The Lille School of Management in France is no longer treating English as a foreign language and teaches 50% of post graduate programs in English. Essec, a French Business School in the suburbs of Paris offers MBA programs in English not only because it enables international students to come and study there but also French students to go abroad for assignments. According to one estimate the no. of master’s programs in English has doubled to 3300 programs in 1700 universities all over the world during the last 3 years.

Even in South Korea university education requires attending classes in English. For example the 121 years old Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul is hiring foreign professors and made learning English compulsory in order to equip the students to become global leaders. One of the factors for teaching in English in business schools is because international accreditation requires English to be included in curriculum since late 1990’s. Another factor is attracting foreign students to increase revenue. This trend of course will lead to increased need for tutoring in English and professional translation services for translation of teaching materials from English to local language and vice versa.

The dominance of English in economics, science and technology is slowly creeping into the literature world as well. Even though the share of English in the worldwide publishing industry is diminishing due to growth of literacy in other languages, its share in the translation industry is growing. According to a study, English constituted about 25% of the world publishing industry output and about 40% of the translations in early 1960’s. While its share in the publishing industry fell to 17% in late 1980’s, the share of English in the world of translation exceeded 50%. Thus authors writing in English have much better chance of being translated into other languages as English is the predominant language in the publishing industry.

Translations between languages not involving English are becoming commercially unviable due to volumes of scale. Only writings in English have greater chance of reaching worldwide audience. The English dominance may result in the best works being limited to that language alone. The translation industry has chances of becoming polarized into English into other languages and vice versa. Also it may become harder and harder to find translators for document translation from and to other languages if English dominance continues in the publishing world.

Old English is said have been a collection of diverse dialects spoken by the Anglo Saxon kingdoms of England. The English language has undergone several linguistic shifts due to many invasions of England notably by the Scandinavians and the Normans. The influence on the language by diverse cultures of the world has continued over the years and has helped in enriching the language. Initially English language borrowed heavily from Latin, Norman and Norse spoken at that time.

During the course of evolution of old English into modern English, new words were added largely from French, Latin and to a lesser extent Greek. With changing political climate, English as we know today came into being around 13^th century AD when it became the official language of the parliament in England. Modern English evolved much later in 18th century with the release of the first comprehensive dictionary of the language by Samuel Johnson. Since then with the rise of the British Empire covering nearly a quarter of the Earth’s surface, English continued to grow in vocabulary freely adopting words from the native tongues of the colonies.

The industrial evolution of the 18^th century further added momentum to the expansion of the English language vocabulary. Many technical terms were added to the language at that time and its domination in science and technology arena continues even today. The economic might of UK in the first half of the 20^th century and the US in the second half has in no small measure contributed to the growth of English as an international language.

The spread of English language throughout the world can be divided broadly into 3 zones: the core or the inner circle consists of countries like UK, USA, parts of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, some islands of the Caribbean where the majority speak it as their mother tongue; the second zone are the other Common Wealth countries including the Indian subcontinent, some African countries, Philippines etc. where English had a great influence in the administration and is widely understood among the people as a second language and the third are the rest of the world where English does not have much influence but nevertheless people are learning the language to do business internationally and English is filling the role of lingua franca.

It is the 3^rd zone of countries mentioned above that has great need for professional translation services particularly related to business. But the initiative chiefly from the governments encouraging development and use of the local languages for official purposes in the countries in the 2^nd zone augurs well for the future of translation agencies.

Over the last century or so, English has become the dominant language of business primarily due to the influence of British rule in the Commonwealth countries and emergence of US as economic superpower. Since World War II the influence of French has gradually waned being displaced by English. English is the primary language of over 400 million people across the world in addition to being the second language to millions more. The geographical spread of the English language is one of the factors for its domination.

It is the official language of the aviation world, being used for controlling airplane flights – landing, take off etc. English dominates science and technology, economics and finance at present. It is estimated that about 70% of the content in the internet is in English. With such domination, it is no wonder that professional translation services are more tuned towards English to something and vice versa rather than between languages not involving English.

But it is not that other languages are dying or facing extinction. French continues to be the language of choice of the nouveaux riches and remains fashionable in certain circles. The popularity of Chinese and Japanese is on the rise with more countries wanting to do business with them. Thus translation agencies will continue to play important role in facilitating conduct of business between peoples of different countries.

With wide geographical spread, English has adapted itself to local culture and tastes. Thus we do not have ‘the English’ but several versions of the same. We have British version, American version, Australian version, African version, Indian version etc. all influenced by local culture and language. Modern English has freely borrowed words from French, Hindi; Arabic, Afrikaans etc. and has in turn enriched itself.

How English has evolved over the years to become International language of business and brought many disparate language speaking communities together by becoming the lingua franca is the subject matter of another blog.

Translation has become very important for small business that are trying to increase their client database and attempting to get a foothold in the industry. The reason behind the importance of translators in the small business industry is due to reason that to get noticed by the global customers and compete in the market where the price margins are very close you need to reach out to more number of people then your competitors. If your competitors are able to sell their products to customers comprehending a foreign language only then you must translate your business profile on the internet in that particular language to gather their attention. Otherwise, your competitors will grab a foothold in that particular market without facing any kind of competition from you and you will probably loose out on a huge client database.

Apart from the internet, other forms of written media too have become important part of advertising in the modern world. The principle objective remains the same for the small businesses; it is the effort to reach out to a more diverse customer database by approaching the clients in their local dialect. Big brands are quite well known and sometimes only the logo of the company works wonders and they do not have to regionalize their advertisements for the general masses. However, for small businesses it is important that they reach out to more and more and customers by informing them about their products and about their organizations themselves. This is possible only if the small businesses advertise their product in the local dialect.

Translation services have thus become very important for the small businesses. The application of these translations has been more on the online advertising system than anywhere else. Finding the proper translator having profound knowledge about not only the local language, but also about the product that you are selling is very difficult to find. However, since the importance of such translations became evident, more and more persons have opted for a career in this field as translators who have gained expertise in promoting small business on the internet in the local dialect.

Small business websites today offer the option of multilingual interface. You will find that many such small business websites today offer many international languages as options on their websites so that customers do not have to face problems while trying to place their orders or understanding the product and organization description. With more and more small businesses are opting for advertising their product on the internet in multilingual formats the scope of translators working on the internet and other media formats for these small businesses is surely going to flourish.

1. Use the recipient’s correct title. In many countries – like France, Germany, Spain, China and Japan – you should use a proper polite title. Sometimes you should refer to the person using the third-person form. Use professional titles such as Dr., Prof., etc. where relevant.
2. Use the correct greeting. In some cultures, greetings are longer than a short “How are you?”.
3. Introduce your company and yourself. In many cultures business is done only after a deep and intimate introduction. If you skip this part when you approach the recipient for the first time, you may miss the whole opportunity.
4. Write short, simple sentences. This helps the message to be fully understood by the reader. This is important whether or not you translate your letter to the native language of the recipient.
5. Avoid idioms and slang language. They will not be understood by most people outside your country.
6. Do not refuse requests directly, and avoid criticism in emails or letters.
7. End your letters and emails properly.
8. Where possible, send the letter or email in the recipient’s native language. This shows that you respect and care for their language and culture. Using the recipient’s native language will usually be accepted very positively and will usually reduce cultural gaps or potential misunderstandings.
9. Use only native-speaking translators. The recipient will know immediately if the translator is not a native speaker of his or her target language. Avoid using machine translation (like Google Translate or Yahoo’s Babel Fish): automatic translation is still very far from producing an acceptable result. In many cases, it can completely distort the original meaning.
10. If possible, use an independent proofreader who is also a native speaker of the target language: two pairs of eyes are always better than one. The proofreader can review the style, fix any typos and ensure the translation is perfect.

Then again, in contrast to what many westerners think, it’s not the world’s most widely spoken language any longer. Chinese, Arabic, French, and Spanish share the throne with English as languages that the majority of the planet understands.

On that note, in the world of commerce, it has become a prerequisite to use business translators—professional translation experts that can do extensive translation services between people of differing languages and cultures—to conduct deals, contracts, and correspondences.

Reasons for Using Translators

Even though a lot of businessmen share a common language, using translators as their personal human translation assistants is still preferable to them for a number of important reasons. To be more specific, they provide the following benefits:

• As trained professional translation experts, translators are responsible for guaranteeing that communication between two or more parties is as comprehensible and unambiguous as humanly possible.

• A translation service agent allows you to communicate your message in a better and briefer manner. That’s the true essence of having a “human translation” agency; comprehensibility without limiting your own ability to communicate.

• A translator helps decrease the chances for misunderstandings, faux pas, breaches in local etiquette, and other unknowable cultural gaffes. They can also assist in avoiding cross-cultural disparities because they serve as guides during such issues.

• A translator can help you formulate the best responses or answers, especially when undergoing business negotiations.

• A sufficiently briefed and perceptive translator can even assist you in company presentations by using his linguistic expertise to help you communicate your proposal or plan better.

Translator Guidelines

To make good use of your translator, you’ll first have to consider several crucial rules and recommendations prior to actually utilizing his translation and interpretation services:

• Brief your translator about who, what, when, and where you’ll be corresponding for a business deal or negotiation. Tell him the potential awkward situations that may occur, the terminology that will be used, the matters that will be discussed, and who you’re meeting with (their nationality, the language that they know, where they come from, and so forth).

• Tell your translator during the briefing period your goals for your upcoming presentation; don’t keep him in the dark on what strategy you will use to get the upper hand in the ensuing negotiations. Outline your translator’s agenda as well.

• If you’re about to do some public speaking, it’s prudent to ask your translator if he understands the terminology and language being used in the speech you want to be translated.

In any case, the best way to fully utilize translators is to view them as more than just linguistic assistants. They are actually more like valued partners who’ll work with you to overcome the language barrier by giving recommendations on cross-cultural differences, formulating business strategies, and helping in many other areas such as organization.

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