory. They conquered large parts of the country finding strong resistance only in small Christian kingdoms in the north. In 1469 Isabella of Castalia and Ferdinand of Aragon married. With that, they united two Christian kingdoms. The Spanish inquisition was born of the desire to "re-Christianize" the newly unified Spain, where thousands of Jews and Moors were...
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...international wines experienced in the chinese market over the past few years, in particular, first class Spanish Rioja wines. We believe that the sales of Spanish wine makes for a great economic opportunity in China, especially in the capital city of Beijing. Increasingly, the importers, distributors and, most importantly, the general public have become familiar with Spanish wine and its superior quality. Thus, China has become the third most important market for Spanish wine in the world. The sales of Spanish wine bottled to China increased 41,1 % in value during the first semester of this year, with 36.9 million euros sold between January and July, This has positioned Spain as the third world seller, with 6,9 % of the market, behind France and Australia. Statistics indicate that in a decade China will be a substantial market for Spanish partly due to the fall of tariffs since Chinas entry into the World Trade Organization , the fast growing middle and upper class and therefore, the increase of purchasing power. According to Vinexpo, the wine consumption in China boomed between 2007 and 2011 reaching a growth of 142.1 % with a total of 159.25 million boxes purchased. Although it is foreseen that the growth rate will slow down to 39.6 % between 2012 and 2016, the Chinese will drink 252 million boxes of wine in 2016. In 2010 the Chinese bought nearly 47 million liters of Spanish wine. Six times more than in 2009, therefore our sale expectations are enormous. The mid and upper...
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...Hispanic-Americans make up a large ethnic group in the United States. Many Americans believe Hispanics are much the same and group them together (panethnicity) but, in fact, the groups are very diverse. Hispanics come from a variety of different cultures and include Mexican-Americans, Puerto Rican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Central Americans. Each of these groups vary in their customs, religious beliefs, political views, family views, and other conventions that make them similar in some ways, and very different in others (Franklin, 2009). This paper will discuss the various cultures of Mexican-Americans, Puerto Rican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Venezuelan-Americans in America. Mexican-Americans As a result of the Mexican-American war, about 80,000 Mexicans resided in the United States due to the accumulation of New Mexico and California. Even though many returned to Mexico, the majority stayed in the United States and gained their citizenship after two years (Englekirk and Martin, 2009). Since then, Mexican immigration to the United States has grown significantly and for various reasons. Today, Mexican-Americans make up about two thirds of the Hispanic population in the United States (Schaefer, 2006). The first indigenous Mexican people were various Indians such as Mixtec, Aztec, Mayan, Olmec, Toltec, Zapotec, and Teotihuacan who assimilated with Spaniards after Spain invaded Mexico. Mexican families were typically male dominated but close-knit due to respect...
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...What is Bilingualism and how do people communicate bilingually? A critical analysis of the topic in the book “Academic Writing: Making the transition” by Steve Marshall. The book has a number of definitions for the term Bilingual. Edwards (1994), states that virtually all people were bilingual in nature. He stated that anyone who can communicate few words of another language is bilingual. This is to say that for example, if someone went on holiday to another country and could exchange a simple greeting in the foreign language, then he would be considered to be bilingual. The writer of the article states that the definition by Edwards is far from what most people consider to be bilingual because most people define bilingualism as the ability to fluently speak two languages. The problem with the Marshall’s statement is that he has not explained how he found out that most people define Bilingualism to be the ability to speak two languages fluently. He simply assumes this without giving conclusive evidence. It would have been better if he would have conducted a research or had the opinions of people on what they considered to be bilingual and would conclude based on the response by the people. Edwards’s definition is also ambiguous because the assumption that simply speaking a word of a foreign language makes one bilingual makes almost all people of the world bilingual because most people know few words of a foreign language and this would mean that everyone is bilingual...
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