business assignment
Fryinginthesky
Internationletterexample2.docxJames Gonzalez
1234 Main St
San Jose, CA 95123
September 22, 2017
Agri Café
Sr. Silvio Leite
Praca da Inglaterra, 6- Comercio
Salvador-BA
40015-140
Brazil
Dear Sr. Silvio Leite,
My name is James Gonzalez, I am the owner of Perk, a new small coffee shop located in San Jose, Ca. I started this company because of my love of coffee, I also wanted my family and other families in San Jose to have a place to have the small coffee shop experience. Since we are a small company we like to form strong and lasting relationships with our suppliers. Our aspiration is to provide our customers with genuine and high quality Brazilian coffee.
Since you and your company have a valuable background in the coffee market and offer high quality coffee, I would like to work with you and purchase your products to sell in my shop. I have done research on your country and have found that spoken and in person communication is valued more than the written word and that business meetings are set up 2-3 weeks in advance. I would like to schedule a face to face meeting with you on October 9th 2017, I will travel to Brazil to have this meeting. We can get to know each other better and hopefully build a strong relationship over lunch or dinner.
I will be following up this letter with a phone call to discuss a time and place for the meeting. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to call me at (408) 123-4567 or email me at [email protected].
Estou ansioso para conhecê-lo.
Sincerely,
James Gonzalez
Brazil is a high context country. Brazilians are highly communicative people; however, this is through small talk that occurs most commonly through spoken words rather than written words. I tried to add more context into my letter, but most of my communication would be through face to face meetings or even phone calls if I did business with a Brazilian company. It is recommended to follow up any written communication with a phone call or visit. Since I can’t incorporate most of the communication that is preferred in the letter I kept the letter short but mentioned that I would call Sr. Silvio Leite. Brazilians place emphasis on relationships which is hard to make only through written communication, which is a reason why they prefer in person communication. You don’t get the same information through writing than you do in person. Brazilians use body language and other nonverbal communication as well that just isn’t seen in the written form. Relationships are the key to doing business in Brazil, there will be no business transactions if there is no relationship. One would want to be personable, I tried to incorporate this in my letter by writing about why I opened the shop and what we value as a company. If I were to go to the face to face meeting in Brazil on the scheduled date, I would not have scheduled another appointment or meeting after it, this is because business meetings tend to run longer than planned, and it is ill mannered to leave a meeting early. Although it is common to arrive to meetings a few minutes late it is recommended to arrive to business meetings on time, especially if you are an international partner. They still might begin later than scheduled. In this meeting, you would find the men wearing dark colored business suits either a three piece or two-piece suit depending on their business status, three-piece suits are worn by executives and two-piece suits are worn by office workers. The women would dress either in a suit or a dress, with natural looking makeup, nothing too flashy, and will have freshly manicured nails. This dress code is an important detail to remember when attending Brazilian business meetings. Appearance is of the utmost importance in Brazil; the first impression is vital in the initial stages of forming a relationship. This is another reason why written communication is not preferred. During introductions in the meeting men will shake hands with each while making eye contact for a period of time. Women must initiate any hand shake with a man during introductions in business meetings, otherwise a handshake between a man and woman would not happen. It’s also during this introduction where business cards are given to each member in the meeting, if you are going to use some. There are business card requirements and etiquette when doing business in Brazil. Both sides of the card must be utilized, one side will have the information in English while the other side is in Portuguese. When passing out the cards you must make sure that the Portuguese side is facing up at the recipient. Business dinners in Brazil are also essential. They tend to be informal and begin with casual talk about soccer or family, however it is best to avoid topics like politics and religion. I incorporated this by mentioning my family in the letter. When this kind of talk is occurring, it is best to not rush the meeting and begin discussing the actual business that was intended until they bring up the subject themselves. One must take note when doing business and communicating with Brazilians of the fact that they talk in close proximities, sometimes closer than other countries are comfortable with. Even if you are uncomfortable with the closeness try not to back away as this is disrespectful. It is throughout these conversations that the all-important relationship is built, it’s the place to learn more about each other as people. For the actual eating portion of the business meal it is important to be courteous of Brazilian customs, all food is eaten with a fork, it is impolite to eat anything with your fingers. Brazilians appreciate the effort given by current or potential international business partners if they learn Portuguese phrases prior to meetings, this adds to the first impression received. An individual will look better because the put in effort to try to learn the native language, rather than just rely on Brazilians knowing English or on a translator. Which a translator may still be needed. I incorporated this into the end of my letter by writing I’m looking forward to meeting you in Portuguese. Be sure not to mistakenly use Spanish, you will offend any Brazilian if you make this mistake. Brazilians are extremely proud of the fact that they are a non-Spanish speaking country in south America, which is predominantly a Spanish speaking continent.
Bibliography
AgriCoffee | AgriCafé, www.agricafe.com.br/ingles/empresa.html. Accessed 22 Sept. 2017.
