Corporate Website Translation and Effective Communication Strategies. The Costs of Language Deficiencies

The growth of the Web has brought about a staggering increase in the volume of transactions and a widening of markets, given the possibility of crossing national borders and erasing the concept of space in terms of geographical areas. It has also fostered the spread of a language designed for international communication, namely English as a Lingua Franca. In recent decades, however, other languages have proved their presence on the Web, even if their use is well below that of English. This has led to considerable translation activity. A large number of multilingual sites crowd the Web, offering products and services. To be competitive, these sites need to be adapted to the needs of their target markets, because every business enterprise has the opportunity to operate globally through the development of the Web. To this end, multilingual communication is of strategic importance and the professionals in charge of these tasks play a key role. Yet, many small and medium-sized enterprises in Italy still struggle to understand the importance of these developments. The article is completed by a brief presentation of a project proposed to the students of a Master's degree course in Linguistic Sciences, which consisted in the presentation of a questionnaire to be administered to small and medium-sized companies operating in the wine sector. The questionnaire aimed to investigate the various options that companies use to manage multilingual communication. The aim of the project was to make students aware of the importance of multilingual communication and to draw a realistic picture of the sector in which they would be professionally employed.