Abstrakt
This article discusses the question of how to address language issues within multinational companies in the light of the knowledge economy, particularly as concerns economic and other relationships between EU old- and new-member states. Based on data collected from multinational companies in the Czech Republic and Hungary, the article's point of departure is the approach and findings of the studies "ELAN: Effects on the European Economy of Shortages of Foreign Language Skills in Enterprise", and "Talking Sense" (Feely & Winslow 2006).
A theoretical and methodological reframing of these studies, focused on the regional nature of company operations, the historical, political and economic relations between countries and languages, and the practices and processes of everyday operation of the companies, is suggested as a basis for further study.