Foreign languages and business culture could be major sinus headache relief for British exporters, yet surprisingly few companies employ in-house linguists and several have no system in position to deal with commercial enquiries in a language. Of course, many British export managers declare that most business is conducted in English anyway. However, in today’s global market such a myopic approach to international trade could cost them a lot more than they think. For today the power of the Internet makes it possible for exporters to achieve previously unattainable customers in far-flung elements of the world, and businesses that have had the foresight to have their website translated into the languages spoken in their target marketplaces or better still localized (translated AND culturally adapted), are reaping the advantages big-time.

To see how you measure up with regards to foreign languages, why not try the next quick multi-lingual quiz, first published in an edition of Director magazine.

FRENCH

Donnez-moi vos coordonns et je vous lenvoie tout de suite. 1. Tell me your address and I will send you a whole set. 2. Give me your details and I will have it to you at once. 3. Give me your tailors address: I envy you your suit. 4. Lets co-ordinate this and Ill send you the complete suite.

Nous respectons toujours les dlais de livraison. 1. We always respect delivery delays. 2. We carry out our deliveries by relay. 3. We always meet our delivery dates. 4. We now have late deliveries every day.

GERMAN

Wir liefern frei Haus innerhalb Englands. 1. We deliver free houses in England. 2. We run free houses in England. 3. We ran free around England. 4. We do free delivery within England.

Bei dieser Menge kann ich Ihnen einen guten Rabatt anbieten. 1. I can give you a good discount on that quantity. 2. In a place like that you can always find your way. 3. Would you like good quality rabbit in that mixture? 4. I could enable you to get an excellent rebate.

SPANISH

Les presento un equipo muy competente. 1. Allow me to present you with a really competitive machine. 2. Id like to provide you with an extremely competent piece of equipment. 3. Id prefer to introduce an extremely fine piece of equipment. 4. Let me expose you to a really competent team.

Vamos a aprobar el acta de la reunin anterior. 1. We approve of the actions of the previous board. 2. Let us approve the minutes of the last meeting. 3. We are going to test what of the last meeting. 4. Lets go and act out the prior reunion.