(Newswire.net — November 27, 2015) — American business has embraced Latin American Spanish in order to reach a wider audience, with over 300 million speaking Spanish worldwide according to London Translations.
Many businesses have expanded their language portfolios to include what David Cameron has referred to as ‘the languages of tomorrow’s business deals’ such as Mandarin and Arabic. But how many will have considered the lucrative potential of native African languages?
Four of the main indigenous African languages are spoken by 210 million
Though the spoken share of these four languages does not reach the dizzying volume of Spanish, it’s important to remember that Spanish is broken up into different dialects.
Four of the most widely used indigenous African languages are Yoruba, Swahili, Amharic and Zhosa. Though these are highly popular languages the point has been raised that they are not financially viable for companies, according to James Foreman Peck.
Are African languages worth it for business
It’s an elementary business principle that the income of targeted language speakers must be taken into account. Many born in Africa are multilingual, usually knowing the language of where they grew up, a national language and a colonial language too. With that in mind, it makes sense that businesses could easily end up misjudging the importance of native African languages.
Localisation is important. There are many growing economies in Africa and if businesses want to get a foot in the door early on, the ability to speak a localised language to potential consumers could be endlessly valuable. We are much more likely to buy from or work with people who speak our language – down to the very colloquialisms we use.
The US is one of the largest investors in African economies and the number of people in the US speaking an African language is also incredibly high. Wider learning of such languages in the US and by US businesses had huge potential for enhancing relations both at home and abroad.
China are already ahead of the curve
China has shown great interest in African markets. It is the largest trading partner of Africa, with an estimate of $160 billion goods traded per year. Regardless of the ‘Black Monday’ crash in September China is still seen as one of the biggest players in global business.
If the USA is to compete with China for economic opportunity in African economies, a better grasp of African languages and dialects could improve their business relationships.