Listening / Writing jouranal

There was a lecture from schulich school last Tuesday. The topic of the lecture was " Financial
Reporting as a communications tool in a global context ". The professor explained us this topic in a figurative expression. In other word, language used as a metaphor for explaining accounting standards. He said to us that accounting have some common standards like a grammar in English. Because of grammar, we can easily communicate with others no matter how it may complicate. However, like all of countries have different cultures, some words may mean different thing in different country. For example, In US, liability is the amount of money that a person or company owes, in the other hand, In UK, they called it creditor with the same meaning. Therefore, a certain news could be good and bad in two different countries. Also, Even when using the same GAAP(Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), financial information still requires cultural context to establish meaning.

He taught us about cultural context behind debt. North American companies are generally financed with equity, and therefore have low-to-moderate debt. In contrast, Japanese firms have high-to-moderate debt because they usually have a banker on the broad with access to insider information and with a longer horizon, therefore they can tolerate greater risk. Because of different economic circumstances, the view of treating debt could be different between two countries. Also, he mentioned us about accounting regulation. US CEO earns about 600times the average worker's wage, while a Japanese CEO earns only 20 times. Because, different economic and cultural forces regulate accounting in different jurisdictions.

This lecture was very good opportunity for me. The professor explained us quite clear and proper tone of voice, and he prepared such a good context and material. Also, He gave us much time to discuss with neighbor whenever one sub-topic finish. The most attractive factor of the lecture was that he gave us lots of examples, and he compared north America's culture and Japanese culture for explaining different economic words. All in all, it was really helpful and useful for me, therefore, If I have any other opportunity to attend this kind of lecture, I would participate in that lecture. *^^*