Category: General

Do You Have a Brochure That Needs Translation?

We have currently reached a period in history when spreading the word about just about anything is expected to appear in a variety of languages and not just in a single language like English. Sometimes translations of exact texts are hard to undertake if the source language is too complex. The text in some translations may take up more lines than in other languages. If you are planning to write an advertising brochure and you will want it translated into a variety of languages the easiest thing to do is keep the language simple. This not only makes it easier to translate but the variation in the number of words used in different languages won’t be so great.

Brochures that may have a catchphrase on the front page may find that when these words are translated into several European languages the number of words used may be two to three more than in English. Conversely, Korean and Chinese may take up less space because the number of words used is less.

How do professional translation services handle brochure translations?

As brochures are often arranged in an attractive way in order for one to appear similar in different languages sometimes there are too many words so the font needs to be condensed so that it fits into the required space. In languages where fewer words are used it’s necessary to stretch the words so that they fill the space.

There are times when the brochure designer thinks that it is more effective to write some words in a different color. However, not all translation services will be able to mimic the words in a chosen color and get the meaning right too.

The suggestion is to concentrate on the use of 2 fonts which should be sans serif and a serif. It is possible to bold, italicize, and underline but the effect is not necessarily the same in the translated material as in the original.

The best way to ensure your brochure gets the best treatment when it’s translated is to consult the professional translator first to decide what fonts and features are best used for your type of translation.

No Cantonese Translation of Pokémon is Available Today

Despite Cantonese being widely spoken, it is often neglected when it comes to translating the language. Even online translators like Google Translate don’t seem to offer Cantonese as one of its translatable languages. Cantonese speakers are now angry because Nintendo has decided to scrap the translation of Pokémon Sun and Moon into Cantonese, despite the fact that there are many marketing translators who can translate into and from Cantonese available to do the job.

Earlier in the year Nintendo announced that the games would be translated into traditional Chinese Taiwanese for Hong Kong residents and for Mainland Chinese into simplified Chinese. But in the process of doing this they have dropped the local names which are in Cantonese characters and united the Mandarin. Hong Kong’s Pokémon fans made their way to the Japanese consulate united in a protest and were offered the support of Civic Passion, the anti-communist party. Their signs and banners were scrawled with slogans demanding the name Bei-kaa-chyu, Pikachu’s name in Cantonese, be restored replacing the name Pei-kaa-jau which is the new name.

The political group, considered to be right wing, became involved due to the fact that the Cantonese language is of great importance to Cantonese identity, which the Chinese Communist Party in government has oppressed. Despite the fact that Pokémon games do not appear to be that important to people, it is just the linguistic diversity that is considered vital to their way of life.

Most translation services ensure that the language they are asked to translate is always translated by a specialist in that language and even someone close to fluency would not be allowed to undertake the translation. It’s important that a translator knows the difference between languages and dialects and gets the translation right. If a professional translation service is asked to provide a Cantonese translator then that will be the translator who is sent to do the job not a Mandarin translator. One of the most important things about today’s translators is their dedication to the link between culture and language so that the translation performed is done in such a way that no-one is upset into the process.

Localisation Today Will Save Your Money Tomorrow!

Investing in Future Gains

Localisation is without any doubt an investment that will make gains for your business in the future. Like all investments, payment for a localization project that is paid in advance will reap benefits in the future. Boosting sales through localization means that the customer base for your product will rise which will mean that the costs of any services you may offer in relation to your product will be spread across your increase in sales.

Shifting Focus: Customer-Driven Localisation

Traditionally, localisation existed to attract new customers who have little or no understanding of the language where a product originated. It was more about attracting the customer while today customers are seeking out products themselves and are far more attracted by products that have their descriptions localized. Professional translation services can do a great job localising your business so that it becomes a household name among your customers.

The Preferred Path: Pre-Translated Information

There are in reality very few potential customers that are likely to spend time getting product information translated using an online translator and they would much prefer that the language translation has been done for them. They might get the impression that you are offering something they really want but they don’t want to take the risk and make a purchase unless they have read the information in their own language.

Clarity Through Localisation

Misunderstandings are only too common when potential customers attempting to read information in a language other than their own. If you have not localised your product text, the potential customer may try to use machine translation which may not represent your product in the way you want.

The Power of NAATI Translation

Localising is the best way to be sure that any information about your company, its products, and its services conveys the right message in all languages you choose. Some products need to be used safely and product warnings are essential to ensure the safety of your customers. Localisation is quite simply a customer service that helps to keep customers informed once they have purchased your products and attracts new customers. A NAATI translation is world-renowned for its accuracy and can draw in potential customers faster than you could ever imagine.

What Is Fan Translation or Fanslation?

Fan translation is a translation that is not officially recognised, but is used for the translating of both written and multimedia products. The translators are called fans and unlike certified translation services professionals, have not received any formal education in the art of translating. They often volunteer to translate such things as television series, movies and other audiovisual products.

Fansubbing is the name given to translating movie and TV subtitles. The most common fansubbing is turning English into other languages mostly for Hollywood movies, and US TV drama programmes. When it comes to using English in subtitles entertainment from East Asia is most commonly translated.

Fan translation for video games has risen recently, focusing mainly on the older versions of 1990s games. Scanlation is the translating of comics where the fans go about scanning the comics ad transforming them into images on their computers. They then translate the words placed on the pictures. These translations normally stay in electronic format and are distributed to viewers and buyers. Groups of fans also act as Fandubbers which is when movies, TV programs, and video games are dubbed. This is an area of translation that is unlikely to see the work of a NAATI-certified translator. Fan translation also takes place for the translating of written fiction, normally short stories.

The fan translation of audiovisual materials, such as anime, first started in the 1980s when fans were offering to provide better translations than ones that at the time were being used in their dubbed form on TV networks located outside Japan.

The earliest fandubbing and fansubbing attempts concerned the manipulating of VHS tapes which was often expensive and took up a lot of time. The first ever reported fansub was the film, Lupin III, that took place in the U.S. in the 1980s. This translation task needed one hundred hours of work just for a single episode!

Does Quick Turnaround of Translation Mean High Quality?

When you are running a business and you have competitors the chances are you race through everything from marketing to selling to delivery. Speed is important to outwit your competitors so that your revenue is maximized and your costs are minimized, spread over a period of time, or spread through your volume of sales.

Translations fit into the same category as any business and those that request document translation services related to the marketing of their products want them done as fast as any other tasks in the running of their business.

Sometimes you have to think twice when it comes to the speed of the delivery of a product and in particular translations. A NAATI translator being told to rush a translation means quality is not met and in the end, satisfaction is less.

All translators are bilingual but when it comes to translating a text it doesn’t mean the task can be completed as quickly as a typist types out a letter or a thesis for a student. A typist may be able to type a minimum of 40 words a minute and in many cases more but a translator can only complete around 2 to 2,500 words a day and for a day that runs for 8 hours that is only 5 words a minute.

Of course, this is only an average, and the speed at which a translation is carried out depends on other variables too such as the context of the translation and how much prior knowledge the translator has in that area. Some translators have created glossaries of the most common terms used in a particular language but they still have to search for the right words that fit inappropriately with the text.

What is involved with a translation?

There is no doubt that every translation is different and not all the original text is necessarily easy to understand let alone translate. In order for a translation to closely resemble the text is not the only word for word translation but context and culture to requires not only language knowledge but the ability to interpret the context and thoroughly understand the culture of the translated language. Often linguists need to conduct research to find the best word that fits nicely into a contextual relationship. This will mean the translation will be of high quality and best suit the client’s requirements.

Translation Services Offer NYC Schools a Communication Bridge

When people migrate to a country like the U.S. not all of their family are necessarily competent enough to communicate effectively in English. This makes it very difficult when a non-English speaking parent has to handle issues relating to their children in public schools. Organisations representing minority language communities in New York City who have been asking New York City’s Department of Education (DOE) to expand the interpretation and translation services for parents to use in public school interactions have finally won.

The DOE’s efforts to expand access to language resources to bridge the gap between parents and school staff has led to 9 new full-time jobs employed in the Borough Field Support Centres and Affinity Groups who are being given the job of accessing each New York City’s school needs when it comes to providing good accessible interpretation and translation services by NAATI certified translators.

This expansion means there will be more phone interpreters on standby to talk to parents after 5 p.m. directly without the need to connect first through the Translation and Interpretation Unit and have the call forwarded to a suitable interpreter. There will be interpreters on hand who can speak a total of 200 languages.

The DOE says it is important that parents can connect with people who can speak their language and convey their concerns to the right people in their child’s school as quickly as possible. The DOE has said it is dedicated to ensuring that parents and the students of their schools will be able to access the services of professionals who are both culturally sensitive as well as having a full understanding of the language that a parent wishes to communicate in.

There are many issues in schools that parents from other cultures and languages may not fully understand when they first come to live in New York City. The same happens in other countries that have large immigrant populations such as Australia that offer translation services in Australia to parents and spouses of immigrants who do not fully understand English when they first arrive in the country. As well as interpreter services they will also need a translation by a NAATI-certified translator for official documents and their children’s school records when they first arrive in the country and find a school place for each of their children.

Where is Machine Translation Heading?

Is machine translation (MT) advancing in leaps and bounds or is it going nowhere? Who uses machine translation technology and are they finding it useful?

Machine translation technology has been around for quite a while now and one would have thought that it would have become sufficiently advanced enough that professional translation services would be taking advantage of it. That doesn’t seem to have happened and MT is somewhere in a middle-of-the-road situation. It’s advanced enough that it can be used for amateur translation and take out some of the load from the work of professional translators but isn’t yet good enough to replace human translation for anything which is technical or official in nature.

Improvements in machine translation software and technology lie with software engineers and software developers. They are in a bit of a quandary because there is a certain amount of doubt about the eventual goal of machine translation. Where is it going? What will it be able to do in say 10 or 20 years’ time?

The advantages of a fully automatic translation tool for any sort of translation services in Australia or anywhere else in the world are obvious, but can MT ever replace the depth of knowledge of a human translator?

Those who work for professional translation services do not have the time to refine machine translation vocabulary and grammar abilities. Time is money and they depend on their own skills to convert text from one language into another as accurately as possible. At present, even the best MT translations need significant post-translation editing and proofreading. Granted, that’s true for any translation task. Woe betides any translator who thinks their raw translation is good enough for a client. The better the editing and proofreading, the more accurate the final translation and the more likely there will be a good working relationship with the client and repeat work.

MT is fine for personal use, especially when someone is browsing a website in a language they don’t understand or when they are traveling or communicating with a stranger. It’s certainly not perfect, but perfection is not the issue. You can’t always wait for a translation to appear just when you want it and there’s not always a suitable bilingual person around to interpret something for you and anyway perfection isn’t always necessary every time.

With the trend towards the internationalization of business and the growing need to communicate across borders quickly and efficiently there is a huge incentive to improve machine translation technology. No one can predict just where the technology will be and how much it has replaced human translators in the near to medium-term future.

What are the Differences Between UK and US Styles of Translation?

There is always an element of doubt as to whether a non-native translator is able to produce the same quality of translation as a native translator of a language and this rings true when it comes to the translating of different versions of English. Even though English originated from one source it is now a language that is used by cultures who do not have the same cultural affiliation to the language as the original native speakers.

Often a translation service in Melbourne will remind its translator to translate into US English, not UK English. This doesn’t bring about any special problems as long as the translator remembers to set the spell-check feature on his or her computer to US English. Of course, most competent professional translation services should know most of the features of both languages with the commonest difference being some spellings where in US English certain letters are omitted. There are also other less obvious differences such as the way the day and month are ordered when written in a document.

Further differences are typically to do with word usages such as in an employment context whether ‘staff’ or ’employees’ should be used. Normally, these uncertainties can be resolved by undertaking a Google search. The use of adjectives are important too as what the UK English user may feel more comfortable with may not apply to the US counterpart. Words like the use of splendid or superb come up from time to time as do fantastic or excellent.

When using language in either the US or the UK context any translation should flow well and fit into its context seamlessly without any distraction to the reader. When it comes to translating in the business context US and UK readers will understand the English used but the right English operates better in terms of register and tone.

If you go to the BBC website and you find an article that doesn’t fit the bill when it comes to UK English usage but reads as American English you will undoubtedly notice it and may feel uncomfortable. However, if the same article was to appear in the New York Times then you would probably feel completely different.

When I was visiting Miami recently I was wondering for a time why people kept asking me to repeat a request for a cup of coffee. After quite a time, I discovered that when I said ‘May I please have a cup of of coffee’ it just wasn’t specific enough and what they wanted to hear was ‘Can I get a cup of coffee?’

When you don’t do your language research properly as a translator you may found your final translation is put in the wastepaper bin, the trashcan, put out with the garbage in a refuse sack which is put in the dustbin.

Web Marketing Tips for a Small Translation Service

There are still some businesses that only operate in specific local regions, as the type of product they sell is demanded only in that market, or that product can only be provided there. You find this mainly in service industries such as plumbing, electrical and refrigeration.

You can’t fix a consumer’s home plumbing system via teleconference because, obviously, a worker needs to be at a physical location to complete the job.

The good news is that this restriction doesn’t exist for a variety of industries, for instance a small translation business. Translators can tap into global markets by promoting their services using the most modern techniques. Then, when a project arrives in their inbox it can be completed and returned to the client in the same way as it was received.

This year there is an unprecedented opportunity for online marketing services, especially with the rise of wearable devices that keep people on the move and connected 24/7. Just a simple glance at a smartwatch on the wrist is enough to bring you as close as you could possibly get to your customers in this digital world.

Smartphones are constantly switched on and people are spending up to two hours each day browsing mobile sites. With all these electronic devices available, keeping people informed, the consumer picks out content that catches the eye and this is where the skilled marketer can get ahead of their competitors.

When an online visitor reaches your website, by clicking a link or making a search on a search engine, they expect to see something eye catching and simple to use.

A translation company could use a variety of marketing techniques to instantly communicate the value of their service, such as showing testimonials from happy clients, providing examples of successful translation projects in all the most important languages, maybe even an online chat facility where potential clients can ask questions.

Over the past decade, for all businesses, a strong online web presence has been a great marketing tool but now it’s more important than ever to have a functioning website and this key digital asset can make or break any business.

You should also think about securing promtions off your website. Ask the question, “what types of businesses are already working with my next best customer?” A translation service might partner with marketing agencies, global attorneys, or market expansion consultants to offer translation services to their customers who may soon need to localize their expertise.
Offer to write guest blog posts for your partners, potentially in multiple languages, to help your partners while at the same time securing casual introductions of your business all around the globe.

Localization is a key opportunity for a translation company to showcase its product. With all the skills and knowledge of translation there is no better time than now than to reach out to global clients wherever they are in the world.

Research has indicated that people are far more likely to buy a product if the website is in their own language. So, in result, translating your small business website into some of the key world languages will mean you will attract international clients.

Going Global With the Help of Translation Services in Australia

Professional translation services in Australia have sprung up in every major city to cater to the demand for a huge range of document and website translation services. Part of this demand comes from the number of migrants, either temporary or permanent to Australia who need some, or all, of their important documents like birth, marriage certificates, qualifications and employment records translated by certified translation services to meet requirements for employment and immigration.

Probably more important in the long term is the increasing demand for translation services in Australia to meet the demand for the growth in global business. Many businesses right around the world have recognised that their potential profits could grow immensely as long as they could market their products and services in such a way that customers could understand exactly what was available and why they should buy them.

Not so long ago, the general attitude of many nationally based businesses was they should confine themselves to dealing with customers at home, as the prospect of trying to communicate with potential customers overseas seemed to be too difficult.

The growth of electronic communication and the almost global access that most of the world’s citizens have to the internet has changed the commercial environment completely.

Now, a Chinese business can sell to the world, whether it has business partners elsewhere in the world or not. However, it is unlikely to be very successful unless what they are selling is understood by the millions of people who cannot understand Chinese!

The same story is repeated right around the world. Australian businesses that wish to sell to the world must use translators who are experienced in the field that the business is involved in. Similarly, Australia and the Pacific Rim countries are important markets for hundreds of businesses elsewhere in the world. Many of them have their bases in nations where English is not the main language, so again these businesses must use professional translators to translate their websites, marketing material, legal documents, business documents and so on.

Most businesses would be wise to choose certified translation services such as NAATI accredited translators in Australia to guarantee that the translation services they use are of an acceptable standard.