Language Barriers in an International Fashion Market with English as the Main Language
Author(s): Guadalupe Garcia Jerez and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Assorted In-Sight (In-Sight Publishing)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/12/26
The lingua franca of fashion is English. But what about speakers of other languages? There can be difficulties for them. What does this mean for fashion world, for them?
Modern fashion is synonymous with elegance. Paris is the new cradle of good taste and refinement. From the beginning, the ability to speak French was synonymous with modern fashion. But what has changed so far, especially with the new obstacles is communication in fashion?
Globalization governs the production system. It affects human interactions, means of communication. It influences lifestyles, promotes cultural exchanges, language too, e.g. “lol” for “laugh out loud.” In this, it becomes necessary to choose a universal language. A lingua franca that favors communication between people from one end of the world to the other.
We know most prevalent languages at the international level are: Chinese Mandarin (increasingly demanded), English, and Spanish. Where English is the language most requested by companies, with 89.5% over any other language, it is considered as the language of business par excellence. Equally in fashion, French was the main language; nowadays, it is considered a diplomatic language, which is in contradistinction to English. English is the new universal language.
Currently, in an international context, the main obstacle in fashion for foreigners is lack of proficiency in English, which implies limitations in fluent communication. That is, one being able to speak clearly without being limited by their level of English, or for doing a poor translation of their mother language.
It may lead to misinterpretations in meaning. That is why in many cases the essence of communication is lost and can be seen as, frankly, limited when it comes to making purchases, sales, creating and maintaining new contacts, and conducting good business negotiations.
On the other hand, when talking about certain more technical topics in which your vocabulary limits you considerably, the sense of the message you want to transmit is sometimes lost, or at least very limited. However, in the field of fashion, it is not as problematic as it could be in other fields, since the visual support here is very important, which considerably helps the understanding, where in many cases as the saying goes: ‘an image is worth more than a thousand words.’
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