Doing Business in Vietnam: Minimizing Language Barriers with English, Chinese, and Vietnamese

For many companies outside of Vietnam, doing business in Vietnam is like a gold mine loaded with business opportunities. Many companies aspire to take advantage of this growing Asian market to increase the profitability of their businesses. Vietnam is a business-friendly destination due to the large size of the Vietnamese market itself, increasing the purchasing power of Vietnamese and its ideal geographic location. Other reasons include low labor costs and established political stability. As with all international deals, companies doing business with Vietnam may encounter some challenges. One of those clear challenges is the language barrier.

English is undoubtedly the official working language in Vietnam, but it is true that very few Vietnamese speak it. Almost 90% of the Vietnamese population speaks Vietnamese, while the rest speak Chinese or Chinese and Vietnamese. Enough English to conduct business is largely only spoken by foreign-educated Vietnamese professionals who may have earned even higher degrees from other English-speaking nations. While it may not be difficult to go through the daily routine of speaking English, this poses a problem when engaging clients and companies in Vietnam in business English. Much of the understanding of Vietnamese society comes from understanding what lies between the lines. These lines can only be understood with a basic knowledge of the local language.

As such, the language barrier between English, Chinese, and Vietnamese should be minimized. This is where multilingual B2B websites come in. Multilingual websites have been introduced primarily to reduce language barriers between local Vietnamese suppliers and manufacturers and global companies wishing to trade with them. One such multilingual B2B website that helps minimize the language barrier is Vigogo. The great trading platform allows users to instantly switch to English, Chinese, and Vietnamese. This enables Vietnamese suppliers to reach a larger consumer than suppliers could on a monolingual English B2B site.