We Don’t Need Translation, We Only Use English.

At most popular international tourist destinations you will meet people who speak English. In fact, many international airports have signs in multiple languages and travel maps and guidebooks are most often available in English.

English after all is the universal language, right?

“English is perceived by many people as the universal language because of the former influence of the British Empire and the current influence of American political and economic hegemony,” says a recent article of the Max Plank Institute for Psycholinguistics.

Learning “Business English” has become a priority for top companies who want to maintain their competitive edge. Companies like Daimler-Chrysler, Nokia and Microsoft mandate English language skills as an employment prerequisite. The reported percentages vary, but on average over 80% of global companies say English is needed in business.

“One reason English is the dominant language of business and of the Internet is that it is the native language in more than 60 nations, and increasingly the official secondary language elsewhere,” as quoted in Research Gate in an article entitled Why is English the dominant language of business?

But do all of your clients speak English?

At a recent trade show, a Magnum Group executive asked an International Sales Manager of a pharmaceutical company with offices in over 50 countries if he had translated collateral sales materials. His response, “We don’t need to translate, we only use English.” Hmm, really? This salesperson might think that’s true since some companies are decentralized and might not know how other divisions handle translations.

But can you reach a wide audience in every global market if your brochures, website and promotional videos are only in English?

“There is a general tendency to disregard the relevance of cultural nuance when creating content for consumers in foreign markets,” says Vivian Isaak, President of Magnum Group.

Magnum Group published a case study outlining the results of a localization project for a leading US manufacturer of pharmaceutical packaging components and delivery systems for injectable drugs with operations in over 50 foreign markets. To enable growth and to communicate with global manufacturing sites and the growing number of global clients, it became clear that English was not enough. Most employees outside the US in Europe had and still have a limited command of English.

As part of their global expansion, the client decided to translate materials to meet the various challenges of functional departments such as HR (compliance as a global employer), marketing (global market expansion) and PR/Communications (local community involvement, outreach, etc.), Magnum translated the company’s global website (including periodic updates, employee manuals, brochures, highly technical data sheets, product catalogs, Code of Business Conduct, newsletter, and employee surveys from English into the company’s eleven other official languages: Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, French, Dutch, Danish, Serbian, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian.

The result: our client was able to ensure strategic and effective communications across all platforms by adapting their content and brand to the voice of every region in every market.

Imagine if they had used only English!

We would like to hear from you. Give us your feedback. visaak@magnumgroupinc.com