Corporate English training classes are all different, no matter you go. Some companies offer remote English training courses that are taught by Artificial Intelligence (A.I) because it is cheaper than hiring real instructors. Although that might align with your objectives in the short term, we don't believe those other corporate language training courses end up being cost effective in the long run. Students often fail to retain information, and often lack clarification which requires more dollars to be spent on another course.
At Language Connections, we are confident that your employees will have made significant improvement when they complete any of our business English classes. How are we so confident? Because all of our courses provide a customized corporate language training experience that is tailored to your individual goals, with your specific input on curriculum. Our people centered, business focused approach allows us to provide online language training courses that focuses on your personal objectives. While also meeting your real employees where they at in their journey to learn English. We even provide options for multiple language training classes.
When other companies offer English training for employees with an A.I instructor, mistakes are bound to happen. Here's 3 examples of A.I translation mistakes, and how they embarrassed companies...
Corporate English training & 3 examples of A.I translation mistakes
1. "Pepsi brings your dead ancestors back from the grave"
Yikes! Between 1963 to '67, Pepsi's official slogan in the United States was "Pepsi brings you back to life." When this slogan was introduced to Chinese markets, this unfortunate mistranslation became infamous.
Of course this was back in the '60's well before A.I became accessible. But this sort of mistake is unfortunately all too common with A.I. Where it is similar, and you can see why the error was made, but it clearly isn't quite right. Can you imagine these mistranslations happening when trying to learn English online, and not having someone catch them?!
2. Gerber in Paris
When you translate "Gerber" into French, the company name ends up sounding like a slang word for vomit. Imagine grocery shopping in France and as you reach for a jar of baby food, the one you pick up says "vomitting." Then you peer at the contents inside, and sure enough, it does look like vomit to you. "Sacre bleu!"
The brand ultimately ended up failing in France and Quebec because they declined translation and localization services. And yet, this sort of translation mistake is also possible through Artificial Intelligence. Language is constantly evolving, and right now, A.I isn't capable of keeping up with every cultural reference and connotation.
3. "What is this tissue commercial advertising?!"
This is what happened when "Puffs" tried to expand into German markets. They didn't do the translation and localization work to notice that "Puff" is a German slang for a brothel. So you can just imagine how confused people were!
In all 3 situations, we see clear errors. In first situation, the error with translation was sort-of close, but not quite right. In the second, the error was not recognizing cultural differences. In the third, the translation error wasn't their slogan but their company name. These are all examples of mistakes that both A.I and humans make in translation. So why would we rely solely on one or the other? If you are going to use A.I we cannot stop you. But you must understand the risks, and get at least some human eyes on it before the final product.
Our highly engaging In-Person English Training for employees and interactive Corporate English classes online with live native-speaking teachers are easy to access from wherever you are. We offer Real-Time Private and Group Corporate English Training. Get a Free Quote for your Industry Specific Onsite or Online English Classes for Companies.
For more information contact our Language Training Department:
Phone: (617) 731-3700
Email: training@languageconnections.com
