Course Description
Students will acquire a working knowledge of commercial vocabulary, business practices, and commercial culture in the Luso-Brazilian world. The primary concentration will be on Brazil's growing presence in a globalized economy. Of primary importance is creating a cross-cultural awareness. Given in Portuguese.
Athena Title
Business Portuguese
Prerequisite
PORT 3030 or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The objectives of this course are to give the student exposure to the specialized vocabulary, business practices, and underlying beliefs operative in Brazil’s dynamic economy. Students learning objectives include: 1. Acquisition of vocabulary in Portuguese in relation to the business disciplines of marketing, finance, accounting, banking, securities exchange and importation-exportation 2. Acquisition of knowledge of the cultural beliefs, social values and commercial practices in Brazil that differ from those in the U.S. 3. Development of a cross cultural awareness in international business that foments opportunity and enterprise 4. Development of confidence and competence in successfully practicing business in Brazil. Students will improve their oral/aural and written skills by analyzing, in Portuguese, business related texts. This will be accomplished through classroom discussions, dialogue on WebCT, and through various written assignments, the midterm and final examinations. Students will write short essays, a term paper, and prepare at least one oral presentation. This course examines a Romance language and culture (within a specific Business context)in an integrated manner, and does so in the target language (Portuguese). Therefore, oral communication and writing skills are given the same importance as analytical skills.
Topical Outline
Language and culture specific activities • Vocabulary building • Studying written business correspondence in Brazil • Review of web-based business news from Brazil • Understanding Brazilian business practices • Examining underlying cultural differences between U.S. and Brazil (Provisional Topical Outline) I.PORT 4150 – Brazilian Portuguese in the business context a.Vocabulary enrichment i.Introduction to business vocabulary in Portuguese ii. Terms related to business disciplines and practices will be used in context b. Business correspondence in Brazil i. Study of preferred formats for business correspondence in Brazil ii. Review of internal and external correspondence in Brazilian business iii. Practice in writing business letters in Portuguese c. Presentations from web-based business articles from Brazil i. Students’ presentations will have a written summary and will answer specific questions ii. Presentations will be presented orally and students will be able to answer their classmates’ questions d. Business practices and cultural habits will be examined through assigned readings e. Lectures will be used to explore differences and problems between U.S. business culture and the Brazilian business culture i. Review of how Brazilians prefer to be addressed and greeted ii. Study of social norms and expectations in Brazilian business context (taboo topics, appropriate conversation topics, acceptable behavior, etc.) iii. Examination of regional variation in Brazilian business culture iv. Discussion on how to best practice business in Brazil with cross-cultural awareness and business savvy II. Textbooks being considered for this course are the following: a. Comércio: Um Mundo de Negócios (2004) de Luiz Ratto b. Negócios, Negócios, Etiqueta Faz Parte (2003) de Claudia Matarazzo c. Business Written Communication: Comunicação Escrita nos Negócios (2003) de Hideki Kato