Globalization is a fact. A few years ago, we lived in a society where meeting someone who had lived abroad was a big event; today, almost everyone knows someone who has had some kind of international experience. But not everything is rosy when it comes to international professional development.

Working in another country is one thing; being successful and respected there is another. That’s because the “click” with another culture goes far beyond language. It’s not just about speaking English, Portuguese, German, or any other language—it’s about being able to connect with that culture through language. Even for a native speaker, there are clear challenges in many situations, let alone for a foreigner.

The weight of internationalization in our daily lives makes us wonder where professional education is headed. Universities don’t teach you how to negotiate with each culture—that comes through experience—and language plays an important counterbalancing role.

For me, for example, as a Brazilian, connecting with Colombian culture was particularly tough because certain linguistic aspects characteristic of Brazil don’t fit very well in Colombia.

One of my greatest struggles was direct translation. In Portuguese, to make sure the message is clear, we say something like:

– Eu acho que a gente poderia fazer isso assim, entendeu?

– É verdade…

With my simultaneous translation, it came out like this:

– So I think we could do it like this, did you understand?

And when I expected a supportive response from the other person, what I got was an offended look that made me wonder if maybe I had said a word incorrectly—like when I said I needed to “disentangle” my hair…

After about two years of unintentionally creating conflicts in Bogotá, I finally realized that the Brazilian “entendeu?” was offensive to Colombians, because it made them feel like the “slow” one in the conversation. (If any of you interlocutors are reading this, please forgive me!)

What I mean is that speaking a language is an important step, but understanding the nuances of that language within each culture has a real impact on our social résumé—something we may not have fully realized yet.

Globalization is a fact, but global beings still don’t truly recognize themselves as such.

That’s also part of a language, you understand?