8 Tools That Can Ease the Language Barrier for Business Travelers

Globalisation has caused a paradigm shift in the way businesses function, with increasing international cooperation and decreasing significance of borders. In fact, according to a 2016 study by Wells Fargo, 87 percent of U.S. companies agree that international expansion is needed for long-term growth, with emerging markets providing the greatest opportunities (69 percent).  Keeping these staggering figures in mind, it is fair to say that foreign travel for business has become practically inevitable.

While foreign travel is the most immersive cultural exchange and a treasure trove of experiential learning, the language barrier can be restrictive, especially in the case of business travel. With international clients/partners becoming an integral part of business operations, overcoming the language barrier has become the need of the hour, but it need not be a cause of anxiety to the busy professional. Finding ways to overcome language barriers can be simple, fun and enriching! We’ve curated a list of pre-travel and real-time language tools that can help you floor your foreign associates and close that multinational deal smoothly.

Pre-Trip Language Lessons to Set You Up for Success

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It’s true that practice makes perfect, so if some pre-trip practice sounds enticing to you, we’ve got the perfect list. These web services have been tried by us and analysed based on languages included, the interface, quality of service and price. Check them out:

1. Open Culture

Open Culture is a vast collection of MOOCs ( Massive Open Online Courses ) in the form of free audio and video courses on iTunes or YouTube. One of their major focus areas is ‘Language Lessons’ with a collection of about 40 lessons in languages like Mandarin and Japanese to Arabic and Urdu. Some of the courses have been designed by prestigious institutes such as Harvard, MIT, Cambridge and Carnegie Mellon. Open Culture is a great learning resource for an auditory learner since its courses use emphasis, tone, repetition and conversation as tools for furthering learning. It also helps with accent training and helps you speak and comprehend foreign languages as accurately as possible. Open culture is the closest you can get to a real private tutor.

  • Languages- Reasonably wide range of about 15 languages, including Icelandic, which is a rare find.
  • Interface- Fairly simple but ends up redirecting you to lots of different websites, which could diminish focus and interest.
  • Quality of Service- Interesting content designed by experienced professors and experts. Easy to process and remember.
  • Price- Free.

2. Memrise

Memrise is an interactive language learning tool that turns learning vocabulary into a fun game with constant reinforcement in the form of short quizzes. Their approach is to learn through pictures known as ‘mems’ and flashcards, so if learning by seeing is your style, Memrise is for you. There is an evident focus on spoken rather than written language, which could be a good thing if you are trying to learn only to speak for business and not read a foreign language.

  • Languages- Almost any language you can think of!
  • Interface- Fun and vibrant.
  • Quality of Service- The courses are super effective because they are engaging. Each course charts out its duration at the outset so you busy bees can work efficiently. The downside is that you may end up learning lots of new words but not too much in terms of grammar and sentence structure.
  • Price- Free.

3. Babbel

Babbel is the closest you can get to a full stack language-learning solution. Babbel courses are prepared by linguistic experts and focused on ‘imbibing’ a foreign language. You can choose your level and pace, whether beginner or advanced. Babbel is a great tool for someone who ends up traveling or transacting heavily with a certain country as it is a longer-term language-learning tool. All good things take time, right?

  • Languages- Babbel provides courses for 14 languages such as Deutsche, Spanish and French, but misses out on all Asian and African languages.
  • Interface- Simple, neat and user-friendly. The progress monitoring feature is a big plus.
  • Quality of Service- Babbel is all about practicality, which makes it great for a business traveler. You can choose the beginners’ or advanced course. It even takes into consideration your age, which is quite unique. Overall, it’s a highly effective language-learning tool, if you give it the due dedication.
  • Price- The first lesson is free, and you can choose from packages ranging between $10 to $20 thereafter.

4. Busuu

Busuu is unique in its approach in that it teaches you a foreign language based on your end objective. It customises your course for traveling purposes and is the most practical of all. A big advantage of this purpose-based reverse-engineered course is that you can cut right to the chase and start out by learning the travel essentials like introducing yourself, asking for directions, and so on. The course material is broken up into 10-minute packets per day, which makes them easy to fit into a tight schedule. And it’s actually fun!

  • Languages- 12 languages that roughly cover most major business capitals.
  • Interface- Modern and easy to navigate.
  • Quality of Service- The premium version is very helpful, especially if you have a timeline. Busuu also awards official McGraw-Hill level completion certificates to test-takers. Lessons are also available for download and offline use. Another great feature is busuu PRO, which is an enterprise-level solution.
  • Price- $5.41 to $9.99 per month.

Language Barrier-Busting Solutions to Use During Your Business Trip

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Thanks to technology, there are apps available that ease the foreign language barrier in real-time. If you simply cannot carve out the time (or the patience) to practice before heading out to your next business travel locale, then these are for you:

1. Speak & Translate

Speak & Translate by Apalon Apps is a life-saver for many! Its unique selling proposition is that it allows for seamless translation across spoken and written formats in real-time. It is one of the better speech recognition-enabled apps on the market, and the translations are pretty accurate and quick in spite of slang and regional variations. It integrates the best of Google and Microsoft’s translation tools but is restricted to iOS in terms of compatibility.

  • Languages- According to Apalon Apps, Speak & Text facilitates text-to-text translation in 117 languages and voice-to-voice translations in 54 languages. If you aren’t sure what the input language is, the ‘detect language’ feature is very helpful.
  • Interface- Lively and vibrant. But due to the complex features, it may take you some time to get used to the interface.
  • Quality of Service- Speak & Translate is a smart app. Its ability to speedily process data in several formats and languages makes it a suitable business ally. An ambitious tool, Speak & Translate affords many options to users, which makes it convenient and user-friendly.
  • Price- Around $25, in addition to a free version with basic features.

2. iTranslate

iTranslate is not only a real-time translation tool but also a dictionary. It lays major stress on grammar with a special feature, ‘verb conjugations in different tenses.’ What sets iTranslate apart is its offline mode, which means travelers save on international roaming charges and get to use it all over, without being worried about network coverage. Above all, iTranslate provides a clever iMessage & keyboard integration, which cuts several steps in communication for foreign business travelers.

  • Languages- Quite a comprehensive list of 90+ languages.
  • Interface- Highly customisable. You can even customise the output voice basis gender, dialect, accent and speed.
  • Quality of Service- The iMessage integration is smooth and the offline version offers basic features without hassle. The overall experience is very good.
  • Price- The free app is quite good in itself. The premium items cost roughly between $3 to $45 and are available as in-app purchases.

3. Photo Translator Free

Photo Translator Free by Smart Mobile Software has a great name because its function is exactly that: translating text from photos taken on your mobile device. This could be advantageous in multiple use cases such as reading maps, signs, menus, bus/airport schedules and instructions and making sense of business documents, too. This app is available on Android as well as iOS.

  • Languages- 35 languages representing a reasonable mixed bag of geographies.
  • Interface- Easy to use, no-frills interface.
  • Quality of Service- While the service is quite valuable, the time taken to extract the text from the photograph is very high. Lots of room for improvement for the developers here.
  • Price- Free.

4. Phrasebook

Phrasebook by Bravolol Limited is a well-curated collection of the most commonly used foreign language phrases. It encompasses greetings, eating, shopping and other situation-specific phrases. It can be a very handy tool as it is a simple and quick way to get by in a foreign country without the hassle of learning the nitty-gritty of another language. You could remember your most important phrases or simply add your ‘favourite phrases’ to a separate tab.

  • Languages- 21 languages, including the languages spoken in the top business hubs of the world.
  • Interface- Fun and colourful. You will not get bored with this app.
  • Quality of service- This app stresses on spoken language and allows you to record and compare your pronunciation with a native speaker’s. This app does one thing only,  phrases, but it does it with finesse!
  • Price- The basic version is free but upgrades cost between $6 to $25.

5. Business Phrases apps in Specific Languages

An honourable mention goes out to the many business phrase apps in specific languages. These cater especially to the business traveler looking for a very specific offering. The long tail rule applies here. Such apps have a special focus on business etiquette, phrases necessary for meetings, appointments, signing agreements and closing deals. If a lot of your business comes from one key location, it makes great sense to use these tools. For such apps, quality, price and interface vary on a case by case basis.

Some good foreign business phrases apps are as follows:

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While it’s important to embrace diversity when traveling abroad, a little tech-enabled homework to ease the language barrier never hurt anybody! Sure, learning even the basics of a new language can seem daunting, but the long-term business upsides far outweigh the short-term sweat.

What are your views and experiences? We’d love to hear from you!