By David James

The two most useful phrases in international business negotiations are “I do not understand” and “what do you mean by that?” Yet these phrases are not used often enough, especially when the first languages of the negotiating parties are different.

Time and again negotiators agree to something that one or both of them does not fully understand, and later a contract dispute or a strained relationship brings the misunderstanding to light.

When I hear of people who spend days on end negotiating a promising business relationship only to see it fall apart later due to a language-based misunderstanding, I don’t say, “Get a life.” I say, “Get an interpreter.” And I think of my two useful phrases.

There are funny stories about misunderstandings: like the man who negotiated for the lease of 200 Singer sewing machines for a garment factory and the next day found a choir of 200 singers on his doorstep. But there are also serious stories about companies that signed contracts binding them to prices, quantities, or quality standards that they never understood or intended.

In contrast, there are times when more is understood than one party intends. A friend of mine tells the story of a negotiation with a Malaysian company where two of its executives were chatting away in Bahasa Malaysian about the proposed deal and assuming that he did not understand a word they were saying. He understood just enough of their conversation to interject a relevant comment in English, and for the rest of the negotiations the two Malaysians said nothing more in their own language.

Where there is a language difference, the best approach for entering into negotiations, even if the they will be conducted in your own first language, is to have on your team a native speaker of the first language of the other party. This person can act as an interpreter of phrases and concepts under discussion, can warn of possible misunderstandings and can suggest approaches and phrases that will avoid confusion. He or she can also help you read the body language of the other party (and sometimes overhear a revealing aside in the other language).

The ideal is to have bilingual employees of your company as negotiating team interpreters. They will have a full knowledge of your company’s organization, products and objectives and will have an accurate command of relevant technical terms in both languages. More importantly, they can be privy to your negotiating strategy and help lead the discussions in the right directions.

A secondary approach is to hire a professional interpreter. . .

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