The Japanese Language – Expanding Frontiers For Global Businesses
Japan's tenacity and spirit has always been appreciated by people from all around the world ever since the beginning of the twentieth century when the tiny Japan defeated the giant Russia and later at the end of the World War 2 when Japan's two prime cities, Nagasaki and Hiroshima were totally annihilated by nuclear weaponry, and even still Japan sallied forth. Japan has simply shoved its devastated past into the past, where it should remain, and has created a new definition for the word optimism. In lesser than fifty years after it's near complete destruction, Japan is today the leading name in electronics, banking, automobile industry, scientific apparatus and a whole lot of other genres of business.
The extreme resilient spirit of Japan is seen in all its businesses too. Japan has done something that other countries took a very long time to do – it has broken into national monopolies of several countries. Even in the highly advanced countries of the European and American continents, Japanese brands have easily broken into monopolies set up by the leading companies of the countries themselves. Today, companies like Nokia, Hyundai, Sony, Mitsubishi and countless others are giving local brands in most countries a run for their money. Was it easy for these brands to ensconce themselves so neatly in foreign countries? No way! It was a tough battle, but the Japanese spirit pulled them forward.
That is the reason why most local brands ally themselves with Japanese business brands. By using the state-of-the-art technology that the Japanese are so famous for, and combining it with the local marketing strategies, these collaborations of Japanese and local brands always go strong. It is always a very good business idea to collaborate with Japanese businesses, or to at least learn from the way these businesses operate.
This is where the Japanese language comes in. The Japanese language is a totally different language from all the European and American languages, and even from the other Asian languages, there is very little similarity to other languages, except Chinese. The point is that without understanding the Japanese language, anyone would find it very difficult to understand the way the Japanese businesses operate. That is because the Japanese people themselves do not consider that everyone should know English; they are too proud about their Japanese language. Japanese people do not speak good English and in some cases they might not even understand the language. They usually take translators along with them.
Hence, if you want to make the most of a collaboration with Japanese people in any manner, whether as a business partnership or even as a client or service provider, it really pays to learn the Japanese language. Once you even make an attempt to converse in their language and understand what they say in their own language, you can be sure to be accepted warmly into these elite international Japanese business groups. |
