Краткий курс делового английского. Гунина Н.А - 45 стр.

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45
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 Scandina-
vians, 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 enter-
taining. 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.
In 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 Ger-
mans, titles are important. Forgetting that someone should be called Herr Dok-
tor 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 – dis-
aster 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.

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