The importance of intercultural business communication and business language learning

Intercultural business communication has become a significant issue due to an increased international cooperation between institutions. In order to do business successfully with a foreign company, one is nowadays expected to be acquainted with at least the basics of intercultual competence, which has even become an important subject taught to university students. We decided to analyze some specific characteristics of intercultural business communication using the data obtained concerning German and Italian business etiquette – we collected the information about the Germans through a survey conducted among the employees of a German company in Belgrade, while the data about the Italian was collected through interviews. In this research paper, we shall also deal with some specific features of business language compared to the general one using the examples of English and German, and try to reveal why it is important for students not only to reach the proficiency in general foreign language, but also in the professional one.