Read a fascinating article (Business à la française) by Simon Kuper in the Financial Times weekend magazine (9th March 2013), in which he reviews various explanations for the differences between the French and British/American way of doing business.
We find out that the only obstacle to communication is in fact language, or lack of it. Real bonds and trust are built by people who share a language they speak perfectly.
The author cites a study by Zürich based economists who concluded that 'on average a common language "increases trade flows directly by 44 per cent"'.
A very good reason to leap over the language barrier. And great encouragement to linguists, who will always have a major part to play in the development of trade and commerce.
This is the blog of ampelograph.com French-English/English-French translators. In this blog we will talk about our work and reflect on language in general.
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