Another classic misstep by an American firm took place in the 1970s when GM introduced its Nova subcompact in Mexico. Sales never took off, despite apparently good price/feature fit with Mexican upper-middle class consumers. After investigating, the GM marketers learned that Nova was read as ‘no va’, meaning no go in Mexican Spanish. No one would buy a car that meant no go.

English has emerged as the language of business in many places, partly due to the apparent preeminence of US multinationals around the world, and the reliance on the US dollar as a preferred means of foreign exchange. But, another powerful reason springs from the same language dynamic Karen mentions. Talking outside one’s mother tongue places the speaker at a distinct disadvantage with someone talking in their own mother tongue. Rather than allowing such a power imbalance to take place, business people will frequently pick a convenient third language to use, in which both parties have a relatively equal communication disadvantage. That third language is usually English, and the 19th-century British colonial impact has affected the use of English in this way just as much as American commercial success in the post-war era of the past 60 years. Hence, many European and Asian multinationals have selected English as the official ‘language of business’ across their organization!

The ‘Ugly American’ first written about 50 years ago has reemerged in the past 6-8 years, though now embodied in negative views about American political leadership and international policies, more so than attitudes about individual American travelers. Yet, the stereotype lives in many places, and for good reason. I still see many American travelers and expatriates lacking the skills Karen mentions and many others relating to cross-cultural competence. Unfortunately, they misinterpret the prevalence of English language skill around the world as an affirmation of the superiority of American culture. Far from it, many other peoples see American culture as violent, arrogant, naive, shallow, and self-absorbed to an extreme, in addition to more positive attributes like optimistic, positive, and idealistic. They know and use English for many other reasons including the power neutrality I describe.