Building bridges in Vancouver

The influx of Asian and other immigrants into Vancouver, British Columbia, has set one thing straight for Canadian companies: Ethnic diversity is impo rtant to both customers and employees. Companies in Vancouver are learning how to be sensitive to the needs of these "New Canadians." According to the Council of Ministers of Education, online learning is a major key. Vancouverites don't rely just on online learning to understand all of the p articulars of living and working in a diverse community, but by using techn ology, they are learning how to benefit from the various cultures represent ed in this "model global village." Indeed, when Canadian companies talk abo ut multiculturalism, they're talking about a population that includes Chine se, Indo-Canadian, Korean, Japanese, and Filipino. There's a saying regardi ng New Canadians: Welcome to Canada, be yourself. Vancouver's multicultural environment offers unique opportunities for compa nies interested in globalization. Systems are now being built that manage d ynamic content in multiple languages and then personalize the content for d ifferent cultures. And that's especially important for learning and human i nteraction.