...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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...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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...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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... 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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...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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...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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...1. What changes in the political and economic environment allowed Telefonica to start expanding globally? * The changes involved in political and economic environment were the Spanish government starts privatized the company and deregulated the Spanish telecommunications in the market. Due to these changes, followed by a sharp reduction in workforce, rapid adaptation of new technologies, and begun to focus in driving up profits and shareholder's value, the Telefonica began to grow and allowed the business to expand globally. 2. Why Telefonica did initially focused on Latin America? Why was it slower to expand in Europe, even though Spain is a member of European Union? * As Telefonica looking for a growth, they searched first the Latin America and it seemed that the nation is the perfect fit for them because the Latin America also experienced the rapid deregulation and privatization across the region. So, telefonica initially focused on Latin America because the similarities in the development of the market, language and culture. Also, Latin America markets were increasing the adoptation rate and usage not just traditional fixed line telecommunications services, but also include the internet connections and mobile phones. * Even though Spain is a member of the European Union, the Telefonica had been an implied agreement between the national telecommunication companies that they would not invade each other's market which result for Telefonica to slower their expansion...
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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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...long vacations and not short ones which Euro Disney offered. They overlooked the calendar timings where Europeans were more likely to travel. The restaurant design was classy and American like which was rejected by Europeans as they felt that they were artificial. Apart from the restaurants, the meal scheduling was also flawed. Euro Disney also had a no alcohol policy which the Europeans did not like as wine is important part of their culture. Europeans are bound by tradition as to what they eat and the way they shop. Though Europeans are brand conscious, still they prefer national brands. So changing the name to Disneyland Paris appealed more to them as Paris was considered as romantic while Euro was related to commerce and business. To attract Spanish and Latin American markets, special week long celebrations could be organized. It has to be done in such a...
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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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...Marieshka Barton Wines of Spain Prof. Newton June 15, 2015 Spanish Wine Marketing and Sales Sonoma State University’s Wines of Spain 2015 summer class introduced students to Northern Spain’s prestigious Penedès, Priorat, and Rioja wine regions. Production and marketing professionals from eight wineries hosted our student group and provided facility tours and insights on production, marketing, and exporting. This paper focuses on Northern Spain’s wine industry’s legal regulations, tourism, stewardship, communications, and exports through the lens of wine business marketing. The paper concludes with marketing recommendations relevant to new world (USA, Canada, and Australia) markets. History First, a brief introduction to Spain’s wine history is provided to differentiate Spain from its global competitors and set the context for further analysis. As an “old world” wine culture, Spain has a rich wine history beginning with Phoenician tribes and industrious Romans. Unfortunately, Spain’s nascent wine industry was disrupted due to Islamic rule followed by civil and global wars. In the late 1800’s, French winemakers revolutionized Spain’s weak wine industry. France’s Phylloxera tragedy brought an exodus of French winemakers over the Pyrenees seeking work. By the time Phylloxera reached Spain, viticulturists where already grafting native vines onto American...
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