For global companies to understand the needs of their customers – both current and future – inclusive multilingual research is a must. Since conducting research across languages and cultures can present challenges, we partnered with Fuel Cycle to discuss best practices and common pitfalls. 

In our webinar, Multilingual Connections Founder & CEO Jill Kushner Bishop and Business Development Director Carlos Hevia joined Fuel Cycle Chief Revenue Officer Polly Speros and VP of Research & Insight Kevin Row. We talked in-depth about:

• The importance of conducting research in participants’ native languages
• Strategies for managing the challenges and costs of multilingual research
• Best practices for nurturing trust with diverse communities
• … and more!

Below you’ll find top insights from our discussion to help you and your team think through how to approach multilingual research, and you can also watch the full webinar here!

Webinar Recap: Key Insights

Part 1: The Importance of Conducting Research in Participants’ Native Languages

Top companies are looking to conduct research across the globe through multilingual market research and moderation. To maximize outcomes, keep in mind that successful brand storytelling depends on context, nuance and depth – which can only truly be expressed in one’s native language. That’s why it’s key to carry out surveys and studies in participants’ preferred languages. 

Since multilingual interactions are deeply personal, companies should understand participants’ language preferences to build authenticity and trust. In turn, tailored language engagement can enhance the quality of research insights.

To achieve this, consider:

• Individual language use is a tapestry. Often people grow up speaking multiple languages: one at home, one at school, one at work, one with their grandparents, etc. It’s important to understand that your participants may use different languages for different purposes and in different contexts, and that these language choices matter. 

• It’s common for individuals to feel like different people in different languages. Interacting in their native languages brings out these unique qualities and identities. These types of insights may be essential to gathering high-quality data in your research.   

• Engaging in participants’ native languages will help ensure you capture nuance. Individuals are more likely to interact with your researchers and express themselves comfortably when given their choice of language or languages. 

• Gender-inclusive language is also a major factor. It’s tricky to get gender inclusive language right, as gender is an inherent part of many languages. You’ll need a language expert who’s up to date on cultural and linguistic trends and who can find the right balance to resonate with your participants. (Learn more about gender inclusion in language in our blog here!)

• Trust is key to high-impact multilingual research. When something sounds translated or isn’t framed in a culturally-attuned way, individuals may think your company doesn’t care enough and might drop out of the study. 

Part 2: Strategies for Managing the Challenges and Costs of Multilingual Research

Multilingual research can be a significant investment, making it essential to choose the right language partner. Ideally, you can start building a strong relationship in advance of your project, so that you’re well-aligned and ready to hit the ground running.  

One of the most decisive factors in hiring a partner should be your comfort level. In addition to specializations, turnaround times, and cost structures, you should feel that your partner understands your big picture and will be by your side to achieve the best possible outcomes. 

Additionally, remember these tips for strong partnerships: 

• Multilingual research isn’t a checklist of tasks. It’s not simply a transaction, like uploading a document to a site. Value-driven language services are about creating an ongoing relationship and finding ways to set up efficient, scalable and high-quality translation for your business. 

• Long-term partnership lets you leverage past knowledge. For example, working with the same partner gives you access to previous projects and translation memories to facilitate better alignment, accuracy and outcomes. 

• You typically get “one shot” with a new customer. It’s easy to lose out if you offer a poor experience that isn’t personalized to language identity. To build strong experiences, you’ll require experts who are native speakers, have knowledge of the target region and industry, and integrate brand voice. 

• Avoid the mad scramble of project changes. Multilingual research is complex with lots of moving parts. It’s typical to have last-minute changes that then need to be corrected across all languages. Instead of facing a mad scramble to get this done, a language partner can help scale these types of research tweaks. Otherwise, errors or unnatural language may lead to a risk of low-quality data.

Part 3: Best Practices for Nurturing Trust with Diverse Communities

Community support is an effective way to fuel ongoing understanding. Every individual who walks through your [figurative] door or clicks on your survey will be asking: “Do I trust these people? How much am I willing to share with them?”

You can promote inclusivity by ensuring your research is tailored to your target language group. Doing so will ensure you overcome the first hurdle to excellent research: trust. 

Other key strategies for nurturing trust with diverse communities include:

• • Ask for participants’ language of preference. Go straight to the source and ask your participants how they would like to communicate. Using technology to save these preferences can help you update their language identity over time, as well as put them in conversation with others. 
  • Be sure to localize, not just translate. Certain concepts don’t exist in other languages, so you’ll want to take a careful look at the survey design, too. For example, in some countries the legal age of adulthood is 20 instead of 18 like in the US. In some cultures, it’s common for adult children to live at home until they’re married, so asking if someone lives with children at home might not reflect their reality. And for some countries, asking if you live with a “friend” rather than “roommate” might resonate better.  
  • Remember that code-switching is a huge part of multilingual communities. People speak different languages according to different situations. You’ll want to prepare multilingual research to be flexible for code-switching. In a recent research group, for example, the moderator expected to speak Hindi but instead adapted to the participants’ preference for English with some Hindi code-switching.
  • Don’t make assumptions about language identity. Ask first. Identity is complex and terminology varies significantly by individual. For example, some members of the Latino community feel that the term Latinx is right for them, while others are uncomfortable with it.

• Foster community as part of your research plan. Community building enables you to create your own private research panel. Make sure to have a retention strategy in place as part of your research plan. This way, you don’t have to re-recruit individuals for every survey.

Actionable Tips to Get Started with Inclusive Multilingual Research

Ready to take the next step with multilingual research? Here are some extra tips from our panel of experts. 

• • Tread carefully with AI. While it has promise, this technology isn’t ready to be used with the wheels off. Post-editing AI translation is a heavily involved process, too. A human translator will have to verify that the context is accurate, that it reads naturally, and that it captures human nuance. Even “culture filters” in AI aren’t accurate and churn out silly or stereotypical responses. Avoid putting your trust in a system that isn’t yet mature enough to get high-quality results. 
  • Think about multilingual research early. Instead of reaching out to a partner in the final stage to clean up copy, try to incorporate translation services at kick-off. Waiting to later phases means you’ll be rushed and may end up with an imperfect solution. 
  • Consider every touch point, no matter how big or small. Check all your participant interactions, from the initial invite to the follow-up phase. Every engagement should be personalized and welcoming for participants. 

• Start small if you have a limited budget. You don’t have to do everything at once. Translate just one survey or in just one language, learn from the experience, and move on to more when possible. This way you’ll get a sense of the possibilities without overextending your budget. 

Huge thanks to Fuel Cycle for collaborating with us on this webinar! And if you’re keen to get even more insights, check out the full webinar on YouTube here, and of course reach out to us with questions about partnering with us!

CONTACT US