Are you running an Israeli business? Does someone on your team have strong Hebrew?
shares
If not, your company is suffering, and you might not even know it.
Just passable Hebrew isn’t enough.
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I know.
Employees are the backbone and spirit of your business. You want people on your team with both the skills AND culture that align with you. Israelis don’t always fit into the western-minded corporate culture that immigrants to Israel want for their organization.
However, two recent experiences drove home why even the best English-speaking businesses in Israel need strong Hebrew within their ranks.
𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐄 #𝟏 – 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐖𝐘𝐄𝐑
My client was in a dispute with an employee.
The Israeli lawyer for this employee was emailing my client (and me) about the issue in English because the client and employee were most comfortable in English. Makes sense.
However, as the emails started to get a bit contentious, I noticed that the lawyer’s tone had become harsh, uncooperative, and at times… unclear.
Enough. I picked up the phone and spoke to her in Hebrew. She altered her tone immediately and said, “Why didn’t you tell me you speak Hebrew?!”
It then hit me that her business English lacked the nuance of a native English speaker.
𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐄 #𝟐 – 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐓
An international company with entities in Israel and abroad had a complicated VAT question.
After my third meeting (always in English) with my international client and their Israeli Big4 accounting team, the issue still wasn’t resolved, and my client was growing frustrated.
During this latest call something clicked. Immediately after I called the accountant and asked if we could speak in Hebrew as I had a suspicion that the nuances in Hebrew weren’t coming across when he spoke in English.
Bingo. That was it.
“Final Beneficiary” wasn’t the same thing as “Benefiting from Service.” Close, but distinct enough that it has a large impact on practical application. That small nuance allowed the accountants and my client to finally see eye-to-eye and move the conversation.
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There are practical and financial ramifications when things get lost in translation.
Even the most international of companies and culture still need to navigate Israeli bureaucracy.
Identify if Hebrew is a weakness at your company and compensate through a fixed employee or an outsourced resource you can trust.
Let this year finally be the year that Hebrew stops being a liability for you and instead becomes an asset.
𝘞𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘩 𝘛𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘩, 𝘢 𝘏𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 & 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘳.
May we see true peace speedily in our days, with the return of all of our soldiers and hostages to their homes.
