Multilingualism, Cultural Differences and Their Management in IT Communication within European Union

Abstract

The goal of this research is to identify the economic value of these processes, both as outlined by studies of experts within European institutions and by good practices of multinationals or some initiatives such as the initiative of “The European Institute for Cultural Routes”. The methodology used consists of a compared study of literature, European regulations and practical activities conducted within the European Union for valorisation of multilingualism and cultural particularities in the act of IT communication, as culture is the fundamental factor of buying and consumer behaviour. The research has led us to a series of conclusions: • the digital single market within the EU is built as an instrument of economic intelligence by integrating and capitalising multilingualism and multiculturalism; • the networks and the infrastructure developed in the past 20 years in the EU enable users to communicate audio and video in an instant secured system and form a core for most types of business communication; • IT technologies have to take account of cultural differences since markets and consumer behaviour are part of culture; • in addition, linguistic policies in communication have to be inevitably elaborated with accuracy. Large multinational corporations seem to manage use of languages in a flexible manner and they do not exclusively focus on English language; • native speakers of English language neglect learning a second or third foreign language, yet they are underprivileged on the European job market due to their deficiencies in relation to linguistic competencies; • multilingualism is often associated with individual linguistic components