USA companies can not communicate to the World
Over 50 percent of United States companies do not reply to emails that are written in a foreign language.
A recent survey of Fortune's Top 100 USA companies, which was conducted by WorldLingo, found that many of the State's biggest companies are poorly prepared to deal with the growing number of non-English speaking Internet users.
The largest USA companies were sent an email in a foreign language.
Only 13.63% of the companies responded in the same language as the original request.
The emails were written in one of the following languages - German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, or Japanese.
Some of the companies with inadequate translation capabilities include, Microsoft, IBM and Walt Disney.
The fastest response was from the financial service company Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MSDW).
MSDW replied in 3 hours and 28 minutes to an email that was written in Spanish. The next two quickest replies came from State Farm Insurance, and Bell South.
The financial service provider for education, TIAA CREF, gave a good example of the replies from the companies who did not respond to the email in the same language as the request email.
"I am in receipt of your e-mail. To forward this to an outside service for interpretation would take several days, and not allow us to respond to you in the quickest manner. Can you re-submit your inquiry in English?"
Language translation company WorldLingo's Chairman Phil Scanlan said companies were mistaken if they thought the translation of emails had to be a long and expensive process.
"The email translation service can quickly provide companies with a gist translation of the message, allowing the receivers to ascertain the importance of the email," Mr. Scanlan said.
WorldLingo's email translations also come with a quote for the cost of getting the message human translated.
"This allows companies to quickly send the message to us for human translation work, if the message is more complex, and has significant information for a business's success."
Poor responses to foreign language email restrict potential revenue making opportunities. "If companies implement the email translation system, they will be able to communicate to the entire Internet; not just English speaking Internet users."
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About WorldLingo
WorldLingo is a leading provider of integrated, online translation solutions. The company's services range from cost effective machine translation solutions, to professional human translation and culturally sensitive localization. A global network of over 5,000 professional translators produces human translations. WorldLingo also offers unique, real-time translation solutions for two-way email and instant messaging. These solutions make it easy for businesses and professionals to interact with internal and external multilingual audiences anywhere in the world. By combining accurate and cost effective translation, WorldLingo is taking great strides towards breaking down language barriers in the world of commerce.
WorldLingo produces thousands of translations every day. Clients include AT&T, Sony, Eli Lilly, Belkin, Cadbury Schweppes, Qualcomm, Priceline, and Tribal DDB. WorldLingo is also an official supplier of translation services to the European Union. In addition, Microsoft has integrated WorldLingo's technology into Office XP and Word 2002. WorldLingo is a global organisation with offices in the US, Australasia and Europe.
For more information: contact WorldLingo