MISSING EGGPLANTS

Years ago when visiting Macedonia on business, I was amazed by the well-preserved Ottoman cultural heritage. The Turkish quarter of Skopje looked like a square in an Anatolian city. Due to the country’s history and large Turkish-speaking population, there were also many Turkish words in the local language.

Impressed, I started to figure out similarities by asking many, “What do you call this?” questions to my Macedonian hosts.

During lunch they asked whether I liked “badilcan” (a word similar to “patlican”, which is “eggplant” in Turkish). Happy to find another common word, I said, “I love it”, and they ordered badilcan salad. However, it never came, and I didn’t ask for it again.

When we were ordering dinner later that day, we had the same conversation and ordered badilcan once again. Once again, it didn’t come. While I was thinking how odd this was, one of my hosts said, “Mr. Parlar, you said you loved badilcan, but you didn’t touch them.” And he pointed to the tomatoes on the table. This was a good lesson for me: sometimes we say the same things in different cultures, but they might have totally different meanings.

The first example of this is the word “work”. Working means a maximum eight-hour workday and is a weekday activity in many European countries. It is something easily done part-time if requested. In the U.S., work is something you can easily lose if you take a long vacation, and it means long hours during the weekdays. In Spain and Latin America, work starts late in the morning, has a long break and then continues into the evening. In fast-developing countries like Turkey and China it usually means an eight-to-10-hour workday and a six-day workweek.

Diversity is also defined differently in different business cultures. When you say diversity in the U.S., it mainly means integrating women, gays and lesbians into the workplace. In Europe, it means the integration of people from different countries of origins. In the Far East it has a very limited meaning, mainly covering age differences. Despite the fact that it is a fashionable word in the Western world, if you look at the number of women and ethnic groups on the boards of international Western companies, you can easily figure out that it is still far from its actual meaning.

Planning is another term often used in a variety of way. In Germany, planning means thinking and writing down every single detail in advance and creating a manual for every action. In the U.S., it is developing an objective and writing down simple tactics to reach the desired target. In many Eastern cultures, including Turkey, it is more responsive and flexible. The plan states the aim and is subject to changes along the way. The time span for plans also changes from business culture to business culture. It goes up to 10 years in Europe. It ranges from three to five years in the U.S. and one to two years in Turkey. The main reasons behind the differences are dynamism and stability.

Despite the fact that we use the same words, the meanings behind them are totally different, which results in clashes from time to time. For a Turkish distributor, a European shipper is someone who is lazy and goes home at 5 p.m., and never works during the weekends even if it might result in lost revenue. For a German, Turks are the lousiest planners on Earth as they start projects well, but lose a lot of time making modifications along the way. For the Spanish, Americans are workaholics. For Americans, Europeans focus too much on mid-field preparation rather than the goal itself.

The moral of the story is that these words took shape within these cultures through the years, and they are all “right” within their own context. All we have to do is to understand and respect the differences. It is best if we can use them in our favor. Rather than shouting, “Where is my badilcan?”, be patient and figure out what it really means within the culture you are doing business in.