After chattare comes followuppare. And after that you hope to deliverare your products and services to become a trusted suppli.
Just a few anglicisms that have entered the Italian language recently and have my colleagues tearing their hair out. It’s trendy to use English words in another language but you can go too far – suppli is a fried food typical to the Rome region and makes no sense when used to refer to a supplier (I have it on good authority that suppliers should be fornitori).
What usually happens in these cases is that either:
- English words take on a new meaning in another language, such as
- handy – being good at DIY or having something within reach (English) versus mobile phone (German)
- shooting star – a meteor (English) versus an up-and-coming talent / rising star (German)
- Home Office – a government department in the UK (when capitalised) versus the act of working from home (German)
Or
2. The English word gets acclimatised to the other language and sounds so different it may as well be another language. I remember trying to order a frozen strawberry daiquiri in a bar in Germany… I almost gave up until I realised the waitress would never understand me and my English pronunciation. Said with a strong German accent, which took some practising, I got my drink.
Languages naturally evolve and there are hundreds of more subtle examples of the above.
The problem comes when you’re talking to someone from another country that already has a very defined meaning for a particular word. Confusing your potential buyers is never a good idea and it may be that you need to translate your adopted English word into another English word.
‘Know-how’ is a borderline case. It works in both languages with the same meaning but we don’t use it as often in English as I see it used in German. Often, switching it for a synonym such as ‘expertise’ or rephrasing the sentence to avoid saying the same as everyone else in your industry is more effective.
A quick check with a native speaker is all that’s needed before you hit publish. You have the subject know-how, I have the native English expertise.
