You do not just translate your thought into another language - you translate the whole issue into that culture Intercultural understanding in the experience world of Finnish technical professionals
Abstract
The objective of the researchwas to examine the experience world of professionals in the field of technology as users of foreign languages to illustrate the general meaning structure in the agency of a foreign language user. The theoretical approach here is phenomenological. The fieldwork was carried out through thematic interviews with seven interviewees in a medium-sized Finnish engineering company with international operations. Through a phenomenological method of analysis the individual meaning units were identified. Out of these individual meaning units a common meaning structure that reflected the experiences of all the interviewees was uncovered. Intercultural understanding came out strongly as a significant component in the experience world of the interviewees.
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