People often ask us which commercial market is the most advanced when it comes to viewing linguistic diversity as a boon instead of a bane. Language service providers (LSPs) in other countries often point to the United States, which in 2010 will support an estimated market of US$765 million for telephone interpreting services, largely generated from organizations that sell goods and services to its multicultural residents. However, is the U.S. market truly “mature” when it comes to embracing multilingualism? Not by a long shot.

The proof was in our postbox. National Grid provides natural gas to 3.4 million customers throughout New York and New England. So, when we opened up our monthly heating bill to find an important safety note translated into nine additional languages, our initial reaction was to think that the utility company made an enlightened move by sending out information in multiple languages. After all, 18 percent of people in the United States speak a language other than English at home, which means that approximately 600,000 of National Grid’s customers might not be able to understand this critical safety information.

Unfortunately, on further inspection, we saw that the “important safety information” mentioned was not actually translated. Instead, the company advised customers that the leaflet contained critical information that they should read — but that if they wanted to understand it, they should go get it translated themselves. This is equivalent to a flight attendant announcing to a plane full of passengers, “I am about to share some important safety information that may save your life in the event of an emergency. If you want to understand it, go get yourself an interpreter.”

It was completely unrealistic of National Grid to expect consumers to get safety information translated themselves. Even if these individuals have bilingual friends or family members, it’s doubtful that anyone but a professional translator would know how to translate chemical terms such as mercaptan, which is mentioned in the leaflet. Even if these limited English proficient customers wanted to locate and pay for professional translation services, how exactly could they, when they do not speak English? Because it is nearly impossible for more than half a million National Grid consumers to obtain translation on their own, these well-intentioned materials will simply wind up in the trash bin.

Here are some more realistic alternatives that National Grid could have pursued instead of the “best-of-luck-understanding-this-important-information” approach:

• Just translate it, already. At only 312 words in total length, it would not have been costly to translate the leaflet fully into nine languages. Based on the average per-word rates for these languages, this tiny project would have cost National Grid less than US$500.
• Put it on the web. Because the printing costs of sending out leaflets in multiple languages might have been prohibitive, the company could have directed consumers for other languages to log on to their website, where it could have made web-based or PDF versions available in these languages.
• Share pre-recorded information via telephone. The company could have recorded the safety information in these languages and enabled consumers to dial in to listen to a recording if they wanted to hear the recorded information in their native tongues. In fact, given literacy rates in the United States, it would not have been a bad idea to do this in English, too.
• Direct customers to call with questions. Like most utility companies, National Grid uses telephone interpreting services to interact with its multilingual customer base. So, instead of directing them to translate the information, the company could have stated, “If you have questions, call us and we will provide you with an interpreter in your language.” Communication problem solved.

In other words, while the U.S. market might look “mature” in terms of linguistic diversity, there is a long way to go. It is true that other major markets with diverse populations — including most European countries — are also lagging behind. However, the fact that National Grid is a U.K.-based company is not a good excuse for its lack of multilingual know-how. We discuss the multicultural marketing problems unique to Europe in this area, and the possibilities for change, in our latest members-only Quick Take, “The Swedish Telephone Interpreting Market Begins to Ripen.”