Conducting Business in Foreign Territories

There are 6,809 languages in the world, give or take a few. These are spoken in the world’s 196 official countries. There’s business conducted in each of these countries, even the smallest, Vatican City. By definition, conducting business relies upon the exchange of ideas, through words and numbers. It’s no surprise, then, that much of that business is conducted in a foreign language.

In today’s increasingly global economy, the need to communicate clearly, across borders, relies upon a clear understanding of non-domestic languages. From the largest corporations to the smallest firms, the very business of business inevitably ensures that contact with a foreign firm will be necessary. Each firm’s ultimate success often rests upon the speed and accuracy of their respective foreign language communications.

Yet companies – and their staffing suppliers – may have a blind spot when it comes to filling positions that require foreign language expertise. There is quite often an ingrained partiality toward hiring someone fluent in a particular language, when complete fluency isn’t truly necessary. This may provide an area of opportunity for suppliers who can recognize, market and fulfill this need for foreign language competency.

When responding to a request for candidates who have skill in a particular language, it’s important to determine whether complete fluency or conversational fluency is necessary. Complete fluency includes the ability to read and write another language with unfailing accuracy. Conversational fluency is the ability to simply converse in another language, well enough to be understood and understand, but without the precision inferred by complete fluency. There are many times when a recruiter requests fluency without specifying which type is needed. This may represent a lost opportunity if you don’t help them make the distinction.

For instance, if your client requires an employee who needs to converse about vast sums of money traded on an international basis, complete fluency is certainly required. If, however, the need is to discuss the purchase and shipment of manufacturing parts, where the critical information is communicated through engineering drawings, then conversational fluency may be all that is required. In most populations, there are far more people who are fluent conversationally than are fully fluent in another language. This gives you a far greater pool in which to search for potential candidates.

This distinction can open up a vast business opportunity for your firm. When recruiting new candidates, you can rate each candidate’s foreign language fluency, providing another criteria to use when sorting and recommending prospects. Don’t forget to re-interview your current talent pool to locate hidden language fluency. When marketing your services to current and new clients, you’ll have a new and often unique advantage: the ability to provide a conversationally fluent employee for a salary that is often less than what would be commanded by a fully fluent employee.

While technology is making the world seem to be a lot smaller and homogenous, our vast network of languages ensures that some distinct cultural differences will continue to exist. By tapping into this ever-growing need for cross-cultural communication, you can position your firm for current needs and future growth. Pac fat! Zorte on! Held og lykke! Bon astre! Good luck!