When you present to an international audience

Think about how your multicultural audience looks at graphics. For example, in this image, to Australian eyes the message is that the magic pill relieves pain and make a sick patient happy. This is because Westerners read from left to right.

But people who read from right to left (for example, speakers of Arabic and Hebrew, and some older Chinese and Japanese) will understand that your magic pill makes a happy person sick!

Also consider how your audience writes numbers, dates, and currency. Perhap they write the date with the year first, rather than last. Test yourself: which countries write currency using these formats?

a. $17.20

b. $17,20

c. $17.2

d. 17,20$

(a. Australia and U.S., b. France, c. Hong Kong, d. Germany)