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Offered only in the second semester, this course is aimed at those students who wish to learn the general languageof business along with the contents of a business course. It starts from the constitution of a small Spanish business and the problems it faces at the beginning, during growth and finally on conquering the international markets. This activity is complemented with: (i) authentic documents from a foreign trade dossier, such as texts from specialised journals and real and virtual daybooks of economic information; (ii) a practical approach to the cultural features to do business and establish commercial relations in Spain and the larger economic countries of Latin America. The methodological approach is eclectic as it combines the focusing on communicative and structuralist tasks, emphasising individual work as much as work carried out in groups. Finally material will be included related to the subjects analysed in each unit to develop tasks on the Internet. We wish to emphasise that the course contents may help to prepare several subjects included in the exams organised by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Madrid for the attainment of the Superior Certificate and/or Diploma of Business Spanish. Syllabus Theory of Foreign Trade 1. Introduction to Business. 2. The Commercial Enterprise: its legal nature. 3. The decision to export or import. 4. Exportation policy. 5. Methods of payment. 6. Exportation-importation documents. 7. International transportation of merchandise. Skills and activities 1. Analysis of a complete dossier of documents used in an international commercial operation in the Spanish language. 2. Comparative analysis of articles and news related to Spanish and Latin American foreign trade (El Exporatador Journal; Volume Claves de la economía mundial; Other printed materials and Internet). Intercultural communication in commercial relations with Spanish speakers. 1. General features. 2. Negotiating in Spain. 3. Negotiating in Mexico. 4. Negotiating in the Cono Sur (Argentina and Chile). 5. Negotiating in the Andean countries (Colombia, Peru and Venezuela). Activities The students will do a series of oral and written exercises based on the topics in the syllabus, as much on the selected texts as on specifically prepared ones. Short debates and discussions will also be organised in class on the topics and also on a topic which the teacher will assign to groups of two students. The duration of the activities will vary depending on each activity. The debates should not last any longer than 20 minutes. Assessment This will fundamentally depend on a final exam which will be 60% of the final mark. Class participation and attention will be 10%. Set pieces of work, exercises and activities to be done at home will be another 30%. Course textbook: FELICES, Ángel, and RUIZ, Cecilia: Español para el comercio internacional. Términos y expresiones esenciales en el mundo de los negocios. Madrid, Edinumen, 2nd edition, 2001. Supplementary material: BADET, Jacques, et al: Ingresar en el mundo profesional del siglo XXI. Paris, Nathan, 2002. BRENES, Ana Mª, LAUTERBORN, Wanda: La comunicación informal en los negocios. Madrid, Arco/Libros, 2002. El exportador. Specialised journal on information for Spanish exporters. FELICES, Ángel, CALDERÓN, Mª Ángeles, IRIARTE, Emilio, Núñez, Emilia, Cultura y negocios. El español de la economía española y latinoamericana. Madrid, Edinumen, 2003. VARIOUS AUTHORS, Claves de la economía mundial. Madrid, ICEX, 2002. Promotional videos of the ICEX. Supplementary material: Yearbooks, articles, reports and documents from different sources; periodical publications on present-day economics.
Theory of Foreign Trade
Skills and activities
Intercultural communication in commercial relations with Spanish speakers.
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