Cultural Discourse in Internet Business 1

Transcription

1 Cultural Discourse in Internet Business 1 Josef Schmied, TU Chemnitz, University of Technology This contribution looks at how the global language English is used in business discourse on the internet. It compares the internet presentation strategies of transnational companies and analyses culture-specific features in these presentations. Although international airlines, for instance, are frequently linked in so-called world-wide strategic alliances, they try to attract customers through culture-specific extras, thus combining the local with the global. This analysis draws general conclusions from some illustrative examples and contributes to the current discussion of localisation in globalisation with respect to the English language. 1. Internet English, a new research perspective for English world-wide This contribution gives me an opportunity to combine my long-standing research interests in sociolinguistics and corpus linguistics with a relatively new field which can perhaps be called Internet English. Whereas it was relatively difficult to find authentic culture-specific texts for research or teaching purposes until only a few years ago, today the internet permits relatively easy access to such texts, with the result that a new perspective of internationally comparative research in English has opened up, a perspective that did not exist before. Internet English promises to be a fruitful new field of research for many linguists for a number of reasons. As the internet is characterised by a hypertextual structure and world-wide availability, new forms, new strategies and new functions can be described parallel to traditional text-linguistic analyses, e.g. traditional newspapers can be contrasted with their electronic variants (cf. Schmied fc.), traditional reading tests can be compared to hypertext-reading (cf. Waniek et al. 2002) and new addressee-orientations can be hypothesised. In this contribution, I intend to describe and exemplify a new research project that I have proposed in co-operation with partners in Kenya and Malaysia on culture-specific discourse in the media. I will briefly discuss the special relationship between English and cultures worldwide, before concentrating in the central part of my contribution on a selected set of web pages advertising international airlines and car manufactures that provide us with a good model of this practice which may be used as a basis for other comparisons afterwards. Finally, I will briefly draw some conclusions on web design rules for localisation from a linguistic perspective. 2. Localisation in globalisation, a research project in Internet English English today is unique in that it is an almost universally accepted lingua franca, functioning as the international language of science and technology and of business. Linguists are increasingly interested in what is probably the single largest manifestation of this position of English; the internet, which today provides an opportunity for global players to send their messages to very different customers. Even in global business, however, the message alone is not the whole story because language has many more functions than the purely informative 1 This contribution is an illustrative introduction into a research project, which I developed with my partners at Moi University, Kenya, and the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. I wish to thank them and my colleagues at Chemnitz, especially Yvonne Go ckeritz, Tim Jones, Katarina Mansfield and Katrin Voigt for many fruitful discussions.

2 one; social connotation, adaptation to the customer, integration into local culture are all decisive factors in effective business communication and marketing. This opens up an entirely new research field within Internet English, a field I call 'localisation in globalisation.' Of course, the term localisation has long been used in translation studies in the widest sense, and this project can be seen as a modern illustration of a medium-specific presentation of texts in context in the widest sense (cf. Baker 1993). The context of a text in our analysis consists of at least three concentric circles; the immediate context in the sentence and short-term memory, the situational context in the discourse, including the social implications and the interpretation of the text's function, and the wider cultural context, including cultural memory and knowledge. The relationship between language and culture has for a long time been discussed under the special comparative perspective of the Sapier-Whorf hypothesis. The debate has tended to concentrate on lexical (and semantic) aspects, but cultural aspects can of course be found across the whole spectrum of linguistic analysis, ranging from writing through to discourse involving culture-specific topics (e.g. women's role in the family) and semiotic conventions (e.g. the green colour of the Prophet in Islam and it resulting high symbolic value). Whorf himself (1956: 147) has tried to describe the broad spectrum, as Lucy (1992: 64) illustrates linking large-scale linguistic patterns (Whorf's "integrated fashions of speaking") with the linguistically conditioned habitual thought world (Whorf's "microcosm that each man carries about within himself") and then with linguistically conditioned features of culture (Whorf's "cultural and behavioral norms"). 3. Global players 3.1. International airlines Best practice: Thai Air It goes without saying that airlines are in most cases international businesses; today they are often even associated with ostensible competitors in global alliances such as the Star Alliance, the Qualifier Group etc. This means that national-flag carriers can emphasise their global perspective, and up-to-date technology, world-wide service and interconnecting timetables are a definite marketing asset today. These international considerations seem to leave little room for culture-specific national aspects, but there are a number of airlines which can be seen to be making a definite attempt to combine the global and local, in this case the national, perspective in an innovative way. One of the most successful examples, in my view, is Thai Air. Their homepage (fig. 1) illustrates their approach very nicely. Under the heading What is Thai Air, we find an emphasis on "strategic alliances with major airlines becoming a key partner in a route net that now covers the globe" directly under a very specific floral emblem that gives a culture-specific impression immediately. Fig. 1: as of 10/10/2002 Under the heading The Thai look, we find an explicit explanation of what Thai Air stands for: the shining gold found in its temples, the magenta of its shimmering silks and the rich purples of its orchids. Our logo has been likened to an orchid but is simply a symbol meant to convey the essence of Thailand; its soft, curving lines combined with a speed line suggest effortless flight. Similarly, our slogan

3 "Smooth as Silk" 2 derives from the texture and luxurious look of Thailand's most famous creation: silk. It suggests both the way we fly our aircraft and the way we hope passengers feel when they fly with us, wrapped in comfort and pleasure. The areas in which culture-specific language is usually most prominent are clothing, food and local customs (cf. Schmied 1992), and so it is not surprising that under Catering we find a particular attempt by Thai Air again to combine the global and the local: Our kitchen is conveniently divided into sections, each devoted to a different category of food including Thai, Western, Chinese, Asian, Japanese, Indian, and Muslim. To further enhance the quality and variety of our inflight meals, our staff includes professional chefs from around the world like Switzerland, Germany, and Japan. A summary of this attempt is provided in the overview that Thai calls More than an airline (fig.2). We find the floral emblem again here, standing for the royal orchid, as in Royal Orchid holidays and Royal Orchid plus, the airline's frequent flyer programme. We also find a reference to the special catering in a picture and to community involvement, implying the Buddhist tradition of the happy family on every level that is also mentioned in the main text. This is on the one hand perhaps a convenient marketing aspect which is undoubtedly attractive on an international level but on the other, it does also demonstrate local roots. Fig. 2: Other East Asian airlines such as Cathay Pacific only give a few hints of this "double act" of balancing the national and the international. From a global perspective, it is unusual to find a page entitled Enrich yourself while at work (fig. 3); however, it reflects specifically Chinese values that make it "desirable" to arrange "learning seminars" and "staff forums" during lunch time so that everyone can have the chance to hear and learn from fellow team mates and visiting experts. Fig. 3: of 10/10/2002 The Air China web pages may surprise us when they praise their first class luxury space (fig. 4). English travellers may be particularly drawn by the invitation to Dream blissfully away the hours as you experience our brand new extra-large pillows, exquisitely [sic!] cotton slippers and eye-shades while wrapped snugly within our English wool blankets. ( as of 10/10/2002) but there is Evian water and Nina Ricci, too... Finally, one of the best-known and widest-spread stories of national marketing can be found in Ireland. Not surprisingly, Aer Lingus is one of the most interesting examples of national branding in the world. They share the "distinctiveness of being Irish" with Guinness and numerous Irish pubs all over the world, and Aer Lingus also uses the national flower, the Shamrock as its logo and even quotes from Irish literature (fig. 5). Fig. 5: under "About us" and "Brand", as of 10/10/2002 If Guinness is typically Irish, BMW is, of course, typically German for non-germans, and typically Bavarian for Germans. Is it typically Bavarian or German if the global player BMW (fig. 6) emphasises its "responsibility" for society and the environment? The page on intercultural learning can certainly help to counteract wide-spread prejudices against Germany because of xenophobia and violence against foreigners. Fig. 6: as of 10/10/ There is also an airline called specifically Silk Air; it is a regional arm of Singapore Airlines and also emphasises the special "soul" of South East Asia (

4 This last example shows that even when one uses perfectly standard orthography, lexicon and grammar, culture-specific notions can be found in the choice and presentation of background information that is considered suitable for a global player. The same impression can be made gained from the internet presence of a branch of the BMW group, the traditionally even archly British Mini, which welcomes visitors to its homepage with a "prehome", which lets them choose their national flags so that they can find information in their own language or culture-specific tone. In this context, the English on the British Mini homepage seems particularly interesting. The headline "Important site stuff" hits an informal tone reminiscent of the original Mini's classlessnes, and the invitation "Take me to your dealer" implies not only the British ethnographer's traditional "Take me to your leader" (as in Marinowski and others) but numerous cult 'B' films of the 1950s and 1960s. A special international perspective of global care can be found on the DaimlerChrysler homepage, which even used the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan (in June 2002) and the global fight against AIDS to demonstrate its commitment to local communities worldwide. 4. Towards linguistic design rules for localisation Even these few examples make it possible for us to draw a few tentative conclusions regarding localisation on the internet from a linguistic perspective: 1. "Aspects of linguistic form that have little or no apparent connection with meaning... would be poor candidates for generating cultural effects in Whorf's framework" (Lucy 1992: 65). Thus unsurprisingly there is little variation in spelling; the choice between the American and the British spelling tradition is of minor importance. 2. The lexicon offers, of course, a wide choice and opportunity to show a local touch, in particular in terms of food, clothes, local traditions and customs. 3. Such localisations are usually easily supported by specific images, and this makes it clear that a much more comprehensive view of semiotic discourse has to be taken into consideration in our projected analysis of Internet English. 4. Generally, the discourse style and topic choice offers a very wide opportunity for putting an emphasis on the family or the environment or technical glamour or comfort or the engine or the passenger. For example, a global car can be changed little to take account of the local, but the Internet English used to market it can be adapted very easily. Here the widest implication of the sales talk in the cultural context offers a fascinating combination of 'local heritage in a global medium', of very old with very recent challenges to linguistic analysis. References Baker, Mona (1992). In other words. A coursebook on translation. London and New York: Routledge. Foley, William A. (1997). Anthropological Linguistics. An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Greenbaum, Sidney ed. (1996). Comparing English Worldwide. Oxford: Oxford U.P. Lucy, John A. (1992). Language diversity and thought. A reformulation of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Cambridge / New York / Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Schmied, Josef (1991). English in Africa. Harlow: Longman. Schmied, Josef (1996). "Second-language corpora". In: Greenbaum, Sidney ed.,

5 Schmied, Josef (fc.). "Electronic newspapers: new prospects, new challenges for linguists". Anglistentag Aachen. Waniek, J., Brunstein, A., Naumann, A., & Krems, J. F. (2003). Interaction of text structure representation and situation model in hypertext reading. Swiss Journal of Psychology Special Issue: Studying the Internet: A challenge for modern psychology, in press. Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). Semantics. Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford U.P. Whorf, Benjamin L (1956). Language, thought, and reality, edited by Carroll, John B. (1997).: Cambridge: MIT Press.