Because of the globalized use of the Internet, companies of most countries rely heavily on websites for the sale of their products and services internationally. However, a company’s website, no matter how nicely designed in terms of graphics used and information provided, may still fail to achieve the expected result if it fails to consider the relevant business cultural values and conventions of the target country. This article, in light of American business values and Chinese business values and through case analyses, identifies the possible problems on those websites aiming at international business. Using specific company websites of both the United States and China and through comparison and contrast, the author analyzes problems in aspects of content, graphics, and layout in attempt to improve designers’ cultural awareness in these aspects and improve their skills for the localization of their international business websites.

This article studies how international business could suffer because of using the wrong translation criteria as guidelines in international business translation. The author starts with the discussion of translation criteria of different contemporary schools such as aesthetic equivalence, dynamic equivalence, adaptation school, and alienation school. Then, in light of the characteristics of each school’s criteria, the writer points out that there is not such an issue as to which criteria are more correct or superior to other ones. Each set of criteria has its own application area. Mechanically sticking to a single set of criteria will only yield undesired effects. To justify this point of view, the author uses specific examples of international business translation to show how international business stumbled because of translator’s undifferentiated adherence to the use of the same translation criteria or alienation approach throughout the translation process.

Scholars have consistently claimed that rhetorical patterns are culturally bound, and indirectness is a defining characteristic of Chinese writing. Through examining how the rhetorical mechanism of directness and indirectness is presented in 29 English business communication textbooks published in China, we explore how English business communication textbook writers in China keep up with the contextual changes in the Chinese society and how the rhetorical mechanism of directness and indirectness is locally situated in the English business communication teaching practices in China. We conclude that the pedagogical strategy on directness and indirectness represented in Chinese English business communication textbooks echoes the same strategy favored by scholars in the United States.

Website localization is an important part of international technical communication. However, at present, few technical communication programs offer courses in localization. This article provides an overview of a course devised to familiarize students with ideas and approaches related to website localization. The course was based upon Robert Gagné's nine events of instruction—an approach that allowed students to move from the learning of abstract ideas to the application of knowledge to the website localization process.

Cross-cultural blunders caused by inappropriate use of language are a common problem in international professional communication. They cause misunderstanding, lead to business failures, and tend to be offensive at times. Such blunders may occur in business ads, slogans, products names, and instructions. Understanding their causes and finding solutions to them are of importance in international professional communication. By examining specific cases, the article analyzes the causes that lead to such blunders from a semantic perspective and concludes that indiscriminate use of the semantic meaning of a word, a lexical form, lexical sound, numbers, color words, and animal names of the target language is the major cause of causing cultural blunders in international professional communication. Along the way, the article also offers solutions to the problems identified.

Web Localization means the process of making all kinds of information on a Web site culturally, linguistically, graphically, and technologically customized to the needs of the users of the target country. Web site localization is an important means by which an industry or organization wins an international market for its products or services since the Internet has billions of users and has the world wide access. However, language problems are still an obstacle to successful Web localization or online writings for cross-cultural audiences, which result in failing to achieve the communication purpose of the organization or company that has the problems on its Web site. This article mainly focuses on the language problems in online writing or localizing a Web linguistically for cross-cultural audiences from semantic, syntactical, textual, and rhetorical perspectives and makes some suggestions for solving the problems.