Quebec’s New Video Game Language Laws

Quebec’s New Video Game Language Laws
by Karen Sampson

New law forbids English video games if French-translation version exists, prompting some to question the motivation behind the “language police.”

Government gets their hands dirty
Government involvement in the private sector created a big stir in video game stores in Quebec earlier this year thanks to a new law that has come into effect banning English versions of certain video games. But opponents of the law, the stated purpose of which is to promote the French language, say it could put them out of business. Ronnie Rondeau, a local game store owner who own eight stores in the area, remarked that he feared the worst for his business. “If it really was going to make a difference,” he said in an interview in The Star, “I’d be for it, but only a small number of people want to play in French. The rest don’t care.”

The crowds will go elsewhere
Gamers are notorious for wanting new versions of games as soon as they are released, regardless of the language of the programming. Rondeau says that he even stocks several titles in Japanese because demand for the games was so high. But game designers frequently delay the releases of foreign language titles before they can debug the games for fear of future problems. In some cases the game may not be released in Quebec markets at all because the cost of translation isn’t worth it for game producers.

Even when games do get released in these limited markets programmers often take multiple extra weeks to release the new games, like the ever popular Rock Band video game. While sales in the United States were soaring over the Christmas holidays sales in Quebec were nonexistent because the game wasn’t released in French until six weeks later. Gamers simply looked elsewhere. With government involvement causing some businesses to panic, many have asked whether the Office Québécois de la langue Française, or Quebec’s French “language police” have gone too far.

The business of gaming
Gamers have always been known to be a very demanding crowd. Oftentimes games that are delayed even a few days cause the majority of the crowd to look elsewhere, across the border or on the internet, for other options. “I’m afraid it’s going to cost me my business,” Rondeau said. And even if he is able to scrap it out in the increasingly difficult market, “… money-wise, it’s going to hurt.”

About the author
Karen Sampson writes for Select courses. She welcomes your feedback at Karen.Sampson1120@gmail.com

The Chosun Dynasty was a period of “confucianization”

The Choson Dynasty is a period of “confucianization” according to Dr. Haboush’s article. Discuss three particular aspects of confucianization by linking it to a film, sections from Korea Old and New, or by contrasting it to the Koryo Dynasty (using Duncan’s article).

After overthrowing the Koryo Dynasty, Yi Songgye and his Neo-Confucian supporters founded the Chosun Dynasty, where a period of “Confucianization” began. The three particular aspects in Korea where confucianization occurred were in the government, in funerary practices, and in women’s rights.

First, the government was heavily influenced by confucianization. Unlike the Koryo Dynasty, which drew its legitimacy from Buddhism, geomancy and marriage, the Chosun dynasty drew their support from Neo-Confucianism. However, the bureaucratic pres-sures exerted on the monarchy during the Koryo Dynasty were strengthened during the Chosun period because all government decisions had to be debated and justified by Con-fucian rhetoric, which led to a rivalry between the throne and the bureaucracy based on who can best realize Confucian ideals. Moreover, the Censorate gained greater influence in the government with its power of investigating corruption and confirming state ap-pointments, which brought accountability to the state while crippling the decision-making process (Eckert, Lee, 110). These struggles between the bureaucracy and the throne led to four literati purges that involved Chosun kings either removing or executing literati who accused the state of corruption or tried to impose Neo-Confucian norms that threat-ened the monarchy (Eckert, Lee, 136-139).

Another area of society that was affected by “Confucianization” affected were funer-ary practices, which were altered to suit Confucian norms. During the Koryo period, Koreans followed Buddhist funerary practices by cremating the dead, as depicted in “Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?” until it was outlawed by the Chosun government in 1474 since it was against Confucian norms. In 1401, the Confucian funeral rites and ancestor worship were codified into law to discourage non-Confucian traditions and proliferated when it was adopted by the yangban. Koreans eventually accepted these rituals because ancestor worship was compatible with the Buddhist belief that ancestors’ souls needed continuous support by its descendants and because it was practiced by elites, which made Confucian funerary practices a status symbol.

A third area influenced by confucianization was women’s rights. According to native Korean tradition, daughters were considered full-fledged heirs, women can remarry and Koryo-era women have equal claim to property. However, under the Kyongguk Taejon, only sons from wives or concubines were considered ritual heirs, the ritual heirs gets one and a half times more property than his siblings, and children of remarried women were denied state positions. Additionally, the state not only created laws that restricted women to the domestic sphere, it glorified women who conformed to Confucian values and pro-moted literature that taught them to be submissive, diligent, frugal, and devoted to their in-laws. One of the most popular Confucian stories is “Chunhyang”, a morality play that was used to indoctrinate women to adhere to Confucian values by glorifying the heroine for upholding Confucian values under adversity and for attacking un-Confucian ideals.

In short, confucianization had significant impact on the state, on funerary practices, and on women’s rights. First, the bureaucracy was strengthened which empowered the literati at the expense of threatening the monarchy. Second, funerary practices had to be changed, which also altered Korean attitudes towards the dead. Last, women’s rights were gradually phased out as Confucianism gained greater prominence in society.

“Culture shock: If you don’t learn to bridge the gap, you may risk alienating potential business partners – Real Deal”

“Culture shock: If you don’t learn to bridge the gap, you may risk alienating potential business partners – Real Deal”

According to a July, 2003 article in Entrepreneur, “Culture shock: If you don’t learn to bridge the gap, you may risk alienating potential business partners – Real Deal,” negotiations are gaining increasing importance as the international, multinational and transnational business play a greater role in international business. This article describes the different cultural customs in each nationality and provides tips on how to improve negotiations.

The article describes the different cultures of Asians, Europeans, Africans, Hispanics and even Americans and their role in negotiations. Some examples given are that Japanese dislike direct confrontations, Koreans prefer teamwork, Nigerians prefer spoken negotiations, Indians prefer written agreements, while Hispanics heavily use body language to express themselves. Additionally, the article points out that Asian languages incorporate tones and body language while Spanish people are extremely individualistic. Compared to other cultures, it appears that Americans offend others with their impulsiveness and their need to quickly complete tasks.

Based on these cultural differences and their impact on business customs, negotiators are recommended to make an effort to learn about their partner’s culture to gain a position of advantage. This is especially true because many of these foreign negotiators do not speak English as their native language, which leads to native expressions getting lost in translation, so it is important that both sides attempt to build a mutual understanding to make negotiations work smoothly. Additionally, I agree with the suggestion of hiring a cultural consultant or translators to better understand foreign cultures because it would cut down time needed to research the many cultural nuances and it will give greater insights on how certain foreign negotiators operate.

Therefore, it is essential to better understand foreign customs since they can lead to successful negotiations. Because each culture and nationality have different approaches to negotiating, one must properly research their business customs to prevent misunderstandings and improve the ability to get demands met. As businesses become more globalized, it appears that so-called cultural consultants and translators are becoming more relevant in assisting businesses in international negotiations and have also forced negotiators to learn new ways of negotiating.

· Japanese – prefer information exchange over direct confrontation
· Russians – prefer direct confrontation, “compromise” is a loanword
· Spanish – extremely individualistic
· Koreans – prefer negotiating in a group setting
· Nigerians – prefer spoken word
· Indians – prefer written word
· Asian languages – high in context, should focus on inflections, body language
· Latin Americans – physically demonstrative
· Americans – impatient and obsessed with finishing tasks quickly