Don't Lose Your Foreign Web Site Visitors by Insulting Them With Brain-Dead Translation Services

For some internet marketers it's become a cutting edge strategy to offer multi lingual navigation and promo material on their sites in the hope of expanding their client base. While it is true that international users whose mother tongue is anything but English are beginning to hit the web in hefty numbers, catering to them in their own linguistic format is an art in itself which doesn't lend itself to the cheap and easy "no brainer" pseudo solutions currently being hawked on the net. If you offer them one of those, chances are you'll fend them off forever. Count it as a well-meaning blunder as much as you will, fact is these clients-to-be can be quite relentless if you convey the impression that you couldn't care less about offering first class services. Don't forget that very many people actually love their mother tongue and don't enjoy seeing it massacred.

Linguistics and translation are sciences in their own right demanding due respect or - at the very least - professional handling. One thing the non-expert should get rid off - the sooner the better! - is the fond myth that familiarity with your mother tongue implies that you know all about language and its social ramifications. And it's not about lack of command of a foreign tongue either - more often than not, it's the basic concepts which are flawed, such as the belief that a word-by-word translation, though admittedly not very elegant, will at least give you a "general idea" of the source text's content. While this may actually be true to some extent within the very limited context of highly specialized technical fields (academic papers on chemistry rich in formulae and procedural descriptions being a case in point), the old law school adage "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" rules even here. Needless to say, relying on imperfect automatization can make matters even worse.

Translation bots tend to reflect this faulty reasoning, and their backing by popular opinion - uneducated in these matters as it usually is - is no great help either.

Here's just one example of what can happen if you opt for less-than-professional (read: usually free) "translation services". Let's take a real life German site rich in textual content and have a look at what the most popular translator bot makes of it.

"Welcomely
tsigaan soft systems
tsigaan news
Software and computer services, also very good, give it meanwhile like the proverbial sand at the sea. Thousands of companies and Hirnen compile world-wide daily the most refined solutions, and although within this area - like everywhere in the life - all gold is long not, which probably shines there, then the standards and the requirements of the users in the last years nevertheless ever more rose." Source:

"Translation":

Seriously - would you really want to see your site represented in this manner? Welcomely, indeed!

And don't try to argue that this is, after all, "better than nothing" - it's the seeming familiarity of the language presented, the fond illusion of "at least getting the gist of it" that's the really nasty part. Because it can (and most certainly will!) lead you astray in ever so many subtle ways, and in the end you may be worse off by a long shot than if you hadn't understood a single word in the first place. Simply ask yourself if you would sign a million dollar contract of this linguistic "quality" ...

With the current US dominance of the WWW clearly waning (as all major studies and analyses will show), getting linked internationally will become ever more critical. World wide, surfers aren't content with sticking to local or localized search engines in their own language: rather, the English language is rapidly gaining ground everywhere, even in the former communist states, not mention in formerly French or Spanish dominated regions. These people, more and more of whom are well educated, bilingual and fairly well versed in English, are increasingly making use of stateside search engines. It is only a question of time until even All-American engines will have to adapt to this situation, if only to accomodate their international advertisers. Hence, it stands to reason that only link popularity based on real world web demographics (as opposed to mere wishful thinking and established political and cultural prejudices) will be able to satisfy advertisers' and users' demands.

So do it right or do it not! Either employ a bona fide professional translation service or get someone to revamp your online copy to accomodate all those international clients whose command of English, while fairly well informed, is not quite up to par with your US or UK biased industrial lingo, er, parlance.

This holds true vice versa for non-English sites as well, of course: don't even dream of relying on one of the translator bots doing a good job and permitting you to cut one single sale! And while your English teacher at school may have lauded your enthusiasm over and again, don't delude yourself that this makes you a native speaker.

If you are interested in English or American or Australian or New Zealand clients at all, don't give them the impression of amateurish incompetence by refusing to acknowledge the fact that your command of English may be less than perfect. This is, after all, nothing to be ashamed of - whereas trying to get by this problem on the cheap very well should be! If there's one thing you want to avoid in marketing it's getting laughed out of court.

The following sites offer "translation" services or, rather, pretend to do so - use at own risk: http://babelfish.altavista.com/ http://translator.go.com/ http://www.dictionary.com/translate/ http://www.voila.com/Services/Translate/

Ralph Tegtmeier is the co-founder and principal of fantomaster.com Ltd. (UK) and fantomaster.com GmbH (Belgium), a company specializing in webmasters software development, industrial-strength cloaking and search engine positioning services. You can contact him at mailto:fneditor@fantomaster.com

Free Stuff: Translation Services

One of very cool facts about the internet is that it is truly global in scope. You can send emails to people all over the planet, visit newsgroups and find posts in different languages, and you can rest assured that your web site will probably be seen by people of other cultures and nationalities.

It still boggles my mind when I surf to a Russian or Czechoslovakian site. I still feel a thrill when I find pages from the People's Republic of China, Hungary and Vietnam. This is because I grew up during the Cold War era, and clearly remember speeches where Ronald Reagan referred to Russia as the evil empire. Yet now we can surf their web sites at will, and people in Russia can look at ours as often as they like.

Personally, I think this is the true purpose of the internet, and it's great promise - to help people communicate with one another. By talking (or sending emails or whatever) we can become more in tune with each other's needs, desires, lifestyles, hopes, dreams and other emotions, which in turn allows us all to understand what's going on and why people act the way that they do.

Surfing the internet I have come to know people in Russia, one of the most powerful countries in the world, had to stand in line to get potatoes, something that I eat everyday and take for granted. I have come to tears learning about famines in Africa and felt joy learning of a South African woman's new child. These are experiences that I may never have shared had I not been surfing the internet.

However, one of the frustrations of this vast melding of cultures and communications is language. Many of these pages, emails and postings are written in languages which are not known to me. I am sure that virtually everyone has felt the same frustration of seeing a wonderful web page and not being able to understand what the author was attempting to communicate.

You will be happy to know that you can use any of the following free translation services to translate text from one language to another.

Babelfish
http://babelfish.altavista.com/ In a strange and wonderful book called "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy", a small creature known as a Babelfish allows you to understand (telepathically) the speech of any other race in the entire galaxy. All you need to do is put this small fish into your ear. The fish "eats" speech (more or less) and excretes a telepathic translation into your brain.

If only it were that simple. Needless to say, the Babelfish service (which was purchased by Altavista) is not that good, but nonetheless, it serves the purpose. Simply paste some text into the box (or choose a webpage), select the "To" and "From" languages and click a button. Within a short time the text will be translated for you. It's not perfect but it works.

T-Mail
http://www.t-mail.com/index2.shtml You can use this service two ways: by registering, you get a mail address of your_name@t-mail.com. Messages send to that mail address are automatically converted from one language to your preferred language. T-Mail forwards the translation to your current e-mail address.

If you don't want to register, you can use your current e-mail account and send a message to a buddy (or yourself perhaps). By typing the appropriate T-Mail address on the Cc: line of the same message before sending it, you instruct T-Mail to translate the email message from one language to another. The original message is delivered as usual to the person on the To: line. The copy is sent to the translator, translated and sent to the person on the To: line.

T-Sail
http://www.t-mail.com/cgi-bin/tsail Similar to Babelfish, this service allows you to translate a web page (or search engine results) from one language to another.

T-Text
http://www.t-mail.com/t-text.shtml With T-Text, you simply paste some text in a box, select the translation, click a button and viola, you have the translation.

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.

Popular Misconceptions Regarding Translation and Interpreting

It is often thought an interpeter's only job is to repeat what he hears in one language in another, and that no thought

process is involved.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Often, the terms "translation" and "interpreting" are used interchangeably.

Of the two, "translation" seems to be the most commonly used word. "Interpreter" is avoided, because often the

language facilitator is not expected to "interpret" what is being said. Yet often without interpretation, Japanese is

virtually impossible to translate.

Many customary Japanese words and phrases have no logical equivalents in English, and most translators/

interpreters come to grief in the vain attempt to faithfully convey the original words, vs. the meanings of what a

person is trying to express through the spoken or written word.

These situations are best handled by someone intimately familiar with both languages and cultures. Unfortunately,

the common perception on both sides of the ocean is that native speakers speak the language best and that

interpreters have an intimate knowledge of their own language, particularly into which they are translating if they

are native speakers.

"Lost in Translation" This website www.lostintranslation.com , which predates the movie "Lost in Translation"

reviewed at www.allwirelessmedia.com/resumes/movies.html . pretty much sums up a professional philosophy

towards the business of translation, and extremely persistent notions regarding the topic.

Wilson is a noted expert on the Japanese language, particularly in courtroom settings, and is currently writing his

first novel "The Bamboo Boardroom," a factional chronicle of life in a Japanese-American corporation in

California in the early 90's.

Mr. Wilson may be reached at: wilpro@cox.net website: www.jameswilson.ontheweb.com

Translation Services: Use a translator, a Translation Agency or Do it In-house?

A challenge almost any company entering an international market will be faced with is translating its marketing materials, product and service documentation, and other documents into the language of the target market. Depending on your requirements, there are basically three options:

• You can do the translation yourself or have someone in your company do it.
• You can find and hire a different translator for each language.
• You can hire a translation agency.

To make this decision, you will have to consider several factors, including your abilities and resources, your needs, and the cost.

Your Resources

Do you, or does someone else in your company, have the ability to do the translation? If you require a translation into Spanish, for example, and you have a Spanish-speaking employee in your company, it is tempting to simply assign him or her to perform the translation services. However, there are several factors to take into account:

1. A translator is more than just someone who speaks two languages.

A translator has to be perfectly fluent in both languages and will usually translate from her second language, the source language, to her mother tongue, the target language. It is of great advantage if she lives in the country your translation is intended for. She needs to be familiar with the topic that is translated and have excellent writing and editing capabilities in the target language.

Consider this: When you have your marketing material written, do you simply choose any person who speaks English? Or do you select someone with excellent writing skills and still have the text proofread by a second pair of eyes? You should have the same demands for your potential translator. So does your German, French, or Spanish employee have the necessary writing skills in her first language?

If, however, you have such enormous requirements for translation into one single language that you can employ one translator full-time, this might be the most economical option. Just make sure that you have the necessary expertise to choose a competent translator. Remember: this will be the only person to perform all your professional translation services. If you are dissatisfied with the work this person is doing, it will not be easy to switch translators. Also, you will probably still want to have someone else proofread the translation, just as you probably had someone proofread your original texts.

2. Having you employees perform the translation services costs you too

Do not forget to take into account the time it will take your employee to work on the translation. A professional translator can translate about 2,000 words per workday. Someone who is less experienced may need quite a bit more time.

During this time, your employees working on the translation wont be able to perform their regular job tasks.

Your Needs

Do you regularly require professional translation services into one language or do you need a one-time translation of one or more documents into several languages? If you regularly need translation services into only one or two languages (20,000 words or more per month), it may be worthwhile to hire your own professional translator to work in your company full-time. If, on the other hand, you occasionally need translations into many languages, or if you have very large translation jobs to be completed in a short time, using a translation agency will take care of all the necessary logistics. The agency will find the appropriate translator for each language, or possible more than one translator if the deadline is tight, assign the proofreading tasks, and ensure that everything is completed on time and the service quality is top-notch.

Cost

The cheapest option to get your translation services done is seemingly doing it yourself or having an employee of your company do it. However, there are hidden costs, such as the time spent and possibly inferior quality, that you should consider. A poor translation can cost you more in business than you would ever have spent on having the work done right.

Another option, which is also quite cost-effective, is hiring a freelance translator yourself and skipping the middleman, i.e. the translation agency. If you decide to go this route, make sure that you have the knowledge and experience to pick a qualified translator and to judge the quality of the translation.

The last option is giving the job to a professional translation agency, which will take care of everything related to the required translation services. This is the most recommended option for most companies. It ensures that you get the best possible quality, which is the most important factor when deciding which way to go. Remember: You may pay a little more for this service upfront, but you will keep paying for a poor translation for as long as you use, publish, or distribute it. The cost in lost business due to poor quality translations dwarfs the money spent on a good translation. When using a translation agency, you also wont need to worry about paying the translator internationally, as it is always a good idea to choose a translator in the target country.

The decision is yours. You have several viable options, depending on your resources, needs, and cost. Always keep in mind though that the most important factor when choosing any professional translation service provider is quality.

 Christian Erwig-StraughanChristian Erwig-Straughan is a GermanEnglish translator with 9 years experience and the author and webmaster of the Translation Services Info Guide, http://www.translation-and-languages.com.

Useful Tips To Avoid Poorly Written Translations

Reliable translators are hard to find. The more specialized your work, the more difficult it will be for you to find a qualified translator. Here are some useful tips to help you avoid poorly written translations.

1. Be aware that some translation companies lack the required expertise at the top of the organization. If none of their managers speak French or if they know very little about the technicalities of your industry or profession, they will be unable to assess the quality of their own translation services.

2. A translation degree, in itself, does not make one competent in law, business, finance, medicine, science, engineering, or any other technical field. For specialized translation work, use translators with relevant academic knowledge and industry-specific experience.

3. The language barrier often prevents material errors and discrepancies from being detected immediately. Poorly written translations and material flaws end up being reviewed and corrected at extra cost. Always review your important translated documents with an employee or colleague who speaks the language of the translation.

4. Use Quality Control Services offered by a qualified translator/editor to obtain a quality rating (based on technical accuracy and relevance of style) of your translations.

5. For truly superior translation services, use genuine experts, trained in a specific field, through the relevant faculty of a recognized university.

For more information, please visit www.abouttranslations.com or call 1-800-871-5053.

Bruno Gingras LL.B, Chief Operating Officer of About Translations Ltd., is an expert in Quebec Law, having successfully pleaded before various Courts, including the Quebec Court of appeal. He has more than 20 years of experience in providing business professionals and corporate clients with winning strategic communications, in both English and French.

www.abouttranslations.com

lmohamed@abouttranslations.com