A Language Barrier to Business - Добрый день Good afternoon

Despite enjoying the marvels of the Scottish education system (many moons ago now!!!), I am still very much like the rest of the population of the United Kingdom where we expect the rest of the world to understand and speak English. Yes I can speak and understand French and can read Italian but that's about it.

When I visit Moldova, I am in a bubble of non-comprehension. I don't speak any Russian, apart from a few words - and certainly not joined up in a sentence that makes any sense to anybody. As for Romanian, well I don't speak or understand that either. The only plus point is that Romanian is written in the Latin alphabet and I can guess what a lot of the words mean when I see them written down. As for Russian!!!!! Помоги мне

I am so glad and delighted that my wife speaks fluent Russian - a Godsend.

So when thinking about the potential of operating a business in a country where you don't speak the language there is an immediate hurdle to overcome. So an important part of my survey was to try to understand how big of a hurdle is that and is it surmountable.

The conclusion surprised me very much. The result to the question "What languages are used in your business?" was:-

1. Russian 29%
2. Romanian 29%
3. English 28%
4. Moldovan 12%
5. Other 2%

So there you have it, the news is that English would be used. The challenge, and unanswered piece, is how prevalent is the use of English. Is it used at all levels of organisations?

Certainly the people I spoke to had an excellent command of the english language. Admittedly these were senior professionals in their business but they didn't see that my lack of speaking another language as a problem. Indeed, the Moldovan push and move towards the European Community enhances the need for involvement of professionals from other countries. Moldova certainly has a bright future - it just needs that support to get there.

In my next posting, I will give you another section of the survey and my interpretation of what it said.

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(c) Iain Williamson 2015