How Language Barriers Affect Cross-border Trade

◎杨秀兰

How Language Barriers Affect Cross-border Trade

◎杨秀兰

The issue of language barriers on cross-border trade really exists in many countries. But how do they affect it? Firstly, language barriers present great obstacles to the communications of cross-border trade. Secondly, not only do language barriers cause some losses to companies, but they also cause some unknown expectation, misunderstanding and great obstacles in trading. Therefore, it is urgent to eliminate obstacles of language on cross-border trade.

Language Barriers a clear definition of language barriers is needed. People need language for any kind of communication, even if sometimes people communicate by body language and sign language. Communication becomes difficult when people don't understand each others' language. The inability to communicate using a language is known as language barrier to communication. Language barriers are the most common communication barriers which cause misunderstandings and misinterpretations between people. If people (the speaker and receiver) do not use same language and words, there is no meaning to the communication. Not using the words that other person understands makes the communication ineffective and prevents message from being conveyed.

Cross-border trade Cross border means country-to-country, and it is often used in conjunction with something specific.The buying and selling of goods and services between businesses in neighboring countries, with the seller being in one country and the buyer in the other country, for example, a company in the United States selling to a company in Canada. Also called CBT, international trade, and international selling. Although many people work for trading,very few studies have described language barriers in terms of their manifestation in lower social integration, reduced knowledge sharing or power-authority distortions (see e.g.Lagerstr·kman, 2005; Harzing & Feely, 2008).

“l a n g u a g e s d i f f i c u l t i e s represent one of the biggest b a r r i e r s t o c r o s s-c u l t u r a l communication.”(Munter,1995, P.74) That means the barriers affect crossborder trade and present to extend a solid trust relationship between trading partners. Managers has got some experience from the context of cross culture trading: Informal communication is feasible. How could people communicate without knowing the expectation towards each other? On the one hand, this is very difficult and it tends to fail in communicating because of the differences on management style and staff behaviors. It is easy to find the communications between the superiors and employees are facing barriers.On the other hand, because of the tremendous language diversity between two different languages. A big gap exists during the translation from Chinese to English in the light of Chinese thinking. This unknown expectations are the barriers of cross cultural trading.

Briefly, the language barriers affect cross cultural trading in multicultural firms from the aspects blow:

Those unknown expectations which the speakers have affect the effectiveness of communications.

Language differences brings more barriers in trading. The salesmen have different cultural background. It is very hard to exchange the entire and exact information.

Lack of mutual understanding attributes to language barriers.

Many companies experience the cost of language barriers on crossborder trade. It means a lot and it is really important for running.

L a n g u a g e b a r r i e r s m e a n s misunderstanding and not improving the cross-border communication skills. It is clear that the manager and the employees yet are not doing enough to face the challenge.

Conclusion:

The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self. Many companies have global ambitions. Their ambitions increased rapidly. They expect their employees to be fluent in target language.Many misunderstanding rooted in culture differences. This is a serious problem. The language barriers present the obstacle to cross-border collaboration. It is very urgent to eliminate obstacles of language barriers on cross-border trade.

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（作者单位：西安文理学院）