More than Translation: Best Practices for a Multi-Language Study

By Ankur Christian, Client Success Manager, and Rachel Gorman, Marketing Specialist

Global studies are more important than ever. More companies are entering or expanding to international markets, and with that comes its own set of challenges. To truly understand people, you need to do more than just record their words, but also their meaning, context, and intent. Multi-language studies open the door to these insights on a global scale, but only if they are done right.

What is a Multi-Language Study?

A multi-language study takes a global approach to market research, with participants that are selected across multiple languages and geographical locations. The primary goal of a multi-language study is to capture perspectives of participants within their specific regional and cultural contexts that a single-language study may not accurately identify.

Culture has a significant impact on our perspectives, and multi-language studies can help you access cultures and perspectives that may otherwise be limited by language. These studies provide insight into the differences in interpretation, social norms, and sensitive topics that can have an impact on expanding and international companies. Multi-language studies allow you to see the full picture that can ultimately impact analysis and decision making.

Common Challenges

"Lost in translation" is a saying for a reason. Challenges can happen at all fronts, from language to culture. With a multi-language study you need to juggle all the usual research obstacles as well as some new ones.

Translation Errors: Whether you use a human translator or a digital one, translation errors can pose a barrier to accurate insights. Moderators and translators may not be from the same background as participants or each other. They may have different understandings of a certain meaning or phrase from the participant, which can be made more confusing with the addition of dialects (e.g. Canadian French vs France French). To make matters more complex, some languages may also have words or phrases that are difficult to translate accurately.
Taboo Topics or Cultural Differences: Some cultures within a language may be more reluctant to discuss certain topics. For example, someone living in the United States may be more open about discussing mental health than someone living in India, which can prove a challenge to ensure both perspectives are heard.
Recruitment: Recruitment across multiple countries and communities can prove an additional challenge. Care must be taken to ensure that your study will not only gather participants’ insights correctly, but will have them show up at all.
Cost-Cutting: Running a multi-language study can become expensive, but cost-cutting measures can come with their own hidden costs as well. Only translating once or using AI may not come up with accurate results, and meaning may get left behind.

Best Practices

Being aware of the obstacles you might encounter in a study is the first step to overcoming them, but how do you do that? In a multi-language study, most challenges can be summed up into two categories: language, and culture. These two best practices can address the problems of each, making for more accurate and useful insights.

Back Translation: When translation errors are a risk, back translation is the best tool to combat them and retain the original meaning. In this process, the original transcript is translated from the source language to the target language. Then a different, unrelated translator reverts it to the source language again. By comparing the new and original versions, inconsistencies, cultural misinterpretations, and wording issues can be identified and addressed. While it takes a little extra time, it is well worth the peace of mind; improving accuracy and ensuring that content is conceptually equivalent across languages.
Recruit by Geographic Location: While there is a lot to consider when it comes to recruitment, adjusting your sample size by location can help you get closer to unbiased and accurate insights. Cultural differences between French speaking Canada, France, and Madagascar are immense, and oversaturating your study with mostly one locale or another will introduce inaccuracies. Recruiting equally across multiple locations and cultures ensures that you are getting accurate results for your target language that aren’t too heavily influenced one way or another by regional or cultural differences.

Multi-Language Studies with itracks

If you have a multi-language study in mind, itracks can help. Multi-language studies are achievable across our solutions, from the asynchronous itracks Board to the synchronous itracks Realtime (both video and text chat)!

Complete asynchronous research with itracks Board. Ideal for remote or busy people, or for cultures that operate with looser perceptions of time, itracks Board allows participants to log in on their own leisure and answer text and video-based questions in digital diary-style discussions. The entirety of your itracks Board study can be conducted in the source language, and once complete transcripts can be downloaded for review. Use the raw transcripts in their original form or translate them immediately after downloading to your target language.

itracks Realtime allows you to conduct studies live with participants. Non-English language options are available for video groups, video IDIs, or text-based focus groups so that you can tailor your study to best suit your needs. Stakeholders and client observers can watch in the observer's backroom unseen by participants. Unique to multi-language studies, a translator can translate the participant's conversation live to observers and communicate to the moderator if the backroom has any insights or probing questions. itracks allows for a customizable experience, with the option to mute the backroom or focus group depending on the language preferences of the observers.

Once complete, transcripts are available to download in the original language, or they can be directly translated into the target language. Video focus groups allow for the additional download of the participant and moderator video and audio so you can capture and review key moments. Each stream is recorded separately, allowing you to review and organize with ease.

With so many parts to consider, conducting a multi-language study can be a challenge. But it is not impossible! Take care to consider culture, translation methods, and the tools you use to support your study. With the right combination, multi-language studies will enrich your insights and unlock a world of research.

Interested in reading more about research on the global scale? Check out our article Best Practices for Conducting International Research.