It Would Be Inappropriate To Take A Bottle Of Wine For A Business Partner In

It would be inappropriate to take a bottle of wine for a business partner in Islamic countries, at least not until one knows about their acceptance of drinking. Serving beef to an Indian businessman is better be avoided, cow is considered sacred among Hindu Indians. International business parties such as those at United Nations prefer chicken and vegetarian dishes as Muslims and Jews do not eat pork and cow is considered sacred in some countries.
The businesses practices in some countries have made the businessman follow a cautious approach in business handling and in taking decisions. Although many businessmen have more trust in the business practices of global organizations, the cautious approach often comes from local attitudes. In case of discussions with the lower management, the central decision control by the top executive often leaves the final decision for the 'next meeting'.
Influence of Language on Inter-Cultural Business Communications
Language both verbal and non verbal are probably the most important dimensions of inter-cultural exchange. For an English-speaking businessman verbal communication is becoming easier as English is gradually becoming the business language of the world. Even the culturally protective French, accept English as the language of executive meetings. It has to be appreciated that most non-English countries businessmen have learnt English as a second language and may not be familiar with the colloquialism which can be misinterpreted.. In Interpreter assisted discussions, the jokes often loose their impact in translation. A few American terminologies sometimes even require 'translation' into English for the Englishmen. It is often useful to be familiar with a few local words as they become a part of the culture and are used even in discussions in English without a second thought e.g. Arab and some other Muslim countries use Insha-Allah (God-Willing) in normal English conversation.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis [Archee et al, 2004] states that languages develop according to the cultural needs to meet cultural specific demand. They cite that Eskimos whose lives revolve around ice have 18 different words to describe different types of snow/ice. English language might have only a few forms of ice because of lack of requirement but companies are offering 100,000 variations of colors in paints, no doubt the colors have identification or names too.
Non-Verbal Communication
The non-verbal language is perhaps the most troubling for a beginner to the international business. Hall [in Archee et al, 2004] estimated that non-verbal communication forms 70% of the total verbal/non verbal communication. Body language, space , use of time, furniture clothing and other non verbal means fall in this category.