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1'anv 2- I*LAIM)K,AI.K,B-HKHAI,I>, WKDMvSim . APKIL 17.1'MG Opinion/Politics Business world is. . .you know Public pulse WASHINGTON--Americans doing business with foreigners should be careful about using idioms, colloquialisms and other slang ex­ pressions, according to a new book on the subject. Although "textbook English is now the official language of international business," it says a deal may be queered if one of the contracting parties uses teminology the other misunderstands or deems embarassing. Taboo are such popular bromides as "don't make waves," "down the tubes," "top brass," "bottom line," "touch base," "like taking candy from a baby," "the whole ball of wax" and even "you know." I know people who would be absolutely tongue- tied if denied the use of the latter, not to mention cliches like "where I'm coming from," "don't get uptight" and "raining cats and dogs." Yet, "The Tower of Business Babel" tells us dozens of business transactions h^ve been ruined by just such talk. "we tend to forget that many foreigners who speak English as a second or third language may have never been exposed to our colorful' but confusing variations," it says. One U.S. firm mentioned in the book lost a contract because a salesman told a potential Japanese client, "This is a whole new baugame." Ana a cultural exchange program came to a standstill after Chinese negotiators were told it was time to "talk turkey." The Japanese did not consider the contract "to be any Kind of game" and the Chinese were puzzled as to what a North American bird "had to do with a program of intercultural exchange." At that, our guys were lucky. I mean, suppose the Chinese had taken the latter expression literally and broken into Turkish? If foreigners are confused by the question, "Will it play in Peoria?" I wonder what they might make of words used to convev a meaning directly opposite to what English textbooks say they mean. "Bad" in the sense of being good, for example. If you have $5 to spend on books, you can buy a "guide to the correct use of the English language in international trade." However, I would recommend that anyone about to embark on foreign ventures, to be on the safe side, cultivate the use of the phrase, "You know." I realize "you know" is on the proscribed list. Yet I'm sure it would be preferable to telling a foreigner the truth about a contract offer. *•'Your offeris.. .you know," the American might say, forcing the foreigner to fill in the gaps from his own first or second language. Potential clients who are French might be embarassed if told their offer was a "low"blow." Better they would be obligated to conclude from an American viewpoint the contract would be "inferieur au niveau," or substandard. Clearly, the ubiquitous "you know" can cover a multitude of vernacular sins, including the suspicion that potential foreign clients aren't "playing with a full deck."* Dick West (UPI columnist) Road commissioner justifies his pay It's sink or swim for bureaucrats Dear Editor : I want to add my comments to those of Mr. Lloyd Burger's letter of April 10 "Outrage ex­ pressed at high pay for obsolete offices." First, the highway com­ missioner did not vote for his own pay increase. Only the township supervisor, Mr. Albert "Albie" Ajiams, and his four trustees have the legal authority to establish township pay in­ creases. In the case of the highway commissioner, the 19 percent salary increase, to $34,000 an­ nually, represents an average increase over the four year term of less than five percent, which * is only slightly better than the rate of inflation. In con­ sideration of the fact that the McHenry Township Highway Commissioner puts in ap­ proximately 2,700 manhours yearly, at all times of the day and night, weekends, and holidays, his salary equates to about $12.60 per work hour without change over the next four-year term. This should seen to be quite a bargain when you consider the prevailing wage for the construction trades and labor is much higher than that. As for the highway • com­ missioner's expenses, as the law allows, he draws a flat 20.5 cents per mile for using his own station wagon for official daily business. Every speedometer mile is documented on a travel log. All claims .for reim­ bursement for official con­ ferences. and travel expenses are documented by receipts and explanations as to date, location and purpose, as the IRS requires. I cannot speak to what any other township officials are doing regarding thier claims for "expenses." Regarding the obsolescence of township government, I per­ sonally believe the best way to make a local official responsive to the needs of the people hr is supposed toi serve is to make his office ah elective one. I do not believe it is any kind of im­ provement to transfer responsibility for local govern­ ment services to an unknown - bureaucratic employee many 1 miles farther away. Many such : people have already well proved - (sic) their lack of concern and reluctance to serve the people they don't know and don't care about. But they do serve well when their job directly depends on votes, and that's a fine motivating factor. * If any resident feels they are dissatisfied or outraged at the conduct of any local government official, they sould make thier feelings known to those people by calling or writing them or to others. They should also use the "letter to the editor" option. After all, it's your government, it's up to you to make it work the way you want. No one will do it for you. John C. Regner Highway Commissioner WASHINGTON-Navy Secretary John Lehman's suiprise announcement that he will close the Naval Material Command, one of several bold actions to reduce the Navy's overweight bureaucracy, has sent shock waves through the Pentagon.' Lehman's latest assault on the military's "incredible and unwieldy monster" of a bureaucracy delivered in a scathing April 3 speech before the Navy League, signals that some long overdue reforms are going to be made in the way the Navy runs its ship. His blunt, hard-hitting ad­ dress reveals not only a cost- conscious Pentagon manager, but also an astute politician who understands that a spate of defense spending scandals has driven the military's credibility to a new low. Only tough medicine will halt its decline. The Naval Material Com­ mand, which employs a thousand people, oversees the purchase of billions of dollars in Navy weapons, materials, supplies and support services. Lenman says it is an un­ necessary and wasteful layer in the Navy's top-heavy bureaucracy and should be junked. Under the present structure, the contract procurement recommendations of the various Navy bureaus must run a bureaucratic gauntlet before reaching the Navy's two highest officials: the chief of naval operations and Lehman himself. Under Lehman's plan the heads of these bureaus will report their recommendations directly to these top two of­ ficials. In his speech, Lehman said something that most Pentagon insiders have known for years, but that few, if any at the top levels of management, have had the courage to say in public: That in the last 40 years, the military's bureaucracy has grown into a fat, lethargic and inefficient structure badly in need of reform. During this period, for example, the Office of the Secretary of Defense has grown from 50 people to more than 2,000. Even personnel serving Leh­ man's offices, the chief of naval operations and the Marine commandant have risen from 200 to 2,000. There are 11 separate defense agencies and nine joint and specified military commands, each employing staffs that run into the thousands. More than 50,000 bureaucrats now swell the Defense Logistics Agency's ranks, though it was originally meant to be merely a coor­ dinator . .of ^military, cpm- modities. ' Y / Most of the Defense Depart­ ment's staffs, whether in the operational, procurement or management sides, are bloated and can be substantially trimmed back, Lehman thinks. Some, like Naval Material Command, can be eliminated. Congress, he says, is deeply responsible for this swollen bureaucracy, regularly filling the defense budget with ex­ penditures that the military often do not want but wliich keep local defense facilities and in­ dustries in business. "Pork barrel," h he exclaimed in a speech a few years back, "that's where (defense spending) reform ought t to take place." Lack of uniform congressional oversight is another problem. Congress must first put its own house in order, he says, by ending the kind of "congressional anarchy" that arises from the thicket of 32 committees and subcommittees that have oversight respon­ sibilities over defense programs. ItTs too bad that Lehman's bureaucracy-cutting, efficiency- improving speech wasn't made by Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger...about four years fKo#* JEftstead, Weinberger's ad­ ministration is continually climbing o out from under one spending scandal after another T from the spare parts fiasco to excessive oven GARDNER LANDSCAPING "HONESTY & QUALITY YOU CAN DEPEND ON" We Specialize In A Natural Landscape Design All Services, Including: Designing •Pruning Planting • Maintenance •Free Consultation 16 YEARS EXPERIENCE (815)675-6083 McHENRY DRUG SALE APRIL 17-APRIL 22 IAIIYI TO I SAT. IIII J WO AT (STORE) I Tt 7PM SUNOAT (PHARMACY)«TO 3PM WEKSHU THE RtfiHT TO LIMIT MIAMTITICS. MICE! M EFFECT WHILE QUANTITIES LAST PHARMACY (MS) gHtil 1127 I. RIVERSIM N. OLD MILWAUKEE 6PACK $4 49 CIGARETTES CARTON '7" PLUSTAX CARTON.'7'4 PLUSTAX PACKS 93c PLUSTAX RC-DIET RITE-A&W 3 LITER BOTTLE WITH COUPON $1 39 LIMITS COUPON GOOD THRU 4/22/85 SAVE Ml BREYER'S ICECREAM !> GALLON -» 2/*500 ! 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'Lehman's gutsy proposal to eliminate and prune unneeded layers of military bureaucracy are a good place to start, but they must be applied on a Pentagon-wide basis. "We have to reduce the numbers of .(bureaucratic) entities," he says. "We have to reduce the size of entities; we have to restore a vertical return to. accountability and authority.'* Donald Lambro (United Features Syndicate) REALISTIC' /•PC2000 HIGH TECH PERM COMPUTER SYSTEM Everything you ever wanted in a perm is here! Come in for your FREE perm analysis AVAILABLE AT MISTER'S COIFFU RES 3701 W. ELM ST. (RTE. 120) McHENRY » -- SPRING CLEARANCE LIMITED QUANTITIES! REG $1799.95 SUPER SPECIAL CONTEMPORARY SOFA, LOVESEAT, & CHAIR OR SWIVEL ROCKER OAK TRIM, 100% NYLON FABRIC 1,099" YOUR $ CHOICE JUST ARRIVED! NEW DINING ROOMS AND BEDROOM SETS. ALL WOOD EARLY AMERICAN BEDROOM SET HEADBOARD. FOOT BOARD DESK MIRROR REG CQA95 CHEST 0RESSER. 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