Language Barriers in Business – Don’t Let Them Stand in the Way!

In our globalized economy interacting with partners, remote team members, and potential clients around the world is the new standard. Language interdependency is more vital to business than ever before! From small businesses to multinational corporations, companies of every size and across every industry need to ensure language barriers are not an obstacle to new markets.

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Existing research demonstrates that language barriers impact a broad spectrum of business outcomes including knowledge processing in multinational teams, employee productivity and morale, marketing and public relations, customer interactions, and revenue. So, what are companies doing to overcome these types of barriers and move forward in a language-interdependent reality?

Below, we’ve explored some common types of language barriers and their impact on business outcomes as well as some strategies for overcoming them in real and meaningful ways. For further information about integrated language services that can be fully customized to the needs of your industry, contact CanTalk today and we’ll get your business talking!

Types Of Language Barriers

The two main types of language barriers that exist in business settings are linguistic (what some researchers have referred to as evident language barriers) and cultural (sometimes referred to as hidden language barriers).

Linguistic language barriers are centred around a lack of language skills and proficiency. Miscommunications may occur and relationship-building opportunities are likely to be lost as a result of the fact that business partners, team members, and/or customers cannot effectively speak or write in a common language. Examples of linguistic language barriers within a company include:

• Customers are lost because of frustration resulting from language-based miscommunication.
• Team cohesion is fractured by a leader who doesn’t communicate effectively in the local language of their employees.

Cultural barriers are rooted in a lack of understanding or awareness of cultural differences, nuances, and norms. They are closely tied to linguistic barriers and examples may include:

• A potential partner perceiving representatives of a company as insensitive or offensive due to culturally inappropriate word choices during a crucial meeting or presentation.
• Marketing campaigns that miss the mark because they do not reflect the cultural realities of the target audience.

The Impact Of Language Barriers

From day-to-day miscommunications to the alienation of team members and customers, brand identity damage, and the loss of major opportunities and revenue potential, language barriers in business settings can lead to a wide variety of detrimental outcomes. Today, effectively capitalizing on the global marketplace means building a business model where language sensitivity is key to product development.

Whether your company is looking to improve the overall language skills of its team members or build a comprehensive global communication strategy from the ground up, there are many ways to be proactive about overcoming language barriers. Let’s take a closer look:

How To Overcome Language Barriers

Language Classes

In today’s global economy, multilingual employees are in high demand. To that end, companies of all sizes are investing in language training programs for their personnel and incorporating language learning into their business models and company culture. Language acquisition empowers team members at all corporate levels and has been shown to boost job performance across a wide cross-section of industries.

Visual Communication

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words and nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to breaking down language barriers in business settings. From meetings and presentations to training manuals and reports, written words in a foreign language can take on new meaning and relevance when accompanied by effective diagrams, pictures, and other visual cues. Focusing on visuals is one of the simplest and most effective ways to quickly improve communication and overcome language barriers. How can your company incorporate more visual aspects into its communications and processes?

Cultural Knowledge

Understanding how to respectfully and effectively communicate with employees and/or customers from a diverse array of cultural backgrounds is fundamental to successful business building in 2024. Culture has a significant impact on the way people interact and it is crucial for managers, customer service representatives, and team members across all departments to recognize the value in customs and work styles that may vary from what they are used to.

Cultural barriers often go hand in hand with language barriers. They can be equally detrimental and must be overcome with the same intentionality and openness. At CanTalk, our trusted localization services offer an excellent starting point for businesses looking to prioritize cultural knowledge in the workplace environment.

Hire A Professional

For language barriers of a larger scope or more complex nature than companies can effectively handle on their own, professional language service providers can offer strategic solutions. From immediate over-the-phone interpretation services in more than 220 languages to call centre services, in-person or VRI remote interpretation, translation services, localization services, and much more, CanTalk draws on its more than 25 years of language industry leadership to partner with businesses and offer streamlined and innovative language solutions tailored precisely to their needs.

Conclusion

If your business is expanding into international markets, developing overseas business relations, or serving a multilingual customer base, CanTalk’s customized global service for businesses, World Ways, can get you talking like never before. To learn more about overcoming language barriers with our cutting-edge interpretation and translation services, contact our dedicated team at CanTalk directly today!