Global Business. Proximity.

The first week of language training in Blaubeuren. Late lunch in one of the local restaurants. A student shoves a coin in the jukebox. Pop tune. One heard often just a few weeks before in the Philadelphia suburbs. And a few months before during my last semester at Georgetown. Immediate proximity. But from a small town tucked in the Swabian hills. Later that day a phonecall with my mother. At the post office. Give the man the phone number. Step into a booth. The phone rings. You pick up. Collect call. Connected. October 1981.

Things have changed since then. My twelve year old son skypes with his grandmother. Today. May 24, 2010. To skype. A verb. International travel. Internet. Email. Blogging. Web 2.0. Instantaneous. Just about from anywhere, to anyone, at any time. The world has become smaller. They say. I don‘t. Trügerisch. Deceptive. Seeing a face. Hearing a voice. Reading the words. Proximity. Merriam Webster. From Middle French proximité. From Latin proximus. The quality or state of being proximate, closeness. Human proximity is understanding. Not technology.

My roomate is Jordanian. Palestinian. Spoke little English, less German. I spoke/speak zero Arabic. Nice guy. Quiet. I can‘t say more. Nor can he. The mornings fresh, cool, but sunny. The halfmile walk to the Institute envigorating. The wetness of the lawns and fields. The animated voices of the children up bright and early off to school. Then our books, pencil, eraser. Grammar, a bit of conversation, a motivated instructor. The excitement of learning. New, unknown.

German. Grundstufe III. Basic Level 3. Not terribly advanced. My son, in the sixth grade. Second year of Latin. Already at a higher level in Latin than my German back then at age twenty-two. Europeans, and not only, know more English by the ninth grade than most American university graduates know a foreign language. Germans. Americans. Integration of approaches. The influence of culture on business. The world has become larger, not smaller. More complex, not simpler. Despite, or due to, proximity.