This week we
launched a brand new piece of independent research on how British travellers cope with language barriers abroad – and the results are quite
shocking. Almost one third admit to
speaking louder and slower and waving their arms or even pretending they
understand the locals when they don’t.
And believe it or not, women have been found to be worse than men at adopting
this inappropriate manner.
The question is are
we really bad-mannered or a little bit ashamed and embarrassed about our lack
of language skills? We polled over 1,000
Brits and they certainly weren’t backward at coming forward with a number of
ways in which they attempt to overcome the language barriers – although it’s
fair to say that for the majority of us, ignorance is bliss with 53% saying
they don’t worry about language barriers because most people overseas speak
English anyway – the truth is, 82% don’t!
61% of laid-back
Britons simply hope to understand the odd word to get by, but 17% of those
surveyed have never ventured to a country where they don’t speak the native
language and 4% would avoid a country altogether for this reason. More alarmingly, and despite a clear lack of
language skills only 10% worry that they would struggle to communicate in an
emergency situation.
All of this comes
in the wake of the official launch of i-interpret4u – the personal telephone
interpreting service which allows you to put an interpreter in your pocket 24/7
and allows you to communicate in 85 languages exactly at the moment you need
to. And forget so-called translation
tools, this is different. This new
service is about real human beings, real live situations and a way of dealing
with language barriers that really works.
Visit our site now to find out more www.i-interpret4u.co.uk
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