Gamtoomina Asset... They Know-How... Eesatti Sana: Evidence of Translanguaging in SME International Business Interaction

Abstract

Multilingual communication is a central feature of international business interaction in small and medium enterprises (henceforth SMEs), where multilingual speakers often need to negotiate meaning across linguistic and cultural differences. However, studies of meaning negotiation among these speakers in business interaction is still relatively scarce. This article, therefore, examines multilingual speakers’ use of translanguaging in naturally occurring international business meetings to sustain communication, mediate understanding, and accomplish professional tasks. Participants were four SMEs practitioners and their six international interlocutors, all of whom were involved in intercultural communications discussing product and business promotions. The six international interlocutors were prospective buyers, business representatives, and partners. Drawing on qualitative analysis of audiovisual recordings from four face-to-face business meetings, the study explores how participants translanguaged Minangnese, Indonesian, English, and Swahili, together with bodily postures, gaze, material artefacts, and digital resources in the course of multicultural interaction. The findings showed that translanguaging functions as a strategic multilingual resource for establishing shared understanding, supporting mediation and negotiation, building trust and intercultural alignment, and enabling creative meaning-making in professional encounters. The study also revealed that English does not operate as a self-sufficient and autonomous medium, but as one resource within a broader communicative ecology in which local and global repertoires coexist and are mobilized according to interactional needs and communicative purposes. By examining multilingual business communication in the Indonesian SME context, this article contributes to research on multilingual communicative practices and highlights the importance of translanguaging as a flexible communicative resource in professional life.