Ken VaughnPartner| Industrial Fabrication Consultants LLPCharleston, Sc, United States
Hi all,
We are in the process of responding to an RFQ from an Arabic speaking prospect and it appears their command of the English language is not that good and our command of Arabic is zero. We have gone back and forth to iron out details and to clarify issues we are unsure of but I still feel uneasy about this process going forward.
I understand that at best the communication process is complex even when you speak the same language much less when the languages spoken are as different as English and Arabic are. Of course language alone is not the only consideration. There are differences (often vast) in cultures to be considered. I have asked the prospect if he thinks translation services would be helpful and in his last response the question was not addressed at all. We could opt to have all of our outgoing communications translated but there is a significant cost to this and it's not that we don't think it would be worth it, it's just that I would not be certain of how it would be received and if it really is warranted.
This project could be big for us and I'd like to iron out as best I can the communications issues before entering a phase where project reporting etc. comes into play but I'm at a loss as to how to begin addressing this.
Ken VaughnPartner| Industrial Fabrication Consultants LLPCharleston, Sc, United States
Mr. Koo,
This is what I suspected but I wanted to be sure. Yes, from early on in the process we realized this need. We first sought Spanish translation services and as my own mother teaches Spanish I sent her some of our mildly technical copy to translate. She was afraid she was not sufficiently versed in translating technical jargon and advised us to find someone who is, which we have done.
But this Arabic project came to us unexpectedly so we had to adapt but we do understand the need and have engaged a company well versed in industry. As I said in my very first post here, I am aware that this community is first and foremost about IT. And while I have been very encouraged by the reception I've gotten, I still realize that in many ways we work in different worlds. Our world involves machinery, materials and often complex tangible sub systems. The IT world is no less tangible but 0s and 1s are a far cry from stainless steel, and the methods we use for taking raw materials and making something useful and productive from them.
But in the end, with regard to the process of project management I believe there are significantly more similarities than differences and, the ever present common denominator, "people".
Thanks Mr. Koo for taking the time to advise us and thanks to all who have posted here, you've been and I hope you will continue to be a most valuable asset for us.
The issue is the language barriers and perhaps difference in cultures 'the way we do things'. Language barriers could be helped to be broken down in order to gain mutual understanding of what it is being said and one of the suggestions was to hire translators that are technicall speak the language, the cost is an issue, but unless someone is willing to pay for these translators progress will be extremely painful and very costly to say the least. Do your sums is this worth your effort time and money! One question for you! knowing that your command of Arabic is zero how on earth did you expect to get things off the ground! It illustrates the blind is leading the blind!
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Amgad AlsisiFunctional Manager| Metito Water TreatmentGiza, Giza, Egypt
Hi,
The Middle-East has far too many countries that speak the Arabic Language (at least 22) with varying degrees of business environments. if you can elaborate a bit on the country and perhaps the type of industry your customer comes from, may be I can give you an insider's feedback.
Regards,
Amgad Saving Changes...
Ken VaughnPartner| Industrial Fabrication Consultants LLPCharleston, Sc, United States
Ms. Christoforides, thanks for your input. We have done the math and found it is well worth it to engage translation services in fact, as we speak we are having some questions we have with regard to technical specifications translated. We had not yet reached out to the Arabic speaking world when this RFQ came to us. But due to the size of the project we could not ignore the opportunity or wait until we had fully developed the capability. Regardless of how this particular situation plays out it would have been well worth it as we now have channels for translation, banking and freight forwarding. With one of our specialties the Gulf region holds considerable opportunity so we are now better prepared to reach out to that area.
Mr. Al-Sisi, thanks for your input. I am aware that Arabic like many other languages is different depending on the region and/or country in which it is being spoken. In this case, we are talking about the country of Iraq and we made sure it is within the scope of the translation services we have engaged. And we are talking about the oil industry.
