Lost in Translation...Everyone wants to be found

One good thing about my work is that it involves interaction with many people, mostly from different parts of the world. So I have worked with Americans, Chinese, Malaysians, Australians, Europeans and Indians.

English being a Universal Language and the Language of Business, the predominance of the English language on almost every level of international communication is well established. Being a non-native English speaker, I have no objection to this. In fact its quite fun, when non-native speaks English.

The influence of the native language on their English communication is quite evident. And most of them use language translation software. This is where the fun starts. When a non-native speaker of a language translates something there is always a danger of getting it nearly right but very wrong.

As most of the communication happens through e-mail, few mails would make Wren and Martin turn in their graves. E-mails are still OK; you can re-read them until it makes some sense. The real fun begins when you are in a conf call.

I once asked a French guy to repeat what he said at least 5 times, still I couldn't’t understand what he meant. I had no option but to say "Ah, Got it". In conf. calls there's lot of "Pardon me", "Can you repeat please?", "Can you come again?", "Sorry, I did’t understand”. Sometimes the situation become so funny, you have no option but to put the speaker on mute and laugh.

One thing that stands out is though, you don’t have to be grammatically correct to your point across. A few words can say a great deal.