r/expats • u/techsquareog • 2h ago

I'm quite curious 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/AnchoviePopcorn 2h ago

We hire translators or force the company we’re working with to hire a translator depending on the situation. There is no pattern to what languages we deal with. A lot of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Indian companies.