The Rebuilding of Babel

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1563)

The Tower of Babel is one of those famous biblical stories– too lofty we reach, position ourselves (literally and figuratively) too close to God, we’re torn down.

A little historical background: speaking one language, the city of Babel was an epicenter of commerce & culture. Only after displeasing the Almighty with the erection of the immense tower dedicated to Man’s achievement, God dispersed them across the lands, each speaking a different language. Hence the origin of our world’s differing dialects (end history lesson.)

This is a world economy. On most levels. Money speaks all languages. Achievement, for all intensive purposes, is really limited by the self. Presently language is one of the last significant gate keepers for true world commerce.

I mean, which is more desirable: Two MBA’s, same school, same ability. One speaks fluent Chinese in addition to English? Yeah, you get my drift.

Technology has gone a long to helping us blend the economies of the world– especially with the Internet. The latest communication newcomer, a phenomenon known as Twitter, impacting business, marketing, product development, PR, you name it. Twitter’s growing, and at an exponential rate–  it’s being touted as an alternative to search giant Google. I’ve personally used it for marketing, test-marketing, sourcing new businesses, and information just to name a few, and to great success.  

So you will have to believe me when I say it was like Christmas came early when the latest version of Tweetdeck was released. For those not in the know, Twitter to Tweetdeck is like Alex Rodriguez on steriods (oh, wait that’s redundant… oh, well you know what I mean.) If you “tweet” any more than just casually, you need to upgrade yourself to Tweetdeck. Trust me. One feature stands out (though there are A LOT of really great ones– a more intuitive UI for one,) is the added language translater. I’m seeing that as a real paradigm-shifter.  Users have the ability to translate johnny-on-the-spot 30+ languages- both sending and receiving.

What does this mean?  Why a paradigm-shifter?

It means we are one step closer to actually being a truly diffused world-market — especially when the average business person can easily haggle their wares in German, French, Spanish, Chinese (both traditional & simplified), Serbian, Hindi, Japanese, Vietnamese, just to name a few. 

Imagine the effect of a seamless language translator would have on a wine distributor, an import & exporter, manufactures, or creatives (PR/SM/Marketing/Design) when they can do business across the world, without necessarily hiring a translator for initial marketing purposes?

Huge. That’s what.

I know a few marketing plans that would change if they could make efficient inroads into foreign markets.  Thanks to twitter and tweetdeck, that just got a heck of a lot easier.  Of course we’re not at full Star Trek Communicator level but you can wisps of the future coming.  Next step: having a preferential language setting– so no matter what language is tweeted it would be received in YOUR preferred language. Some current issues that still need to be addressed are colloquialisms, syntax and certain words and concepts that just don’t translate readily.

Granted there are limitations: legal, medical and higher business negotiations shouldn’t be left to a simple auto-translator. But for preliminary marketing and sales, to basically get the conversation started- what a heck of a tool!

And once you get to where negotiation and legal is necessary, you can source that pretty easily. (Hello Twitter?)

So back to Babel. As the communication barriers break down, and we move toward building a truly world economy, one that even the smallest business can participate in- what does this mean? Should we be wary of building temples to our vast achievements over nature and circumstance?

Honestly don’t know.

But it sure is going to be exciting to watch it unfold.