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ТЕКСТ 1

Levi's to Shut Half its N American Plants

The decline of blue jeans, for decades the unofficial uniform of the American working and playing man, has forced Levi Strauss (['li:vaistro:s]) to close half of its remaining North American factories and eliminate 5,900 jobs. 30 per cent of its workforce, at a cost of $245m.

The 146-year-old textile group suffered a 13 per cent drop in sales last year as consumers deserted its traditional five-pocket jeans in favour of knakis (брюки защитного цвета «хаки») and more fashionable jeans brands such as Tommy HilfigerandMudd.

The family-owned company said the closures were part of a series of strategic steps by its American division to improve its competitiveness by moving its manufacturing operations overseas, where labour costs are lower. The move comes a week after Levi's, one of the world's largest brand-name clothing makers, reported its sales fell from $6.9bn to $6bn last year, largely as a result of weak sales of jeans.

Bob Haas, the chief executive officer whose great uncle patented the use of metal rivets (заклепки) to hold denim trousers together, said: "Younger customers in particular are very fickle (непостоянные): they are less likely to wear the uniforms we may have worn when we were younger."

He added, however, that his family had seen similar slumps in the depression of the 1920s and again in the early 1980s, from which they had always rebounded (recovered – отправились). "I believe jeans are really atthe core not just of the American wardrobe but of the wardrobe of the global consumer," he said. Consumers continue to shift from formal wear to more casual clothing, he added.

Last year Levi's shut 13 US sites and four European plants at a cost of 7,400 jobs. "That was to remove excess capacity" (производственные мощности = manufacturing facilities). Mr Haas said: "The announcement today is to focus our energies on the consumer."

He admitted that the company's success from the mid-1980s to the mid; 1990s "perhaps dulled (притупил) our perceptions of customers' needs and competitive challenges." He added, however: "Consumer trends move not just locally or regionally now, but globally, and withbreathtaking speed."

The US jeans market is still worth $11bn, and Levi's traditional jeans such as 501s still claim a quarter of it. But the inventor of the original "waist overalls" (комбинезон) has lost market share toown-label jeans from retailers such as Gap, which offered similar quality at lower prices, and to more trendy brand names.

Levi's has not been alone in shutting plants. VF jeans, the maker of Lee and Wrangler jeans, has also cut capacity in the past year and yesterday's, announcement is a further blow to the US textile industry.

"Virtually every major apparel company (garment — швейная) has eliminated, scaled back (уменьшили) or never owned manufacturing facilities" in the US, the group said yesterday.

ТЕКСТ 2

Комментарий:Данный текст довольно сложен, но крайне полезен и интересен для переводчика с профессиональной точки зрения.

Обратите внимание на оттенки модальности – may, may not в значении probably (not), а также на перевод абстрактных понятий culture, background, communication, conceptи т.д., и терминов colloquialisms, profit, rate of return, escrow account, cash flowи т.д.

Empty Shelves in America?

(A Study of Breakdowns in Communication)

Several years ago, at a reception which followed (after) a long day of negotiations, a vice-president of an American oil company and his Russian counterpartwere having an informal conversation through an interpreter. The Russian said: "My wife spends so much time shopping, but she comes home empty-handed just about every time" (referring to the empty shelves and long lines in the then Soviet stores). The American nodded and said: "My wife is exactly the same way. She spends hours going to all kinds of stores without buying a single thing." They smiled, for here were two men who really "understood" one another.

Communication is important in every business. In energy business, for instance, communication is especially crucial because without it things (everything) can literally explode. While most of us think that the worst kind of communication breakdown occurs when people fail to understand each other's words or actions, there exists a more dramatic (serious) and potentially damaging kind of communication breakdown – when people are convinced that they understand each other and are headed towards reaching an agreement, but are in fact miles (if not light-years) apart.

This is precisely the kind of communication breakdown that is observed repeatedly during negotiations, meeting, seminars and other formalor informalevents involving representatives of Western oil companies and Russian ministries and associations. While some of the numerous examples are seemingly amusing, others are not only costly (cost a lot) but often result in “inexplicable” delays in negotiations, frustration withthe intended future partner, and in many cases, total failure of an undertaking (enterprise).

Every failure also yields useful lessons, however. This article will attempt to reveal some of the causes leading to breakdowns in communication and discuss ways of preventing their occurrence.

First of all, it may help us to keep in mind (take into account) that vast culturaldifferences exist, and will continue to exist, between the people of the former Soviet Union and the West. These differences will affect negotiations and business dealings (contract) despite the rapid changes taking place in Russia and other republics. The people of the newly formed Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have acquired their life-long experience under the old system and it may take several generations before the communication gap between the West and the people of the Community can be narrowed to the level currently existing between the United States and Western Europe. At the same time, effective business communication between the west and the former Soviet Union is essential today.

Here are some of the «DO NOT’s» that could prevent problems in many situations:

1. DO NOT rely on simultaneous interpreting to archive effective communication with your counterpart. Use consecutive interpreting instead. Experience proves that consecutive interpreting, although more time-consuming, is considerably more effective in business discussions.

2. DONOT use corporate lingo and colloquialisms² in your oral and written presentations. Colloquialisms do not translate well in either directions and are meaningless in most cases. Consult with your language and communications advisors on how to make your presentations clear and effective in the target language. In many instances it is beneficial to explain to your advisors what you want to express, have them write it in the target language first, and then translate it into your native language for approval. Although the translation may seem stilted to you, it is the target language documents that ismore important.

3. DONOT start discussions or negotiations before you have defined your terminology. Make sure that the basic concepts (notions) are defined the same way for both of you. There are dozens of concepts such as «escrow account», «amortization» and even «profit» that are in many eases defined differently in Russia and in the West, yet all of these words have corresponding Russian-language translations and, therefore, may not raise concerns during negotiations (for example, «prybil» may be construed by a Russian to mean either revenues or profits).

4. DO NOT assume that your counterpart thinks the way you do. Both of you may have been involved in the energy business for years, yet your business and cultural backgroundsare vastly different, and for years your goal in business have been just in different.

5. DO NOT assume that your counterpart knows what you think he should know. A Russian director of a production association will probably not know what «internal rate of return» or «discounted cash flow» mean. By the same token, a Western vice-president will not be familiar with the «Approval of Oil Reserves» procedure which is the basic concept known by any Russian oilman.

6. DO NOT expect every answer you receive to be accurate. In many cases the answer may not exist at all or your counterpart may not know it, but will be embarrassed to admit it. This is especially true of legal questions. New Russian energy-related laws have not yet been developed. Besides, newly adopted laws are frequently amended or have already become obsolete. In many cases, the law will be open for interpretation and you may receive conflicting answers to a simple question.

And finally, one should realize that it is vitally important to understand not only the words being spoken by your counterpart, but also the ideas and emotions which the latter is trying to convey.

Raphael Baron («The Russian Petroleum Investor Newsletter»)

Комментарии

counterpart = opposite number, ср. сolleague – партнер

сommunication – зд. взаимопонимание; breakdown – непонимание

are headed towards = are moving towards

formal/informal events – официальные/неофициальные мероприятия

frustration – зд. разочарование

acquired = received

communication gap – пропасть непонимания (ср. generation gap – проблема отцов и детей)

target language – язык перевода;

stilted – напыщенный, ходульный (to walk on stilts – ходить на ходулях);

target language document – зд. перевод документа;