Living Diversity
Another surprise arrived in the mail on May 7—the Arabic version of The Conflict Resolution Phrase Book. In February 2020, we received the Vietnamese version of The Big Book of HR, and the Simplified Chinese version of The Manager’s Answer Book. We were advised then that translation rights had been sold for the Complex Chinese version of The Manager’s Answer Book and this Arabic version. The pandemic, obviously, interfered with the production process, delaying our receipt of them.
It's exciting to receive all these diverse versions of our books, and it was an opportunity to learn more about other cultures and sharpen our cultural intelligence.
What’s the difference between Simplified Chinese and Complex Chinese? Complex Chinese is the traditional written version of the language. The most obvious difference is the way the characters look. Traditional Chinese characters have more strokes, thus is more complicated.
Traditional Chinese was the original standard in all Chinese-speaking regions. While certain characters may have been simplified throughout history, most simplified characters used today were developed in the 1950s and 1960s by the People’s Republic of China. Simplified Chinese is used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore while Complex Chinese is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
Another difference is text flow. Simplified text flows horizontally (like English text). The Simplified Chinese version of The Manager’s Answer Book opens on the right, like the English version, and the text does flow horizontally. Traditional Chinese can be written either horizontally or vertically, and can flow both ways on a single page. The Complex Chinese version we received opens on the left and the text appears to flow vertically.
The most common spoken languages are Mandarin and Cantonese. Cantonese is believed to have originated after the fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 A.D., while Mandarin arose out of the Yuan Dynasty in the 14th Century. Mandarin, China’s official language since 1912, remains the country’s lingua franca, a common language between speakers whose native languages are different.
Arabic is a Semitic language, a branch of the Afroasiatic language family, which originated in the Middle East. Like Latin, Arabic is a root language, but unlike Latin, it is still widely used and spoken today. The Arabic language, like other consonant alphabets, also called an abjad, is written from right to left. Like the Complex Chinese version of The Manager’s Answer Book, the Arabic version of The Conflict Resolution Phrase Book, also opens on the left.
Lessons about diversity and life are everywhere, especially in books. This was a particularly unique lesson—giving us the opportunity to learn about other written languages. Join us in celebrating this milestone.