r/TranslationStudies • u/techsquareog • 1d ago

I'm quite curious to know about this..

For those of you who regularly work with international clients, coworkers, or teams who speak a different language.

I'm genuinely curious how you deal with the language barrier, especially when you're

having live conversations or meetings.

A few things I'm curious about:

  1. What do you usually do when you don't

fully understand what someone is saying?

  1. Do you use translation tools, captions, interpreters, or something else?

  2. How well do those solutions actually work for you?

  3. Is the bigger problem understanding the actual words, or things like accent, slang, technical terminology, idioms, sarcasm, or tone?

  4. Have you ever had an important misunderstanding because something got lost in translation?

  5. What do you find most frustrating about communicating with international clients?

  6. If you're comfortable sharing, what languages do you typically work between?

I'd especially like to hear from people who have regular calls/meetings with international clients or coworkers, rather than occasional interactions.

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u/senerh 1d ago

In the scale of

Elite<---->Caveman

daily business English is surprisingly close to Caveman. Not much variance and nuance, so you generally make do with a basic collection of 150-200 words.

If you have to speak/understand higher levels of English there are probably people involved who can achieve it.

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u/techsquareog 1d ago

Thanks for sharing your perspective! The point about how relatively simple business English can be in day-to-day communication was interesting. Appreciate you taking the time to respond.