Knowing your audience and paying careful attention to the language they speak makes good business sense
We communicate across cultures more than ever. The rise of the internet has given us the ability to interact with people far beyond our own borders and experiences. We buy goods online from all corners of the globe and work remotely for companies positioned anywhere on the five continents. We see the same fast-food chains in our shopping centres, we watch the same Netflix shows, we follow the same sports teams, and over 3 billion of us use Facebook monthly.
We’re living in a global village, right?
Well, not quite. Globalisation has its limits and is only one aspect of how we live today. We also have a strong allegiance to our locality – the neighbourhood, town and region where we were born, brought up or live. The language we speak there forms a key element of our identity and for communication to hit the right note, it’s best to talk to us in our favourite tongue.
For businesses trying to connect to a new market, aligning the language with the audience is essential. Sometimes that means using a language variant.
How variants develop
As languages travel, they inevitably develop their own features. Over time these features become more distinct, creating different dialects or variants.
Many of the world’s most spoken languages have numerous variants, which have become recognised forms in their own right. For Spanish, for example, variants now include Columbian Spanish, Peruvian Spanish and Argentinian Spanish.
As a consequence, depending on where your company does business, taking these variants into account is important. We might understand each other more than we ever have but when it comes to certain situations, nuance is crucial.
Why business should adapt to language variants
Mutually intelligible languages have lots of communication advantages.
Brits don’t usually have an issue understanding Americans and vice versa. Apart from the odd word or expression, people from the UK can watch television, travel and generally get along fine in US English. It works just as well the other way around.
The same goes for people from Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America or the residents of Quebec and France. In most situations, they can understand each other perfectly well.
But when it comes to healthcare, legal matters, making a purchase or any other area where detail and precision count, adapting the language to the locality is important. People need to feel comfortable with what they’re reading and hearing – they want to understand everything completely and know that other people communicating with them are on the same wavelength.
It comes down to trust. And building trust is a key driving force behind adapting content to a local market. This is known as localisation.
Color or colour? Voiture or char? Xícara or chávena?
Slight changes in how words are spelt, what they refer to or what expressions mean might not be too significant when you’re watching a movie in another variant of your native language. Equally, small differences in grammar or pronunciation might not hinder your enjoyment of a social media video or stop you from ordering a burger. But in other circumstances, they could prove to be highly inconvenient.
Let’s look at some examples.
Take a Brit shopping for a new pair of trousers online from an American brand. If that brand has decided to cut costs and not localise its e-commerce site for a British market using UK English, the buyer’s search for ‘trousers’ won’t turn up many results. In the US, trousers are referred to as pants, and in the UK, pants are underwear. Not localising the site could mean losing customers.
Marketing in European French for a Quebecois market will also pose difficulties. Confusion could arise over mealtimes (déjeuner is breakfast in Canadian French but lunch in Paris), driving (un char is Quebecois French for car but in Paris would mean a tank) or measurements (depending on what’s being measured, the people of Quebec switch between both metric and old, imperial units). Using Canadian French from the outset will ensure the right message gets delivered.
There are also important differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese. Here, pronunciation is a notable contrast. Brazilians speak with a nasal sound, but in Portugal, vocalisation tends to be more guttural. Consonants and vowels are pronounced differently too. There are also significant variations in vocabulary depending on whether you’re speaking Portuguese in Brazil or Portugal. Abacaxi means pineapple in Brazil, with ananás the preference in Portugal, trem is the word for a train in Brazil, whereas in Portugal it’s comboio and cellular is a mobile phone in Brazil with telemóvel preferred across the ocean.
These are only a few of the many differences found between language variants. Although often slight, any wrong word or mispronunciation will be quickly picked up by audiences who will know instinctively that the content wasn’t made specifically for them.
The decline of standard language?
It was once the common consensus that there was a dominant, standard version of a language and that this was the correct form. British English, for example, or Parisian French. Fortunately, this is less and less the case today and other variants of the world’s dominant languages are now recognised in their own right.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has developed a program devoted to world Englishes which aims to give ‘proportionate and balanced treatment to words from all over the English-speaking world’. Its website features sections on Australian English, Guyanese English and Ugandan English amongst others.
Spoken by around 500 million people, Spanish is an official language in over 20 countries, all with their specific Spanish variants. Arabic, French, German and Chinese also have many millions of speakers and many variations.
Target audience relationship is key
Making sure you speak to your target audience in the right variant of their language is critical. Building a positive relationship with that audience is achieved by helping them feel ‘at home’ on your website and ensuring they see themselves reflected in the content you offer. Language is a major component of any organisation’s connection to its customers and choosing the language they’re most at ease with will have significant advantages.
Language is an important aspect of business expansion into new markets and should be planned for early on. Translation providers like t’works know that only native language translators can truly provide the right words for the right context. Their teams are experts in delivering results-driven content in any language.
If your company invests in localisation, get the most value from your investment by using the best language variant – and the best language services supplier. Contact t’works below to book a consultation.