How can we enhance the practice of international business ?

Globalization has changed modalities of business in many ways. The field of international business faces countless opportunities and challenges. As academics and businessmen, how can we improve the practice of international business ? I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Hi, its 11 am Central. Let's start the discussion. Here are a few thoughts :
1. With resource limitations, what creative approaches can we use to help more students study abroad ?
2. With expensive international databases, where can we access reliable IB data and information ?
3.How have videoconferencing/virtual collaborations contributed to international learning ?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Proverbs from around the world

Work
Dry pants catch no fish (Bulgarian)
He who does not wish to soil his hands and feet will have inactive teeth (Albanian)
Laziness goes so slowly that poverty overtakes it (Dutch)
Roast doves fly into no-one’s mouths (German)
One must walk a long time behind a wild duck before one picks up an ostrich feather (Danish)
Ambition
The smaller the lizard, the greater its hope of becoming a crocodile (Ethiopian)
Don’t be deceived by the whiteness of the turban, soap can be bought on credit (Turkish)
He who advances by leaps and bounds, by leaps and bounds falls into the ditch (India)
Human Nature
What you can’t have, abuse (Italian)
If two men keep a horse it is thin, if two families keep a boat, it leaks (Chinese)
There is no economy in going to bed early to save candles, if the results be twins (Chinese)
Love, a cough, smoke and money cannot long be hid (French)
Crab walk too much, he get in crab soup (Creole)
If you are not skillful in dancing, then you can strike the gong (Burmese)
Seize opportunity by the beard, for it is bald behind (Bulgarian)
(Source : Peculiar Proverbs by Stephen Arnott)

Joke from Czech Republic

A man calls a radio deejay and says, "I've found a wallet with a hundred thousand koruny inside. There's also a card that says ‘Jan Ziegler, Seifert Street 3, Prague.' " "So?" says the deejay. "What do you want us to do?"
"Would you be so kind as to play the man a song?"

(Source : Readers Digest, 2010)

World's Friendliest Countries

According to an Expat Explorer Survey commissioned by HSBC, these nations are the most hospitable to expatriates :
10. USA
9. Spain
8. Singapore
7. Hong Kong
6. South Africa
5. Malaysia
4. Thailand
3. Australia
2. Canada
1. Bahrain
The survey used eight measures : organizing school for my children; organizing my finances; organizing my health care; finding somewhere to live; making friends; making local friends; setting up utilities; and joining local community groups. The combined scores on these measures were used to identify ranking. What do you think ?
(Source : Rebecca Ruiz, viewable at : http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-30903755)

Joke from Argentina

I'd like to share with you a snapshot of sense of humor in other countries. Here's a joke from Argentina :

An elderly couple goes to Burger King, where they carefully split a burger and fries. A trucker takes pity on them and offers to buy the wife her own meal. "It's all right," says the husband. "We share everything."
A few minutes later, the trucker notices that the wife hasn't taken a bite. "I really wouldn't mind buying your wife her own meal," he insists. "She'll eat," the husband assures him. "We share everything."
Unconvinced, the trucker implores the wife, "Why aren't you eating?"
The wife snaps, "Because I'm waiting for the teeth!"
(Source, Reader's Digest World Funniest Jokes, 2010)

Cross-cultural Writing Differences

In an international journalism conference, participants were asked to write an article about elephants. Here are article titles journalists from different countries came up with :
British – Hunting elephants in British East Africa
French – The love life of elephants in French
German – The origin and development of the Indian elephant in the years 1200-1950 (600 pages)
American – How to breed bigger and better elephants
Russian – How we sent an elephant to the moon.
Swede – Elephants and the welfare state
Spaniard – Techniques of elephant fighting
Finn – What the elephants think about Finland
Norwegian – Norway and Norway’s mountains
(Source : The book “When Culture Collide” by Richard Lewis)
While this was created for humor, the reality is that even in the way we write a cultural dimension is ever present.

World's Funniest Joke is from Sweden

Reader's Digest held a global competition to find the funniest joke. The selected winner was a joke from Sweden. See if you agree :

SWEDEN

Visiting the countryside on a hunting trip, the well-dressed man from Stockholm takes aim and shoots a duck. But the fowl drops into a farmer's field, and the farmer claims it. Since both want it, the farmer suggests settling the dispute with an old fashioned hick-kick. "I kick you as hard as I can in the crotch, then you do the same to me," he explains. "Whoever screams the least gets the bird."
The city man agrees. So the farmer winds up and delivers a crushing blow to the man's privates, and he collapses to the ground. Twenty minutes later, when he finally manages to stand, he gasps, "My turn."
"Nah," says the farmer, turning away. "You can keep the duck."
(Source : Reader's Digest, 2010)