Why translate – isn English the universal language?
No, not exactly. It’s the universal second language. But people obviously want to make important buying decisions in their first language. (Try it: imagine going to buy that new Mercedes you’ve promised yourself – and imagine that the salesman doesn’t speak your language. How do you feel, describing all the options you want on your shiny new toy, and arranging the financing, and discussing the delivery date – all in German?) English-speaking businesspeople often think that it’s to their advantage that “all the world speaks English,” but they are looking at the situation completely upside-down. They are ignoring all the suppressed resentment they are creating, as they force their overseas customers to negotiate in a foreign language. To read product specifications in a foreign language and try to figure out if that is exactly the product that they need. To study the intricacies of a contract in a foreign language. And then the English-speakers wonder what’s hit them, when a rival comes
