Cultural Interviews with International Business Executives is a compilation of around 1000 brief video clips in which executives from different countries discuss (in their native language) cultural issues that are of interest to North Americans. These executives offer their opinion on a number of issues related to their experience in working with North Americans: Negotiation, Professional Activities, Language, Social Situations, and Time & Scheduling. The object of the interviews is three-fold: First, the executives provide practical cultural information from a personal perspective. The opinions represent those of real people who offered their own personal ideas. At times the comments in these interviews may even contradict each other, but they are designed to be a catalyst for discussion, not to provide a definitive answer about some stereotype. Some of the speakers are extremely articulate, and others were simply nice enough to be willing to share their ideas, even when they were less comfortable in front of a camera. Second, the interviewers speak in their native language. This provides learners with an opportunity to hear every day language and vocabulary within a professional setting. Most of the interviews contain a transcription of the comments, and an English translation. These interviews serve as an excellent resource for intermediate and advanced learners of a foreign language. To date we have executives who speak Spanish, German, Chinese, Turkish, Japanese, and Russian. We hope to add other languages in the future. Third, these materials offer an interesting comparison of cultural opinions. In the interviews we often see patterns where, for example, all of the Japanese executives have a similar opinion, which is distinct from the opinions of the Latin American executives. These materials serve to compare cross-cultural opinions about professional activities. We have subdivided the interviews into 5 major topics (which can be seen along the column to the left): Working w/ North Americans, Professional Activities, Language Issues, Social Situations, Time & Scheduling. When you click on any of those 5 topics, you will be taken to a list of the topics and questions that are discussed. And by clicking on any of those topics, you can see a table with all of the executive comments from all of the different languages. All of the video clips are also available on youtube (and they are embedded here in this site). Many of the youtube video clips provide subtitles, which you are welcome to turn on or off, depending on personal preferences.
