The language barrier should not become an obstacle in business
It is clear that any cooperation involves negotiations, meetings, and visits to foreign partners.
Any trip begins with a visa. Visa issuance rules are set by the consulates of different countries independently. Even now, when most European countries are part of the Schengen Area, where one visa is valid for all states in this area, some consulates, for example, the Belgian consulate, set rules that differ in some details from the rules of other countries. Therefore, when planning a trip to any country, you need to go to the visa department or center and familiarize yourself with the list of required documents.
As a rule, obtaining a business visa, or a visa for a short-term business trip, involves significantly fewer difficulties than obtaining a visa for a private, say, visit.
You will only need an invitation (original) from the partner company, which must include the surnames and first names of the visitors (as they appear in their foreign passports), the period of the visit, its duration and purpose. In some consulates (for example, the Consulate of Hungary, which is not part of Schengen), copies of invitations received by fax or email are accepted. They may ask for a hotel booking confirmation, but usually the host party arranges that.
For a private visit, much more documentation is required. Moreover, in some cases, translation of documents, notarization of copies and other red tape involving significant time and money are required.
So, the visa is obtained, tickets are bought, bags are packed. All participants of the upcoming negotiations repeatedly run through in their heads the scenarios that may unfold, build strategies, formulate proposals.
Will they be able to fully and in detail convey their proposals to the partners? Will the language barrier become an obstacle? If you are not confident that you and your foreign partners will understand each other, you need to agree on who will interpret. You can bring an interpreter with you (some translation agencies provide such a service), the host party can also provide an interpreter.
But you should not rely solely on the interpreter. Besides, the interpreter cannot cope when several people start talking at once in the heat of negotiations; they will interpret for one person, and possibly not the one you would like to hear. In order to feel comfortable, it is worth learning at least the basic terms related to the subject of negotiations before the trip. And it will also be useful to brush up on conversational English. It will come in handy!
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