Doing Business in Eastern Markets
Description:
What should a Japanese, Chinese or Korean business card look like, and what are the behavioural rules to be followed in order to cut a good figure with your Eastern partners?
Content:
For us Westerners, exchanging business cards is an almost automatic action, often carried out distractedly. For a Japanese person, the same action becomes fraught with much greater formality and importance.
When planning a business trip abroad, all Japanese business men and women make sure they have more than enough bilingual business cards with them. Naturally, they'd appreciate it if foreigners did the same!
Therefore, obtaining a meishi [名刺], as it is called in Japanese, is an essential step for anyone wishing to approach the Japanese market.
The person's name and surname and the company name are indispensable pieces of information. These are transliterated – i.e. the transformed into Japanese script on a phonetic basis – using the katakana alphabet. Translating a European name using kanji ideograms is not recommended, as this could give rise to ambiguity or the use of improper and sometimes even offensive terms.
The company name must also be transliterated into katakana – to allow your Japanese counterpart to pronounce it properly – without, however, changing existing logos or corporate trademarks.
Another fundamental piece of information is your profession, and in particular your role within the company. In this case, a clear and accurate translation is required.
Roles and professions can be difficult to understand, even among Westerners – certainly even more so since the use of English terms has started to gain hold to define or enhance certain corporate positions. Their translation must be accompanied by an explanation of the actual duties involved, which will be translated into Japanese in order to communicate the person's actual social status and decision-making powers.
As regards postal and email addresses, and telephone and fax numbers, standard conventions apply. The business card format is strictly 90 x 55mm.
Now that you have designed your business card down to a T (without of course neglecting its more graphical elements), it's time to concentrate on etiquette!
Whenever a Japanese person gives you a business card, take a little time to read through it. Placing it casually in your pocket or briefcase without so much as a glance is viewed as impolite. Next, hand over your own meishi Japanese side up, in order to aid perusal.
Most of the above suggestions apply to the Chinese market, with just a few variations.
Standard Mandarin - originally the Peking dialect - is the official language of China. Other dialects (e.g. Cantonese) are spoken locally.
The Chinese language may be written using two very different scripts, known as simplified [简体] and traditional [繁體] characters.
The simplified script is used throughout the People's Republic of China and Singapore, whereas the traditional script is used in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
While on the one hand we are witnessing a relentless growth in the Chinese market, generally directed towards the English language, on the other hand in vast regions of the country there also exists a highly conservative market rooted in the more restrictive use of the simplified and traditional pictogram - or ideogram, as it is more commonly known.
In either case, however, the Chinese love to exchange mingpian [名片].
Here, this is viewed as an important and formal, yet pleasant occasion, accompanied by a special gestural expressiveness.
Hand your card over using both your hands, with the Chinese side facing upwards, and bend your head slightly as a sign of respect.
If you are sitting round a table when a Chinese person hands you his or her business card, place it carefully before you or in a card wallet. Do not use it to take notes or for any other improper use, as this would be regarded as highly impolite.
In China, as in Japan, one of the main purposes of a business card is to determine the person's degree of influence and decision-making powers within his or her company.
In the land of wisdom, however, the role stated on your business card must allow your interlocutor to understand your level of experience. Therefore, be careful to avoid the use of terms that may in some way play down your professional value, such as “vice” (e.g. vice-manager, vice-president, etc).
Business cards [명함] intended for the Korean market must pay special attention to postal conventions and the use of colours.
In Korea, the address begins with the country, followed by the region, the city and the street, stating the post code at the very end. It is always good practice to state the international dialling code in full. A word of warning: Koreans only ever use red for the names of the deceased, and it would certainly be most embarrassing if you were to print your name in red on your business card.
Finally, avoid using business cards translated into Chinese or Japanese, thinking these will do just as well.
The use of Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters requires a greater printing area, therefore, for ease of perusal, it is best to use at least a 10 or 12 point font-size, as in the following example:文言.
Whatever Eastern country you visit, you must never be caught unprepared when a partner asks you for more information on your company or products. To this end, the use of bilingual summary documents could be very useful.
Oh, we almost forgot…… Soget creates business cards in all leading languages, coordinating the graphical elements of your original card with local aesthetic tastes and conventions.
Author: Sogetsrl
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