A gif about the difficulties of translation and difference of culture

Lost in Translation

Posted on: 21 August, 23

This month Oury and Clark ponder whether technology one day, will not just translate the words, but the body language and cultural nuance. Could all disagreements, and even world peace be achieved if we all understood each other fully, and didn’t get very irritable with the other person’s inability to know how to apologise a lot? (sorry)

clark intrigued

Bonjour Oury, comment ça va?

oury confusion

Are you alright Clark? Have you had a bang to the head?

clark laugh

Non! Je suis practising my French, we’ve got a new client coming over for a meeting next week.

oury uncertain

When you say practising…?

clark blush

I mean learning obviously, I haven’t spoken a word of it since school.

oury positive

Ah, you might be better off not trying to mangle the language and putting a bit of time into understanding the business culture, or at least getting some pointers, people even have different business body language.

clark worried

That sounds difficult!

oury rolls_eyes

Not as difficult as trying to learn a new language in a week.

clark angry

Fair point, do you know anyone who can help?

oury normal

Well, unless you happen to have some snazzy AI glasses, you could try talking to one of our Firm Friends network – you know the nice people we met up with in Ireland recently. They are people we work with all over the world, and you can usually find one of them who can answer your questions or help connect you with someone who can.

clark embarrassment

Of course Oury, must have been that second pint of Guinness, it slipped my mind.

oury laugh
Second pint? I think you had rather more than that.
clark normal
oury positive

I’ll let you off then. Talking of different business cultures, John Stapleton gave us some fascinating insights into that (and so much more) on one of our latest podcasts.

clark positive

Thanks for the tip Oury, I’ll give it a listen, now I don’t have to listen to my old school French lessons, though I suppose they might come in handy for my holiday in France this summer.

oury blow_kiss

Bon chance et bon vacance Clark

clark blow_kiss

Toodle pip Oury and thank you, I think!

Disclaimer

We are but two fictitious characters throwing out ideas and comment to stimulate debate and collect information. As professional service firms, we are open-minded people and think independent thought and debate are essential to help us understand as well as navigate complex problems. By joves – doing business across Europe (and the world) is set to become a whole lot more complex in light of recent seismic political events. As businesses – we provide information and hopefully some wisdom – and we see this blog and its caricatures merely as a much more fun, perhaps slightly controversial, way of stimulating debate and collecting ideas. We’re searching for some true pearls of wisdom, and as we find them, we’ll share them with you.

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