Essay on International Business

International trade involves the exchange of goods and services across international borders. Therefore, it means interacting with people of different ethnicities and nationalities who speak their native language, unfamiliar with the buyer and the seller. The language barrier is a significant problem with international trade, and failure to find ways to bridge the language gaps may lead to losses, miscommunication, conflict, and stained relationships. Technology continues to make comfortable all sectors of life, and International commerce has significantly benefited from translating tools. Translation tools are computer software developed to help optimize the translation process and improve the quality of translations. The translation tools are essential for international business because they allow buyers and sellers to translate written and spoken words into languages they understand. The translation tools include Google Translate, Linguee, and SDL Trados Studio, among others.

Google Translate

Google Translate is a free multilingual translation machine developed by Google. The neural translator can translate websites and texts from one language to another. The translator provides a mobile App, iOS, website interface, and an application programming interface that helps developers make software applications and browser extensions (Christensen and Schjoldager, 2016). The translator can translate texts in nine hundred and nine languages with a total translation of one hundred billion words daily. The tool can also translate whole sentences instead of bits by bits, which is time-consuming.

The tool can translate documents uploaded by users in PDFs, ppt, RTF, xlsx, Doc, Docx, and Odf. The tool also offers speech translation to translate spoken language into the foreign language of choice. The translator provides instant translations in the “Tap to Translate” feature that allows users to use Mobile Apps without switching or exiting. Google translator can translate images where it identifies texts in pictures taken by the users and instantly translates text by images (Christensen and Schjoldager, 2016). Handwritten translations are also possible in the Google Translator and allow users to translate handwritten texts on the screen/virtual keyboard without using the keyboard.

However, the tool cannot provide the structure, correct grammar, and context of the texts and makes many mistakes. The tool cannot always give the original texts’ real meaning because it translates the texts to the nearest English then proceeds to translate to the selected languages (Christensen and Schjoldager, 2016). The Google translator cannot provide quality control in that mistakes made by the tool cannot be reported.

Linguee

The tool is an online bilingual translation tool that provides users with an online dictionary for various pairs of languages and bilingual sentence pairs. The tool can give quality evaluation since the tool has a human-trained machine that learns algorithm and estimates the translated texts’ quality (Christensen and Schjoldager, 2016). The tool also allows users to set the number of pairs they need using a fuzzy search. Also, the tool enables users to manually rate translations to allow continuous training of the translating machine. However, unlike Google translate, the machine cannot translate speeches, documents, and images.

SDL Trados Studio

The translation tool is computed assisted and gets considered as the market leader. The software is best in providing translations across the whole translation supply chain. The tool also offers freelance translators, academic institutions, corporate language departments, and language service providers (Christensen and Schjoldager, 2016). The tool gives users an unlimited environment to review and edit translations, organize terminologies, connect to machine translation and manage translation projects, which Google Translate and Linguee cannot. The tool also allows for editing, adding, and managing terms. The tool also offers task automation and additional file formats via the SDL Appstore. Like Google Translate, the tool supports seventy different types of files formats such as XLIFF, HTML, SDLXLIFF, source codes such as Microsoft and Java, and some Adobe formats such as scanned Pdf, InCopy, and InDesign (Christensen and Schjoldager, 2016).

The various tools would help businesses provide product descriptions to buyers and sellers in languages they understand. Product description is essential in international business because it involves exchanging goods and services from various manufacturers of different origins. The translation tools also help translate agreement documents such as contracts that mostly get used in international business (Tompos, 2015). Traders cannot sign the documents without understanding the terms and conditions of the agreements crucial for peaceful, fair and informed transactions. Buyers need to understand the seller’s language, which enhances communication making them more comfortable to buy specific products making a global business prosper.

In business and real life, communication forms the basis of social interactions and sometimes, miscommunications occur in translation. Every language has a defined structure and agreed on rules. The singularity or complexity of the structure is directly proportional to the difficulty of translation the specific language which may cause miscommunications. Every language’s structure is unique, and the array of verbs, subjects, and objects differ, which gets lost in translation, confusing the reader (Tompos, 2015). Also, idiomatic expressions provide a unique way of explaining things and act as figures of speech. One figure of speech in one language can get translated into a completely different meaning by literal definitions losing the original intention and meaning in the translated texts. One language may lack exact matches for specific objects or actions, but the same exists in another language, conveying the wrong message once the words get replaced or omitted.

Application

When conducting business overseas, one must have in mind the country’s cultural, legal and financial state in question. Overcoming language barriers is the most challenging and requires various techniques, especially when communicating in a non-native language. Business people should narrow down their markets by examining the advantages of expanding one’s market in a particular country (Abayadeera et al., 2018). Business owners must show respect by knowing the language spoken in the respective country. Knowing these languages allows one to learn phrases that help with successful marketing campaigns. Knowing the language shows admiration and respect since one has taken the time to learn the language and understand various local customs.

Surveys are essential in international business, helping companies steepen the learning curves and avoid tragic mistakes by depending on local experts. Companies can also seek international brand providers’ feedback through online surveys via Google Forms, Wufoo or Qualtrics. Hiring an interpreter is also an essential practice that allows one to find a trusted individual that gives feedback and interactions to one’s team members in the local language. Translators are available via the American Translators Association and the Federation of Translators. Business people should avoid slang, idioms and jargon, which confuses since they may be unfamiliar to the local populations (Abayadeera et al., 2018). The use of formal and straightforward English is recommended to avoid looking like a stranger to people meant to grow your brand. Virtual communication is also a powerful tool to use in international business since all humans are virtual learners. Use of pictures to convey messages, assignments and instructions through cue cards, signs and visual aids makes it easy to communicate to the local people rather than texts which may contain unfamiliar contexts.

References

Abayadeera, N., Mihret, D. G., & Hewa Dulige, J. (2018). Teaching effectiveness of non-native English-speaking teachers in business disciplines: intercultural communication apprehension and ethnocentrism. Accounting Education, 27(2), 183-207.

Christensen, T. P., & Schjoldager, A. (2016). Computer-aided translation tools–the uptake and use by Danish translation service providers. The Journal of Specialised Translation, 25, 89-105.

Tompos, A. (2015). Miscommunication during international negotiations: how much do cross-cultural differences and foreign language knowledge matter?. Tompos, A, 751-759.