Making fun of language and cross-cultural misunderstanding-- should we really do that? I assure you that all of us who have worked, lived and traveled around the world have had our fair share of mishaps, misunderstandings, and embarrassing moments. In the end, we believe that good willed individuals around the world understand the difference between naive, unintended mistakes and people who want to learn and, well, the opposite, people who are narrowminded, chauvinistic and only want to know their own ways.
We believe that the right attitude of curiousity, humbleness and a willingness to constantly learn are important ingredients of being successful in a diverse world. Regardless of whether you are new admissions officers on the path to international markets or an experienced veteran, we trust that you'll enjoy these short videos. With that little preamble, we take the liberty to share a few video advertisements we thought reflected well our diverse world.
And we can assure you (unfortunately), we are not getting paid by these companies to share their advertising.
Given my own German upbringing, let's start with this one:
The Bank HSBC offers a whole series of international culture lessons in their commercials.
Enjoy.
This is not a real commercial product, but nevertheless a funny commentary that English is not always the same English and was delivered by Amy Walker. And yes, English is spoken around the world by native and non-native speakers, so there are bound to be many differences. And you native English speakers, be aware of your privilege, use it wisely and make use to try your hand at a different language. It's an important emotional, cultural and intellectual experience.
As one of my French teachers said: "Learning languages is not like math, where you learn the rules and get it generally right. With learning a language, you will have good days and not so good days -- difficult to predict."
The last video is a commercial for services and cultural and creative expertise as we offer them as well. We liked the fun way the company Epipheo promoted their services. So here you go ....
If you have seen any other interesting videos of this intercultural type, please send me an email at info@intead.com or @intead on Twitter. Or just leave a comment right here with a link to the video.
