Business people often spend time and money improving their ability to use foreign languages in order to be able to communicate with other business people from around the world. Language, of course, is very important, but it is only half the problem. When we are doing business with people of other cultures, there are always rules that we cannot notice easily. And this often results in making mistakes which will make our foreign friends unhappy. In the West, business cards are given a quick look and put into the pocket. In Japan, they are highly regarded, looked at carefully and left on the table during a business meeting. In Britain, most business meetings would include a joke. In many other countries, this would be very rare. Small talk and relationship building are considered very important in some parts of the world; people talk about the weather, the wine and other small things before they begin to talk about business. In other places, people get down to business immediately.