Ever Thought About the Value of Translation for Your Business?

Are you thinking of expanding your business overseas? Have you considered how you are going to get your message across to those who don’t speak English? Research has shown that 80% or more of Internet browsers prefer websites in their own language and they might just miss out on what you have to offer unless you have translated all your marketing material.

In fact, these days it’s not just targeting an overseas market for whatever it is that you produce that’s important. There are many communities right in your midst who appreciate information in their own language, even if they have a working knowledge of the main language of that country.

You might now be thinking how you can cut a few corners with translation tasks. Do you really need to pay out for a professional translation service? The short answer is “yes.” The cheap alternative is to use one or other of the readily available computer generated translation programmes, but they are not up to scratch if you are serious about attracting business. In fact, a poorly translated marketing message could do the opposite to what it is intended to do. It could offend, confuse, amuse or annoy your target audience, but it might not help to sell your goods.

Businesses that most benefit from professional translation services

Businesses depend on professional translators not just when they market their goods. They may need to translate information or technical manuals so they can be used by buyers who speak a different language. That includes businesses that manufacture appliances and technical products of all kinds.

Medical equipment suppliers may need document translation experts to translate medical information and instructions so that their specialised equipment can be used elsewhere.

Most businesses that choose to expand into other countries will find a raft of regulations they have to deal with. They may need legal documents translated, applications for subsidiaries and branch outlets to be set up and a stream of communication that has to be translated so that it can be read and understood by partners and officials anywhere where the business is intending to expand into.

The travel and tourism industry has long embraced professional translation services, although some of the worst translated materials are also present in this sector. Many tourism operators, hotels, travel agents, anyone involved in dealing with overseas tourists will need to make sure they have advertising material and information in the most common languages of the tourists that come regularly to that country. Tourists will come again if they feel at home and welcomed in their host country and well translated, culturally sensitive and accurate material will help to make that all the more certain.

The Talmud Now Available in Italian

The Talmud, an important Jewish work, has now been translated into Italian. The massive document translation project is the very first of its kind in 500 years of history of the Talmud.

The Talmud was originally published in Aramaic, a language that predates Hebrew and Arabic and is still spoken by small communities scattered across the Middle East. Aramaic was widely spoken in the parts of the world where Judaism began many centuries ago, but the oral laws of the Jewish religion were not published for a long time because of the persecution of the Jewish people and the subsequent diaspora.

The new translation has been the project of 20 individual researchers, together with 70 translators, in a state funded project in Italy. At the time of writing of this article, the completed volume of the Rosh Hashanah is due to be presented to Italy’s President Mattarella.

The translation services project cost the Italian Government 5 million euros with an Italian software package called Traduco being used to help complete the translation from the original Amharic into Italian and Hebrew.

The project’s chairman was a Rabbi called Riccardo Di Segni, who is the chief rabbi in Rome. Rabbi Di Segni led the team of historians, linguists, researchers and translators after the project, dubbed “Project Talmud,” was initiated five years ago in 2011.

The Traduco software has been specially designed to help translate ancient texts like the Talmud. It allows researchers and document translation experts wherever they are in the world to communicate and exchange valuable information as they tackle complex translation tasks. Rabbi Di Segni said that it was a very new way of working on the Talmud and envisioned that it could be very useful elsewhere on other translation projects.

The completed volume is to be published by an Italian publishing company called La Giuntina, which is a specialist publisher of Jewish literature.

The Talmud is the source of oral Jewish law, which is divided into two main sections: the Mishnah and the Gemara. The Mishnah is the law as it was originally written down from the oral version and the Gemara comprises the additions and commentary on the law by various rabbis down the centuries.

This may be the first time that the Talmud has been translated into Italian, but it can already be accessed online in Hebrew. Some Orthodox Jews will make it one of their daily tasks to read a page at least of the Talmud, a pursuit which is called Daf Yomi in Hebrew, translated into English as “a page a day.” The word “Talmud” actually means “to learn” or “to teach.”

Is Back Translation a Waste of Time and Money?

The short answer to that question is that it depends on how extensive and complex the original translation is. In many cases, where short simple translations such as are commonly handled by document translation services, like driving license and marriage certificate translations, back translation is probably unnecessary. However, for important projects like medical or legal document translations using a back translation as part of the whole translation process may be justified.

But what exactly is back translation and what does it involve? Back translation is usually the last stage in a translation and is most likely to take place after editing and proofreading. For example. imagine that a document has been translated from English into Chinese (or vice versa). Once the main translation has been completed, a back translation would involve the text being translated back again into the original language, so in the example just given it would mean translating back from Chines into English. The back translation, like proofreading is most effective when it is done by a translator who is not the same person who did the forward translation.

Why complete a back translation?

At first sight, it seems unnecessary to double the workload if a translation service provider has been chosen to do the original translation who is competent and experienced. However, it is amazing how back translation can reveal errors in meaning which never show up with proof reading, so it is something which is definitely worth doing if accuracy is paramount.

The sorts of documents that benefit from back translation are things like instruction manuals, technical documents, legal documents of all types and medical instrumentation information and dosage instructions. The list could be expanded to include any sort of translation which requires extreme accuracy and where errors in meaning could end up being costly mistakes or even result in harm.

If your business depends on translation but you are unsure about the accuracy of a translation service provider you are using for the first time, performing a back translation with another translator will serve to illustrate just how good the original translation was. This might be a lot cheaper than losing valuable clients or even being involved in a lawsuit because of an inaccuracy in a translation!

Software that can Translate Audio into Another Language

There is no end to the amount of research now being done into helping us speak more than one language. Microsoft has now developed software that can recognise speech, whether from an audio recording or from a person’s natural voice, and can translate it into a second language that sounds exactly like the original voice. This could be fantastic news when someone wants a document translation when conducting a presentation at a conference.

Has the Word Okay Become a Truly Universal Expression?

Most people if asked about the word “okay” or its shortened versions of “OK” and “O.K.” would probably think that its origin is the U.S. This may be at least partially correct, because it is certainly not a word or term that was in use in England before the second world war and it use in the English speaking world seems to have arisen from after contact with U.S. forces during that period in the nineteenth century and the arrival of U.S. T.V. shows and films.

But is “okay” actually an American expression originally and how much is it recognised around the world today? There are actually a number of competing possibilities for the origin of the word and probably no-one is absolutely sure. One story, probably the one that is most widely recognised, at least in North America that the word “okeh” is actually an Amerindian word (north American Indian) meaning in English “That’s right” or “Yes it is so”. Other possible origins are a Mande word from West Africa, “o-ke” which means more or less the same as we understand it to mean in English. Other West African languages, such as Wolof and Mantu have similar sounding words to “okay” like “waw-kay”.

Whatever the origin, the word certainly seems to have taken residence in many other parts of the world and has been adopted as part of the foreign language additions to many other languages. No-one that is involved with translation services worldwide has to worry about the translation of this particular idiomatic expression!

In English, “okay” has several different meanings and can be used as a stand-alone expression or a part of speech. For instance, it can be used as an adjective in such an expression as “It’s an okay day today”. It can be used as a single answer to a question like “How are you?” “O.K., Thanks!” or just “O.K.”

Its adoption elsewhere in the world hasn’t changed the basic meaning of the word and wherever you go, even in countries where English is rarely spoken, you can bet that some version of “O.K.” is understood. It may have become an accepted part of that language’s vocabulary and even when two people are speaking together in Hindi, Chinese, Spanish or Yoruba you can most likely hear the ubiquitous and useful little word spoken!

The Top Five Marketing Translation Strategies

One of the best slogans for marketing is being open to new ideas. Marketing teams spend much time and money finding the perfect slogan and catch phrase. Every translation you have done and every marketplace you encounter might not necessarily suit your list of catch phrases and slogans. You have to ensure the words you use will fit your audience.

Make use of Style Guides

Most translators have a readymade style guide that will contain logo designs and other corporate language requirements. This is necessary for all the languages that the translation company is likely to encounter.  You will have to ensure the marketing translation services you use make use of the right style.

What is your Audience?

When you are marketing your products and services you have to know your audience well so that you can pitch your marketing strategy correctly. You can get researchers to help define your market.

Prioritize what is necessary 

It is not always necessary to focus on getting translated every marketing item you have got such as sales brochures, emails, posters, ads and Web sites but you should try to find out what your new market is likely to react to the most readily. High quality marketing translation services can be quite expensive so you should use your dollars where they will impact the most. Translating a poster that no one is likely to look at is a waste of money and will not have much of an impact on your sales.

Localize 

You should ensure that any marketing materials focus on the appropriate cultural context, even if it happens to be in English, as there are many colloquialisms that if used may attract more attention than you may have realized. You may miss out on important business openings if you can’t get the language just right.

Consistency is necessary  when marketing  but a translation service has to be a little bit more adaptable when translating product information into other languages so you as a business has to be a patient and  flexible until you get the translation that fits exactly your business requirements.