Multi-national does not mean Multi-lingual
Over 90% of the World's largest companies do not respond to foreign language email messages
According to the WorldLingo Quarterly Email Survey most of the world's 220 largest companies do not to respond effectively to email messages that are not in their native language.
The email messages were written in the following languages - German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, or Japanese.
The results indicated that the world's biggest companies are poorly prepared to deal with the growing number of non-English speaking Internet users, which now make up over half of all Internet users.
Amazingly only 9.34% of the companies surveyed responded to the request in the same language as the original email.
The lowest response rates came from France (0%), Japan (0%), and Germany (5.5%).
The UK (16.67%), the USA (13.63%), and Australia (12.5%) were only marginally higher.
The companies that did not respond at all to the email were some of the world's corporate heavy weights.
They include IBM, AT&T, Intel, Dell Computer (US), BP Amoco (UK), Daimler Chrysler (German), and Mitsui and Co (Japan).
The fastest response came from the financial services company Morgan Stanley Dean Witter who replied in 3 hours and 28 minutes to an email written in Spanish.
The next quickest reply came from the UK company AstraZeneca followed by the USA company State Farm Insurance.
The USA financial services company TIAA CREF gave a good example of the responses to the foreign language 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?"
WorldLingo, an online language translation company, has an inexpensive and time efficient solution to email translation, according to Phil Scanlan.
Mr. Scanlan, WorldLingo's Chairman, said the email message could have been answered correctly and quickly using Worldlingo's low cost email translation service. The service is easily integrated into existing mail systems.
"After implementing WorldLingo's translation system, the company will automatically receive a machine translation of the foreign language email, allowing the receiver to ascertain the importance of the message."
"If the message is deemed important enough to be human translated, the company can accept WorldLingo's automatic quote which is provided with each translation."
The languages that received the lowest responses were Japanese (0% replies), French (3.57% replies), and Italian (7.14% replies), while the email messages written in Latin American Spanish (24%) received the best response.
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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