Something keeps happening in our borderless, online, and AI-supported world. Communications get lost in translation because our language hasn’t adjusted to the worldwide exposure of online content. A world of confusion occurs every time we communicate just about anything on websites, social media, apps, and podcasts.

The Global Language Gap: Why Miscommunication Happens

The U.S. is famous for having its own unique lingo. Foreigners and non-native English speakers know this all too well. Facing language confusion is their way of life. Whether watching videos on YouTube or the latest U.S. series on Netflix, non-Americans scratch their heads hearing idioms like “break a leg” or “jump the gun,” and size comparisons like “a football field.” These expressions make no sense to foreigners and are often interpreted quite differently.

And while the effort to learn a language and culture can be expected of anyone interacting with a domestic-facing company, using country-centric language in a global, online world can be confusing and miss an opportunity to engage with audiences around the globe.

Translation Tools Aren’t Enough

Relying on translation tools doesn’t solve the problem even if machine translation is getting top-notch these days. Click the translate button on a website or read translated subtitles and you’ll chuckle at some of the confusion. That’s because we cannot expect AI tools (yet) to correct the original source language that wasn’t created with a global audience and potential translation in mind. There is so much content that gets lost in translation when it navigates across borders. But it doesn't have to!

If we want our communication to be understood as intended — with clarity, accuracy, and relevance — around the world, we must fix our language, choice of words, and speech at the starting point. Let’s not put the burden on others to sort it out. Anyone who creates and publishes online content (such as writers, editors, marketers, instructors, videographers, speakers, and podcasters) must avoid using terms and concepts that international audiences and AI tools will misinterpret.

Bottom line: if the world can read, watch, or listen to your content, it’s time to learn new global communication skills!

So, what does it take? The first step is to adopt a more global mindset, meaning the attitude that it’s important and worthwhile to build new global communication skills. That’s as important for companies as for individuals. Like any habit, developing a global mindset requires commitment, a plan, and lots of practice.

Communication Skills for the New Era

There are five ways to learn global communication skills: exposure, training, review, documentation, and practice.

Exposure. When we leave our own cultural bubble through travel and foreign movies, as well as books and articles from other countries, we experience unfamiliar things that create awareness about our differences. Anyone who’s been fully immersed in another culture or language can attest to the speed at which you learn from such exposure. When we experience “culture clashes” firsthand, we also become self-aware that our own lingo and communication style confuses others.

Training. Few people start off with the skills to create content for international audiences. There are more examples of companies that commit cultural blunders (e.g., IKEA, Nike, and many others), than those who do it right. L’Oreal figured out that multicultural expats (who’ve lived in multiple countries) have innate global communication skills suitable to run their multinational business. But for people who have learned to communicate in a singular language and culture, intercultural training is a must. For example, to facilitate their new global reach, The Diversity Movement engaged CultureWiz to train their communication team with tools and techniques to be better understood globally.

Review. A big part of global skills training is learning how to review content before finalizing it. Reviewing posts, presentations, speeches, and articles to ensure they are free of confusing expressions, acronyms, and concepts that don’t resonate across borders is key. Some examples of changes made by a U.S.-based association before exposing their original content to a global audience include:

• Before: HGTV
  • After: HGTV, a U.S.-based home-improvement and real estate TV network
• Before: Summer Conference
  • After: July Conference
• Before: Early-bird registration
  • After: Advance registration

Documentation. Conducting reviews to spot non-global terms and replacing them with suitable alternatives is supported by documentation. Glossaries that include preferred corporate lingo and industry terms should be updated to indicate, for example, using “global board of directors” rather than “BOD.” Editors’ style guides should reflect globally inclusive terminology and formats such as “10 miles (16 kilometers).” Documentation is key to support the consistent use of globally appropriate language by all content creators.

Practice. It takes practice to change habits from creating highly localized content to producing language that’s easy to understand across cultures. Working with globalization consultants helps speed up the learning curve, as much is learned from the practice of having one’s content flagged and edited to avoid these errors in the future. Ongoing practice will lead to the goal of creating globally applicable content from the start.

Avoid Misunderstandings and Unlock New Audiences

Those who wish to develop global communication skills must adopt each of these five learning methods to see results. Companies wanting to appeal to global audiences must create environments where content creators can learn, practice, and improve these skills. When miscommunications and misunderstandings stop, the rewards of having a worldwide reach will start!