Saturday, 10 November 2012
Doing business in...... with The Economist
Listen to the following podcast about Doing business in Moscow. Try to bear in mind specific details as we will be discussing in class about it.
Now pick up at least one aspect in the presentation and compare and contrast it with our country. What similarities and differences can you find?
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Like in Romania we should avoid gipsy cabs or people. Moscow trafic is bad and it's getting worst like here in the big cities. They have a very good metro sistem but in Bucharest for example isn't so good. In Moscow like here punctuality is not on of the strenghts, a lot of people get late or cancel the meetings. In Moscow a lot of people don't speak english, but here a lot of people speak english.
ReplyDeleteI guess the national level of our English speakers is much better, although I am sure that people in age, from public institutions or tourism have no clue of it. I am also quite shocked to see that our new generation has such a low interest in the most widely spoken language. It's sad, especially that in the last fifteen years, our country permitted and provided the best access to them from internet, to movies, music, books, etc in English.
ReplyDeleteWe do have excellent wines, wine cellars and vineyards. You can easily find an excellent old wine at prices much chipper than in Moscow.
Vodka is also not "a stranger" to our people. We have the "tuica" and it is well known that Romanians serve it before a rich or even sumptuous dinner, or in failures, sadness and poverty.
I second you regarding the level of English in many young people, which is hardly explainable after so many years of learning it and being exposed to it. Maybe many do not even see themselves as working outside the borders of Romania.
DeleteIndeed wine is cheaper in Romania and some brands are known abroad for their quality.
I think it's not only about working abroad. If you choose to work in a domain like economics, tourism or even medicine, you have to be realistic and know that a fluent English can help you develop and raise yourself and your business targets, either it's about keeping up with the new researches, either for the simple communication matters that are involved. The fact that we are in the UE is another reason that should endure the knowledge of a fluent spoken language (English, French, German).
ReplyDeleteKinga,
Deleteif you want to reply to one of my subcomments and not the intial one, then you simply hit Reply for that subcomment.
As to your comment above, indeed, I participated in interviews for bank jobs and I was very disappointed that my student applicant did not have a fluent English, which was why he did not get the job. Banks and other institutions have to deal with customers from abroad more often, not to mention how vital it is for a Tourism Trade and Services graduee to master English.
Sorry for replying you so late, Teacher. I hope this time my reply is in the wright place. :) Last time it uploaded very slowly for the subcomment. Thank you for understanding and sorry for the inconvenience. :)
DeleteThere are many similar things between Moscow and Bucharest , but I will talk about some differences. For example the old metro stations from Moscow are of impressive beauty. They are decorated like some palaces with marble of different colors, mosaics in Byzantine style, but with socialist themes, semiprecious stones, bronze statues and chandeliers. Some stations have even become a tourist attraction.
ReplyDeleteIn 1990 the Kremlin and the Red Square were among the first places in the USSR added to UNESCO World Heritage list.
The Kremlin is a fortified complex that includes palaces and cathedrals, dominating Red Square in Moscow.
Bucharest has the Parlament Palace that is the second bigest building in the world.
National Village Museum "Dimitrie Gusti" it is an open air museum surrounded by greenery and lakes offer an area of 30 hectares, 70 households with traditional utensils, a water mill, one of wind,an oil pressure, etc.., gathered from all provinces of the country.
Ionela,
Deletehave you visited Moscow? Or you just googled for info? I visted it before the Revolution and it was indeed impressive.
No , I never visited , but I would love to do it. I googled for info and also my mother helped me to make the differences. She knew about Bucharest and I googled about Moscow.I would love to go and stay there for a while to learn Russian , because the russian people are the best turists and buyers of luxury at the Costa del Sol, and there you can find better jobs if you know this language too.
ReplyDeleteIonela, I agree about Russian tourists. And I also like the language and Russian literature.
DeleteI don't think that russian tourists are the best spenders.. When I was in Thailand, all the locals said that "russians are very bad for business", and russians are like 40% of the tourists there.
DeleteP.S. Ionela, if you want to learn russian just move to Suceava or Botosani.. :))
Russian (capital letter) in languages, Clau.
DeleteFrom the point of view of traffic, Moscow is like Bucharest. It is very bad and during the day, especially in the rush hours you better go by the cab. In this way you don’t spend your time and money. For your safe, should have your passport at you or a copy if you lost it because there police is everywhere, and controls all the tourists and the strangers. In Bucharest doesn’t happen this, there is control only in traffic, for the drivers. If you want to eat or to book somewhere, in Moscow is a little bit different to Bucharest. Russians don’t smash their glasses but Romanians do. Food is good and cheap as in Romania.
ReplyDeleteBoth in Romania and Moscow, when you start a business it is too hard to draw up the necessary documents and it takes a lot of time for thier approvement. What really differentiates us from russians is the fact that we speak English as international language and russians know almost nothing about this language.
ReplyDeleteHi Adriana,
DeleteI should add according to the podcast above (Russians cannot speak English).
I wish you were true about Romanians!
Like Bucharest, Moscow has two airports and only one has railway and is better connected with the city; in Bucharest only Otopeni is connected by railway with the city too. Once you get at the airport in Moscow the recommendation is to pass throw the VIP Channel because if not you have to wait hours to pass the Passport control, this thing is different here in Bucharest because you can pass quite fast the security and passport control. Also they recommend you to avoid the gipsy cabs and to take care because the price of the cab from airport to your hotel could be 100$, and you better take the yellow cabs. Here in Bucharest the cabs are not so expensive but also you have to take care with the unauthorized cabs.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that surprised me was the problem of corruption. It is no surprise that our country is characterized by corruption and bureaucracy, so it is familiar to us (needless to say that media plays an important role in presenting it to the whole world). Even so, when thinking at Russia I would expected to be more organized and to have drastic laws regarding corruption; it is not normal to “oil” things up. In what concerns the English language spoken by the Moscow people, I think we should be proud because we are better prepared, in spite of the decreased interest of the young Romanians citizens in learning English.
ReplyDeleteIonela, why do you think this "decreased interest in learning English" happens?
DeleteI think that the young Romanians don't realize how important is to know a foreign language which can open many doors in our country or in the whole word. I said this thing because I finished the primary school in my village, where not all children were able to go to high school and for this they were not interested to learn. And today are few of them who realize how important is to learn.
ReplyDelete