Afrikaans> Een plesierige kersfees
Arabic> I'D MIILAD SAID OUA SANA SAIDA
Armenian> Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
Azeri> Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun
Basque> Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!
Bohemian> Vesele Vanoce
Brazilian> Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo
Breton> Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bulgarian> Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo
Chinese-Mandarin> Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
Chinese-Cantonese> Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun
Cornish> Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth
Cree> Mitho Makosi Kesikansi
Croatian> Sretan Bozic
Czech> Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce stastny Novy Rok
Danish> Gledelig Jul
Dutch> Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
English> Merry Christmas
Esperanto> Gajan Kristnaskon
Estonian> Ruumsaid juulup|hi
Farsi> Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad
Finnish> Hyva a joulua
Flemish> Beste wensen voor een Prettig Kerstfeest
French> Joyeux Noël
risian> Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!
German> Fröhliche Weihnachten
Greek> Kala Christouyenna!
Hawaiian> Mele Kalikimaka
Hebrew> Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova
Hindi> Shub Naya Baras
Hungarian> Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket
Icelandic> Gledileg Jol
Indonesian> Selamat Hari Natal
Iraqi> Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Irish> Nollaig Shona Dhuit
Italian> Buone Feste Natalizie
Japanese> Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Korean> Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Latvian> Prieci'gus Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu!
Lithuanian> Linksmu Kaledu
Manx> Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa
Maori> Meri Kirihimete
Marathi> Shub Naya Varsh
Navajo> Merry Keshmish
Norwegian> God jul og godt nytt år!
Pennsylvania German> Frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr!
Polish> Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia
Portuguese> Boas Festas
Rapa-Nui> Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua
Rumanian> Sarbatori vesele
Russian> Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom
Serbian> Hristos se rodi
Slovakian> Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce
Sami> Buorrit Juovllat
Samoan> La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Scots (Gaelic)> Nollaig chridheil huibh
Serb-Croatian> Sretam Bozic. Vesela Nova Godina
Singhalese> Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
Slovak> Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
Slovene> Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto
Spanish> Feliz Navidad
Swedish> God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt
Tagalog> Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon
Tamil> Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal
Thai> Sawadee Pee Mai
Turkish> Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian> Srozhdestvom Kristovym
Urdu> Naya Saal Mubarak Ho
Vietnamese> Chung Mung Giang Sinh
Welsh> Nadolig Llawen
Yugoslavian> Cestitamo Bozic Papua
New Guinea> Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia igo long
yu.
December 18, 2002
Posted by John Yunker
The French children's clothing store Jacadi is a case study in the craziness that is globalization. Here is a French store expanding into the U.S. market because its fashions are more popular here than at home. Furthermore, it is hiring personnel who speak Tagalog and Korean to better serve its target American audience.
Consider the following from a recent New York Times article:
About 55 percent of revenues are generated outside France, compared with 35 percent five years ago, he said, with the United States contributing about 20 percent of non-French revenue, up from 17 percent five years ago.
Jacadi is reacting to growing competition in its home market as well as to a European trend away from expensive frills and toward less-expensive streetwear. Indeed, while Jacadi still stresses what Mr. Charpentier likes to call "bon chic, bon genre" — roughly, real chic, real style — it overhauled the collection two years ago to accommodate the streetwear trend. "The colors, the style, the cut are more modern," he said.
Still, neither the streetwear trend nor the uncertain economy has yet crimped Americans' taste for the French children's look, and Jacadi has done well with velvet dresses that go for up to $79 or jumpers for up to $89. Part of its strategy is to aim at ethnic groups whose tastes may tend to the frilly. Its Web site, for instance, specifies that Tagalog is spoken at a Madison Avenue store and Korean at several other sites.
Here's the Jacadi global gateway:
So if your product flops in your home market, don't give up. You may still have a hit on your hands in some foreign market. The trick is in finding that market. But, like Jacadi, you have to move quickly. Fashion is fickle, and so too is globalization.
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December 16, 2002
Posted by John Yunker
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December 15, 2002
Posted by John Yunker
It was Air Jordan that helped the NBA go global. Now it seems the NBA is taking a more localized approach to globalization, one player and one country at at time. Consider Yao Ming, the 7-foot-6 center from China, who plays for the Houston Rockets. According to the New York Times:
¶The Rockets are hiring four Mandarin-speaking executives and have built billboards that are in Yao's native language. They are planning a weekly radio show in Mandarin along with a Web site diary and a weekly videotaped interview with Yao in both Chinese and English. The team also hands out ticket and statistical information in Mandarin at its games.
¶The Golden State Warriors, with an Asian population of 1.5 million in the Bay Area, have offered ticket plans of three and seven games linked to appearances by Yao. Public-address announcements were made in English and Mandarin for a Rockets game there on Nov. 27, and Yao delivered a videotaped message thanking fans for coming to see him.
¶Of the 120 N.B.A. games that will be broadcast in China this season, 30 will involve the Rockets. Some games have the potential to reach up to 280 million households, roughly equal to the entire population of the United States. This gives corporate sponsors a chance, through advertising placards being shown on television, to gain entry into a consumer market of 1.2 billion people.
And I love this:
Local fans, however, are still growing accustomed to receiving Yao's autograph in Chinese characters. When he signed dozens of life-size posters, the Rockets received two calls from people saying that someone seemed to have been doodling on their souvenir.
How long do you think it will be before Shanghai gets an NBA team?
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December 13, 2002
Posted by John Yunker
The EU took a big step toward becoming the world's largest trading market, with 446 million people vs. NAFTA's 416 million. It put 10 additional countries on the track to EU membership: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta.
That brings the total to 25 countries. But the big news is that Turkey is also on track for membership, although on a much slower track. Turkey is an important step forward for the EU because it would be the first Muslim country to join. Imagine what it would take to engineer a similar partnership with the U.S. and any other Muslim country.
I am in awe of the EU. It is our century's "great experiment" and I truly hope it succeeds. Admitting poorer countries to the EU is a very generous act because the wealthy countries must contribute more in revenues than they get back. But I believe it is incumbent upon the wealthy countries of the world to be generous with the less fortunate. I would like to see the U.S. follow along and work toward bringing down the wall that divides it and Mexico. I think it is just a matter of time before Vicente Fox co-opts Reagan's speech and declares "Mr. Bush, tear down this wall."
Walls everywhere must come down if people are to truly get to know one another, empathize with one another, and stop fighting one another. It's a very long and contentious journey, of course, but I think the EU has made some amazing strides.
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Posted by John Yunker
If you didn't grow up speaking English or French in Canada, you most likely spoke Chinese, according to new census data released on Tuesday. Statistics Canada reported the number of people listing Chinese as their mother tongue grew by almost 18 percent, to 872,400, between 1996 and 2001.
That accounts for 2.9 percent of the country's population of 31.4 million, up from 2.6 percent. The biggest concentration is in Vancouver, British Columbia, which has seen 3/4 of its increase in population come from immigrants from Asia.
Here's the article.
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December 10, 2002
Posted by John Yunker
French is such a rich language that it now has, by state decree, two words for "@" -- the "at" sign that has become a worldwide symbol for the Internet -- but only one official way to pronounce it.
A special commission struggling to defend French against the spread of English in cyberspace has decided that the popular e-mail sign can be named either "arobase" or "arrobe."
Here's the article.
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December 8, 2002
Posted by John Yunker
McDonald's is about as American as apple pie, and that's not such a good thing in parts of the world where America not in vogue. Consider the following from the Toronto Star:
Around the world, McDonald's restaurants have been burning. One was torched in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Nov. 20. Another blew up in Moscow on Oct.19, while less than a month before, a small bomb ripped through a franchise in a suburb of Beirut.
For more than three decades, the public's craving for those limp little hamburgers has fuelled a massive global expansion, making McDonald's the most recognizable company in the world, with franchises in 121 countries. There's a meat-free McNistisima menu for fasting Greek Orthodox in Cyprus, a McRye burger in Finland, a McNifica burger in Argentina, a kosher McDonald's in Israel, and in France, wine to set off the standard greasy fare.
But since the end of the Cold War, that growth has also made it a global favourite for those looking to blow up their own little piece of the American empire. And along the way, the Golden Arches have become a Rorschach test of domestic and international discontent, mirroring anxieties at home and abroad. In the United States, the company is blamed for the obesity epidemic, today's hot-button medical panic.
Businesses need to be wary of being too closely identified with their native countries. I'm not suggesting that a company should avoid wrapping itself in its native country's flag, but to be acutely aware of the risks associated with it. And to soften the blow of any national backlash, multinationals should 'act local' -- particulaly through Web localization.
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December 5, 2002
Posted by John Yunker
Language never stands still, particularly in NYC:
"When you think that the United States is the fifth largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world and New York has more Spanish speakers than 13 Latin American capitals, you begin to appreciate the dimensions of the linguistic and cultural hybridity that's taking place."
Read the article.
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December 4, 2002
Posted by John Yunker
A great article in the International Herald Tribune about Vietnam's approach to globalization:
The country's 80 million people want their piece of global prosperity and the benefits that come from the free movement of capital, goods and people. They just want it on their own terms, and other developing nations might want to pay attention.
That you also do not see such names as McDonald's, Gap or other cultural hints of Americanism here speaks volumes about Vietnam's go-slow approach to globalization.
Officials here have seen how countries like Indonesia and Argentina listened dutifully to the Washington Consensus and rushed the process of opening economies. They have also seen those countries go from growth stars to basket cases.
Vietnam wants to avoid that and stay, well, Vietnamese.
Folks here want globalization, but they don't want to be overwhelmed by it. Someday investors may celebrate the strategy.
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