Why Translation Tools Fail to Build Cross Cultural Relationships

As society becomes increasingly integrated, being able to effectively communicate across boarders has become more important than ever. Language barriers within businesses can be tricky to navigate, but translation tools have massively helped to make this a simpler process. However, while these tools are excellent at translating words directly, they hugely miss the mark when translating the overall meaning and message, which cannot always be detected.

Tools, such as Google Translate, are unable to pick up on subtle meanings or cultural nuances that often lead to misunderstandings and grammatical errors. In fact, Google Translate can result in significant mistakes, with around 15% of its content being translated incorrectly, making it an unreliable source.

In this blog, we’ll explore why translator tools are unable to successfully build cross cultural business partnerships, and the valuable role real-time interpretation tools, like emotii, can play instead.

Translation is more than just words

Translation tools are great for translating word-by-word, but generally, you need more than just stand alone words to carry out a meeting. For example, idioms play a huge role in adding depth and authenticity to a conversation and often, there won’t be a direct translation for these phrases. Cultural nuances and idioms are important in business as they help to better convey meaning, build rapport and establish a common ground.

Certain expressions rely on knowing the customs and shared experiences of a country to understand the deeper meaning. As language continues to develop, new expressions and colloquial phrases emerge constantly, which cannot be captured through a translator tool.

Cultural context

A huge part of successfully translating is the unspoken historical context. A lot of commonly used sayings and jokes heavily rely on an understanding of a country’s past, which may come across as confusing or offensive when translated directly into another language.

The miscommunication arises when the words are taken too literally by translation tools and miss out important cultural context. For example, the Spanish phrase ‘dar el callo’ means ‘to work hard’ in English. However, if translated word-by-word it would actually mean ‘to give the callus’. Historically, the origin of this phrase comes from when peasants carried out repetitive manual labour, that often caused calluses from the repeated use of their tools. It was thought that the harder you worked, the more calluses you would have. This is just one of many examples where interpretation and knowledge of a country’s history is imperative to understanding the message.

The need for human interaction

When people communicate, they want to feel heard and respected. 55% of all communication is through body language alone, which increases the need for correct interpretation when people are not communicating in person.

Translation tools are unable to identify the intent behind certain words and can struggle to portray professionalism or urgency of a message, which is why interpretation of language is paramount to understanding the true meaning. Developing an understanding between one another is a large part of successful communication and key to growing internationally.

Final thoughts

While translation tools have indeed contributed to the significant progress in creating cross-cultural relationships, they still fall short of delivering genuine connection and successful business partnerships. Put simply, language is more than just words and it is important to factor in culture, history and colloquial context when interpreting someone’s message.

Although translation tools are useful for translating words, they cannot convey the overall meaning. Real-time interpretation tools, like emotii, allow businesses to take their global communication to the next level, with advanced features that include tone customisation, and seamless integration capabilities, make it easier than ever to communicate effectively in 126 different languages.

To find out more and to improve your cultural communications, download emotii today.

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