Re: Business communiction with China

From: Steve Phariss <sphariss_at_libertywebworks.com>
Date: Fri 17 May 2002 23:52:49 -0600

Mark,
Thank you for your message, there is a lot to think about and in many
situations is correct.
First off it was a simple one time purchase of a product, if and when we
make larger purchases from them a contract may be required. Secondly,
all the initial contacts where in english (granted it was a bit broken,
hence the need to do a little translation for the finer points), the
website gave little indication that there might be a language problem
(the address was a .com, the english on the site was as good any US
company). Bablefish did a pretty decent translation actually according
to the contact, the problem was that it was in a dialect that was a LOT
diffrent then is commonaly in use in Outer Mongolia, a secratary on
staff WAS able to read the emails with no real problem. The contact was
very appriciative of the attempt and slipped in a little bit more
product due to it.

I can appriciate that the there is more to the world the the US or even
North America, but the fact is that most of the world DOES at least
have an English curriculem in "school" and, for this point in history at
least, English is just as valid a language as any other. I know it is
the "IN" thing right now to hate the US (and by association all that is
English), but that does not mean that the common language has to be
somthing other then English.

 From what I gather, language in China is not as simple as it is in
North America. at least I can be understood and understand someone from
most english speaking areas, China has more then one language and even
the diffrent villages in the same area can have rather signifigent
language barriers.

I agree for some kind of large supply contract a translator is a
nessecity, in this case both parties where happy and we have made a new
friend in China. Bablefish might not be perfect, but it is a tool.
 like any other tool, it's use needs to be weighd by it's effectivness.

Steve Phariss







Received on Sat May 18 2002 - 00:52:49 CDT