"The single greatest barrier to business success is the one erected by culture," said Edward T. Hall and Mildred Reed Hall. I agree with them.

Someone who wishes to purchase goods and services in the international marketplace may get by with English only and little understanding of foreign cultures, but if you want to sell in an increasingly competitive global market, you must be able to communicate effectively across linguistic and cultural boundaries.

Unfortunately, there is a dearth of functionally bilingual people in the United States. "What do you call a person who speaks many languages?" the joke goes. "A polyglot." "Someone who speaks two languages." "Bilingual." "What about one who speaks one language? American."

Need some stats? According to the American Community Survey, in 2018, only 1 in 5 Americans were bilingual. I suspect that many are immigrants who learned English here. By contrast, nearly two-thirds of Europeans know a second language. Europe's rate of trilingualism (22) is higher than America's rate of bilingualism (20.6).

Not too long ago, a Florida legislator — where do they find them? — proposed that coding be included among Florida schools' foreign language options. For goodness's sake, Codia is so small you cannot find it on an atlas. Why bother with its language?

Curiously, but not surprisingly, the United Kingdom is Europe's most monolingual country, with roughly half of Europe's rate of bilingualism. I once heard a fellow scholar use the phrase "the linguistic arrogance of all English-speaking peoples."

International cultural interest, let alone fluency, is another weak flank. Recent statistics demonstrate that under 20% of Americans follow international news closely and the major TV network-news programs devote less than 4% of airtime to foreign news — an airplane crashed yesterday off the coast of the politically troubled nation of San Marcos (wink, Woody), 200 dead, three of them American.

Over the years, I have compiled notes about numerous instances in which failure to know the local language and the most basic aspects of a place's culture and norms has led to disastrous consequences.

Here are two examples. Others will follow in subsequent columns.

Case No. 1: Mr. Yemerson's spelling bee.

A few years ago, a know-it-all executive from Chicago went to Puerto Rico to train the San Juan office sales staff. Condescending and with an air of superiority, he instructed the attentive "natives" to demonstrate interest in their potential customers by asking, "How do you spell your name?"

No doubt that being interested in your clients is a key ingredient in sales success. You do not need an MBA to know that. Even those who are not genuinely interested may gain an advantage by pretending to be, as Mr. — let's call him Yemerson — recommended to his trainees.

My late father, Celestino Martinez Lindin, who was always generous with advice, gently pulled Mr. Yemerson aside and explained to him that Spanish is a phonetic language, meaning that it is spoken just as it is written. He refuted the advice.

If you are in Topeka, it is a good idea to ask a client who says her name is Katherine to spell it, as it may be Katherine, Kathryn or some other variation. For a Spanish-speaking person to ask another with the name Martinez how the name is spelled is ridiculous and makes that person sound like a fool, just like Mr. Yemerson, MBA.

Case No. 2: "Yes" is not always "si."

An Anglo pastor arrived at a predominately Latino town in Texas. He wanted to communicate to the town's Hispanics that they were welcome at his church. He called the residents on the phone and invited them to a church picnic. He heard an extraordinarily large number of yeses, and he planned accordingly.

Picnic day came, and to his disappointment, almost no one showed up. "Oh, Lord, what am I going to do with all of these tortillas?"

He shared the experience with a fellow pastor — call him Pedro — who was Hispanic. Why had his guests been so untruthful and ungrateful? — "I have three months' worth of tortillas!"

Pedro gave Reverend — let's call him Charles — a brief lesson on our culture: Latinos generally have a very high regard for authority figures such as priests, and even teachers. They were not trying to mislead him. They simply did not feel comfortable saying no to him.

I have been in this country 36 years. I am grateful for that, but just recently, I learned to say no without an accent.

Stay tuned for more transcultural blunders.

Readers can reach Luis Martinez-Fernandez at [email protected]. To find out more about Luis Martinez-Fernandez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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