Arabic in a Business Translation and Language Prospective
With more than 300 million speakers around the world, Arabic is a language that certainly can’t be dismissed by global organizations. Yet, many companies struggle with Arabic localization, the language’s right-to-left-format as most widely used Semitic languages. It is an official language in 25 countries/states, mainly in the Middle East regions. It is spoken by about 375 million people making Arabic the fifth most spoken language in the world, based on the number of speakers. It is also one of the six official languages of the UN.
Conducting Business in the Arab speaking world
To conduct business in the Arab world, it’s equally important to understand the Arabic business culture, which has its own set of unspoken rules and expectations. Neglecting these rules and customs of the region can be detrimental to your business. A conscious awareness of how the Arab culture is different from other cultures is essential for business and to facilitate client relations, media training and message appeals. Arabic communication relies on symbols, emotional resonance and language used to create social experience. Arabic culture is a high-context culture which depends on how much meaning is found in the context versus in the language. Thus, the listener must understand the contextual cues in order to grasp the full meaning of the message. The Arabic culture also prefers indirect ambiguous communication styles, and words may be tied more to emotions rather than concrete realities.
Business Opportunities
There is a rising demand for e-commerce and Arabic content services in the Arab world. According to Google, only 2% of web content is in Arabic, although Arabic speakers account for 5% of global internet users. The majority of investments that emerge in the IT sector are related to developing content in Arabic and promoting e-commerce. In addition there are also other fields with opportunities for growth, such as animation and mobile apps. There is a huge potential for the growth of Arabic mobile applications and localization in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) due to the following reasons:
- iPhone, BlackBerry and Android support Arabic reading and typing. Google is working on native Arabic support for Android.
- Google has promised the development of a paid Android market for the MENA region, as a free app market is already available.
- Mobile application usage and downloads in the Arab world: 50% from Nokia, 30% from Apple phones.
- Saudi Arabia is the number one mobile broadband community in the Arab world based on subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.
The Arabic market is classified one of the fastest growing markets in the world. The number of Arabic internet users has grown by 2,500% since the year 2000, and currently Arabic is the seventh most important language on the internet based on the number of users. The Arabic market has an increasing demand of IT hardware and software, and lots of investments are made in sectors such as education, infrastructure, health and real estate. Arabic governments are annually investing billions in IT, automation, e-learning, e-government, and Arabic content programs.
Recent revolutions (Arabic Spring) in many Arab countries were initiated by the youth and are expected to bring up new revolutionary governments that will tend to re-construct their countries during the next few years. The youth and middle aged people who used the latest technologies in initiating and managing the revolutions are expected to use the same level of technology to build their dream countries.
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