Question

Software is available to translate documents from one language into another, and devices are for sale that will give you a voice translation from one language to another. With this technology available, why should the multicultural worker bother learning another language?

Answer 1

Communication in both, written and spoken forms are important in an organization because both these communication types carry their own advantages and disadvantages. Always resorting to software shall make a multicultural worker much mechanical in nature. This is so because the worker won’t be able to strike a chord with acquaintances or colleagues hailing from different culture if the worker misses the essence of eye contacts and other significant gestures of the body language, in the process of concentrating and getting the speech translated at all times. Moreover, often the translated results lack accuracy. In this regard, if the multicultural worker lacks the proficiency of the another language, the worker may simply carry on with the inaccurate translations, thereby leading to more confusion in the working which ultimately may affect the worker’s efficiency at work as well. Knowing more than one language and especially of the one where that particular language is in dominance than that of the worker’s mother tongue, shall only make the communication process easier, clearer and confusion-free as well. The messages shall be interpreted the way it is supposed to be. The meaning of the same shall not be lost in transit.