The U.S. service exports cover a wide range of economic activities, from consulting to investment banking. According to Wall Street Journal's article in the October 2007 issue, "A Services Surplus," education is one of America's top service exports. With China alone, the U.S. has over $1 billion surplus.
 
Effective global training requires understanding cultures and backgrounds of trainees based on high or low-context cultures and non-verbal communication. In high-context cultures, words can be understood by knowing the social, political or personal context of the situation. In countries like Germany and Australia where low-context communication is the norm, people say precisely what they mean. In group cultures such as South Asia, rolling one's head from side to side signifies having a complete understanding and consensus with the trainer.
 
The trainer must take into account cultural characteristics such as formal and personal relationships and a trainer (teacher) oriented training style when designing educational materials for group cultures. For example, one American trainer conducted a seminar in Japan and spoke for over 13 hours without allowing interruptions of participants asking any questions. Other factors to keep in mind are:

• Do group exercises so that attendees speak on behalf of the whole group rather than on behalf of themselves.
• Interactive programs need to be deferred towards the end of your training rather than at the beginning as an "ice-breaker."
• Start training with a formal presentation before engaging participants in a discovery learning process.
• A trainer's credentials, qualifications, expertise and background are very important for group cultures, and they value people of authority.

America has contributed tremendously to enriching people's lives in the last century around the globe. In a world where American creativity, innovativeness, practical ingenuity, organizational and management skills are highly sought after, a trainer's awareness of multicultural differences is crucial in conducting an effective training program.
 
Ayse Oge is the President of Ultimate Trade. She can be reached e-mail: oge@earthlink.net. Her website is http://www.goglobaltowin.com.