5 Simple Ways To Avoid Language Barriers

Everybody knows the internet is a worldwide communications medium. As such you will periodically encounter folks who do not read or write English as their native language.

We all know that you should use proper grammar and spelling. We also know not to use American slang. There are a few more things you can do however, and fortunately they are very easy to follow and remember.

1. Avoid contractions.

Examples: Don’t, won’t, they’re, you’re, wouldn’t, isn’t, and so on.

Write these words out the long way. For a person who does not read English natively, contractions are very confusing.

2. If giving an instruction, use I.

Wrong way: “Send me an e-mail.”

Correct way: “I want you to send me an e-mail.”

In Western countries where English is the native language, it is very common to completely omit the “I want you to..” part of a sentence when issuing an instruction or command. We understand that I is implied; a non-native English reader ordinarily would not.

Even though the use of I may appear to be snobby or that you’re barking orders, for non-native English readers it is much easier to understand.

3. Don’t use pipes.

A pipe is this: |

This is the character that shows up when you hold SHIFT and press the backslash key (usually right next to your Enter key, either above or to the side.)

Instead of pipes, use dashes. Dashes are universally recognized.

“But I don’t use pipes.” You might be and not even realize it, as many people use them in an e-mail signature, such as:

Your Name | Your email address | Your web site address

Replace those pipes with dashes.

4. Remember your locale.

(This section uses the “special” HTML symbol for degrees. You can view all of them here if you like.)

If someone outside the US asks you what temperature it is outside where you are, you would write it as:

It is 72° here!

This to you makes sense, but chances are good the reader measures temperatures in Celsius.

Should you make the conversion to C whenever you tell somebody what the temperature is? No. Simply add the F.

Correct way:

It is 72° F here!

or..

It is 72 F here!

Both are acceptable.

This also counts for units of measurement such as inches and centimeters. The US uses statute, but almost everybody else uses metric.

A simple rule to follow is to include both figures if you’re typing up an e-mail and/or sending a document to be viewed outside the US.

I recommend you bookmark www.calculateme.com. That is the place where you can convert anything to anything; I use it often.

There are three types of measurements that you will have to convert routinely. Inches to centimeters, feet or yards to meters and miles to kilometers.

When writing your e-mail or document, simply include both statute and metric.

It is OK to round figures as long as they are not grossly too long or too short. The examples below will show the metric conversions using rounded figures.

Wrong way: The length of a pencil is 7 inches.
Correct way: The length of a pencil is 7in (18 cm.)

Wrong way: The length of a football field is 100 yards.
Correct way: The length of a football field is 100 yd (91 m.)

Wrong way: It is 5.7 miles from Building A to Building B.
Correct way: It is 5.7 miles (9.2 km) from Building A to Building B.

5. Use numbers instead of words when possible.

Proper English dictates that you should use the written version for any number under 100 unless shown as a value. For example, 77 would be written as seventy-seven. When writing for non-native English readers, do the exact opposite. Always use the number instead.

This isn’t a problem since most people do this already regardless of what is proper.