The Internet is certainly a disruptive technology that has eliminated geographical and location barriers. With almost one-sixth of the world’s population having access to the Internet, “location, location, location” in the physical world is becoming less and less and less important.

However, now we have new issues to deal with, notably, a language barrier. What happens if you connect to a site that offers information in a language you don’t understand? How can you send an e-mail to someone in Japan who doesn’t speak English?

One solution is language translation software, and one company leading the way in the development of language translation software is SYSTRAN. SYSTRAN Enterprise is a suite of software tools that enables you, among other things, to translate about 3,700 words per minute, translate both e-mail and Web page content, and display Asian fonts.

Is it perfect? Not according to SYSTRAN’s disclaimer. It states specifics about what its products will do, but does encourage you to carefully review any translation before making it a part of your business communications.

Indeed, when Kentucky Fried Chicken wanted to translate its slogan “finger-lickin’ good” into Chinese, it came out as “eat your fingers off.” Now, KFC wasn’t using SYSTRAN’s software, but this example does illustrate the difficulty of translating idiomatic phrases from one language to another. Product names are another example. When General Motors (GM) tried to sell the Chevy Nova in South America, people didn’t buy it. As it turns out, No va means “it won’t go” in Spanish. GM subsequently changed the name to Caribe for its Spanish markets.