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Never before has the planet been so accessible. The ability to travel and communicate with people from around the globe is now a daily occurrence for many.

Businesses in Australia are now in a position to cater for international clients, and many foreign investors are reaching out to Australian companies in an effort to break into new markets.

With these opportunities comes the need for clear, transparent communication, and one of the best ways to ensure a prosperous working relationship with an overseas company is to make sure there is no ambiguous language.

This can sometimes pose a problem  if the languages and cultures in question are far removed from one another. It is relatively easy to have  meaningful dialogue between Australian and American organisations, but problems can be encountered with Mid East or Far East businesses where cultural norms are often unknown.

In these situations it is advisable to use a professional translation service. Companies like this one are extremely useful in helping businesses define contractual obligations and legal requirements in countries which have a very different approach to business than the Australian model.

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Translators with business and legal expertise are an extremely valuable resource for companies trying to make commercial connections in overseas countries.

At the moment the need for interpreters with Chinese/English abilities and a knowledge of the Chinese legal framework is great.

China has a mass of business opportunities, and Australian companies are being invited to interact with their Chinese counterparts more and more.

The only setback for this potential in commerce is the lack of understanding between organisations in each country.

The basic translation tools used to make initial contact are useful, but to understand one another at an in-depth level requires a more sophisticated form of communication.

The next decade will bring about and ever greater need for international understanding. At the moment English is still the premier business language and will most likely continue to be so.

However, to rely on the international community to learn this one language is to miss an opportunity to make early contacts with potential customers.

The ability to converse with clients at a business level in their own language is a fantastic way to form lasting working relationships. Outsourced  interpreters can be contracted  to handle all the correspondence between two organisations without the appearance of any third party involvement.

A seamless line of communication can be established which instills trust and respect between two businesses who might otherwise have no contact at all.

All electronic mail can be handled by a third party and any face-to-face discussions can be conducted through an interpreter with instruction from the client, or as a traditional translator who can attend meeting with representatives from the respective parties.

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There has been a recent shift away from interpretation software as businesses worldwide realise there is still much work needed to make this a viable alternative to traditional interpretation services.

Possibly in years to come the technology will become available to make it a reality, but in today’s business world there are no room for errors.