Speaking more than one language saved me time, but taught me a valuable lesson on marketing… Weird, right?
You see, the other day, I called Comcast and I pressed the button “2” to speak to someone who spoke Spanish. It's funny, I only had to wait five minutes to speak to someone as opposed to 25 minutes if I would have stayed in the line to speak with someone in English.
So, it made me realize that speaking a different language it's not just about saving time when it comes to customer service and calling places. There are so many benefits when it comes to speaking more than one language, especially when it comes to marketing…
As marketers, we're always looking for a way to relate to our audience. We need to get to know them better, we need to understand what are their pain points, we need to know how to get them the solution that they're looking for.
But, when you speak more than one language you become more relatable to people. You know different ways of thinking. And when it comes to marketing, the relationship and the connection that you can establish with your audience is very important.
Speaking more than one language also trains you to think about other ways of doing. If something doesn't work one way, as in speaking one language, how can you say things differently in another language to make sense.
So, for example, the Spanish word “conocer” translates to “know”. So if you know someone, you “conoces” someone. But “conocer” is more than knowing someone, the word has a deeper meaning of knowing intricacies and personal relationships. It’s not just “knowing”, it’s “knowing beyond” and having a wider understanding.
So how does this translate? When speaking English, if I want to truly explore the meaning of “conocer”, I have to explain it referencing the amount of time that I’ve known a person and go into detail.
It’s weird, but there are tons of examples with words and meanings and as marketers, we need to understand these differences when it comes to OUR language…
Of course, there are other cultural, mental, developmental advantages to speaking more than one language, but sticking with the marketing concept, translates to understanding and learning the language of your audience. Learning what they're feeling it's like learning how to conjugate verbs when you're learning new words. It’s a world of discovery…
So, if you speak a different language, practice it as much as you can because it's going to help you in life in general, but it's also going to help you to get new ideas to increase connections in your life.
P.S> If you only speak English, there are other ways to communicate with people and relate to them. In essence, we’re all learning our audience language, so please do not take this offensively…
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