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Abstract

With Europe as its principal export market today, the United Kingdom is beginning to understand the importance of foreign languages for success. The advent of the single European market will massively reinforce the integration of the United Kingdom as a trading nation into the European Community, while there is a clearly defined trend toward the creation of transnational companies alongside multinationals and U.K.-based exporters. Europe will remain a culturally and linguistically diverse market in both consumer taste and management style, requiring linguistic and intercultural skills for successful marketing and for internal company communication in the new transnationals. Summarizing the functions of foreign language competency in exporting and in multi- and transnational corporations, the article concludes with a look at Europe's broader future developments. The opening up of Eastern Europe, which will be dominated economically by Germany, will see the emergence of German as the European lingua franca alongside English but will not remove the need in the United Kingdom for French, Spanish, or the principal languages of the Middle and Far East, Arabic and Japanese, for global trading.

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References

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2. British Overseas Trade Board, Study Group on Foreign Languages , Foreign Languages for Overseas Trade (London: British Overseas Trade Board, 1979).

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12. Ibid.

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14.

14. Carol S. Fixman , The Foreign Language Needs of US-Based Corporations, National Foreign Language Center Occasional Papers Series (Washington, DC: National Foreign Language Center, 1989), pp. 2, 8.

15.

15. See David Liston and Nigel Reeves , Business Studies, Languages and Overseas Trade: A Study of Education and Training (London: Pitman; Institute of Export, 1985, 1986), pp. 118 ff.

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18. Peter Blackburn , “Languages in a Multinational Business,” in Language in British Business, ed. Hagen , p. 151.

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19. Marion Smart , “Language Training at Peugeot Talbot,” in Language in British Business, ed. Hagen , pp. 178-185.

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21.

21. William Rees-Mogg , “Year of Change That Heralds a German Age,” Independent, 4 Dec. 1989. Rees-Mogg is the former editor of the London Times.

22.

22. United Nations commodity trade data quoted in Financial Times, 8 Dec. 1989.

23.

23. David Lascelles , “Slow to Strike But Sure of Aim,” Financial Times, 28 Nov. 1989.

24.

24. Interview by A. H. Hermann , Financial Times, 15 Dec. 1989.

25.

25. Hagen , ed., Language in British Business, p. xxii.

26.

26. The present author was a member of the University Grants Committee's investigatory team.

27.

27. “Speaking for the Future: A Review of the Requirements of Diplomacy and Commerce for Asian and African Language and Area Studies” submitted by Peter Parker (Report, University Grants Committee, Feb. 1986).

28.

28. Quoted by Martin Wolf , Financial Times, 30 Nov. 1989.

29.

29. European Deal Review, press release, Oct. 1989.

The Foreign Language Needs of U.K.-Based Corporations

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