Given that more people speak English as a second language than as a first, it’s essential to craft clear, compelling English copy for global audiences. What’s more, internationally optimized English is a key step in preparing texts for translation and preventing errors down the road.
What English takes a sentence to say, other languages can manage in a word. Recently, I’ve seen several blog posts pointing out these gaps in the English lexicon. Famous examples include bokusetto, a Japanese term for the act of gazing vacantly into the distance, and backpfeifengesicht, a German word describing a face in need of a punch. Sadly, many these lists seem to be sleeping on the richness and diversity of the Swedish language. As someone who prides themselves on their English-to-Swedish translation skills, I’d be remiss if I didn’t stand up for my mother tongue and show off some of its more unique phrases.
| Word | Definition | Example Uses in English |
| Fika | Near and dear to Swedes everywhere, this word is used to describe the action of “going for coffee.” Though people might think it’s easier to use the word coffee break, this phrase is a lot more culturally loaded than that—something those trying to translate from English to Swedish must be aware of. And, don’t try to tell Swedish people to use the term “elevenses” or “coffee” instead; they might throw their kanelbulle at you. | “It’s been ages since we talked! Let’s meet up Saturday for a fika.” |
| Hinna | This common Swedish word can be interpreted as “having the time to do something” or “being on time.” It’s sometimes used as a helping verb or a quick hand way to express doubt of on-time arrival. Like many Swedish words, this one hails from Old Norse. | “I can’t go to the moves tomorrow. I don’t hinna.” |
| Fulparkerare | Best translated as “ugly parker,” this phrase denotes someone who parks his or her car sloppily or selfishly. Many people use it for those who take up handicap spots or stray outside the lines. | “That is not a parking spot! What a “fulparkerare” he is. |
| Mysa | One of my favorite Swedish words, this verb embodies the act of relaxing and having a good time. Many Swedish families, looking to recharge after a long work week, schedule mys every Friday. This is so common that a separate term was created to describe it: “fredagsmys.” | “I am finally done with this Swedish translation, just in time for the weekend. Now I am just going to “mysa” in front of the fire, while it is snowing outside. |
| Farfar/Farmor/Morfar/Mormor | In Swedish, there are specific words for each of your grandparents. Note that “mor” means mother and “far” means father. So, a morfar is your mother’s dad, while a farfar is your father’s dad. | “My farfar was amazing! He fought in World War II. I’ve never met my morfar, though.” |
| Kilkompis/Tjejkompis | In America, you always have to clarify whether someone is a boyfriend or your friend that’s a boy. In Swedish, the latter is called a Kilkompis or Tjejkompis . Your paramour, meanwhile, is referred to as a “pojkvän” or “flickvän”. | “I went to the movies with Billy yesterday! And, no, it wasn’t a date. He’s just a killkompis.” |
| Sambo | If you live with your significant other but haven’t tied the knot, you can use the word “sambo” to describe them. In a country where this arrangement is common, this word was a lexiconic necessity. | “We’re moving in together tomorrow! It’ll be nice to go from girlfriend to sambo.” |
| Lagom | Remember Goldilocks and the Three Bears? This word is the equivalent of that story’s “just right.” As Swedes tend to live in a state of moderation, this phrase is often seen as the country’s unofficial motto. | “This apartment is just “lagom” for a student. Or, “Lagom” is best.” |
| Nomofob | Adapted from the much clunkier English phrase (“no mobile phone phobia), this is how Swedes describe a person who is hopelessly addicted to their cell phone. | “I can never let my phone sit and charge! I’m a total nomofob.” |
| Ogooglebar | A more recent addition to the Swedish language, this adjective is best translated as “ungoogleable.” It’s often used to refer to someone with little to no online history. | I met this cute guy at the store, but I’m scared to meet him. He’s totally ogooglebar! |
| Orka | Similar in use to hinna, this verb is best understood as “having the energy to do something.” Though it may sound like it, it has nothing to do with The Lord of the Rings. Some people (like moody teenagers) use the term in a sarcastic sense. | “Do you orka to pick up the dry cleaning after work?” |
| Duktig | Anyone trying to learn Swedish will probably have this word thrown at them. Though hard to describe succinctly in English, it’s a term that combines working well with working hard. It’s often used condescendingly. | “The speed of your Swedish translation services astounds me. You must be very duktig!” |
| Solkatt | An amalgamation of the Swedish word for “cat” and “sun,” this term is used to describe the blinding light that glints off small pieces of glass. | “That’s where that reflection was coming from! It was just a “solkatt” from your watch.” |
| Mångata | These is is one of my favorite words. It refers to the road-like reflection of the moon in the water, literally “a moon street”. | “Look at that beautiful “mångata” across the lake tonight.” |
*For a full list of Swedish words with no English counterpart, check out this thread from Eunoia.
As our mini vocab lesson shows, English and Swedish are distinct languages shaped by culture and history. This can make it hard for US-based businesses to hit it big in the Nordic markets without the use of a English-to-Swedish specialist translator and transcreator. Transcreation can be the difference between a text that misses its mark and one that makes customers act.. Because, while 90% of Swedes speak fluent English, most of them prefer content to be delivered in their mother tongue. While the languages are closely related, it takes a true maestro to bridge the differences between them.
If you need a marketing expert to help you find the right words for your online content or ad, contact me to schedule a no-obligation consultation.
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We all know the horror stories that come from “hiring” Google Translate to do your translations or relying on low cost firms to get the job done. That could be why Pepsi once became a tool of necromancy in China and Schwepps advertised itself as “toilet water” in Italy. Such mistakes can frighten off thousands of customers and drastically reduce sales in the process. Today, we’ll be looking at 14 other common translation pitfalls, mostly internal, that can stagnate your company’s global growth and reduce translation efficiency:
Once all the costs have been sorted, you will be asked the most important question: Why? While not pausing to consider your end goal may get you translating quickly, it will result in a localization plan that’s disjointed, aimless, and lacking demonstrable results. Present, maintain, and adhere to a goal driven plan.
While security is important, it’s vital that information be shared with other stake holders: sponsors, project managers, software designers, and web designers. To promote greater engagement, ensure each person understands his or her role in the translation process. This will ensure you avoid some of the most common translation pitfalls.
Designing a marketing plan based solely on language and country of origin would result in something overly broad, disjointed, and irrelevant. As a result, audience engagement would suffer. Make certain that your localization plan includes plans for market penetration and accounts for your target audience’s customs, trends, and values.
You’re not the only business going global. Benchmark yourself against the competition and adjust your marketing positioning strategy accordingly. Doing so after you’ve entered a market wastes resources and may leave you unprepared to face the competition.
Don’t think of website translation as an all or nothing approach. Doing so will either force your company to absorb a large upfront expense or delay your launch until resources appear. Consider providing your multilingual audience, at first, with a scaled back version of your content. As time goes on, you can add features, web pages, and services.
Don’t treat all markets the same. For some markets, your Mexico-centric press release means nothing. Allocate your workflows to prioritize the most important pieces, for the most vital markets. In doing so, you’ll lessen the workload and better justify your company’s investment.
Go beyond the website and work to provide your international customers the complete brand experience. For mobile markets, you should prioritize application localization.
The translation industry is not known for its clarity. When starting your hunt for a translator, it’s advisable to add “translation transparency” to your search criteria. This will give you a clearer understanding of fee structures and just who you’re working with and help you avoid common translation pitfalls.
You need to create a team that focuses on managing, measuring, and improving, your translation results. You should be able to quantify your average turnaround time and failure rate. Data grants you a subjective window into how your project is progressing from month to month.
Don’t even try to run a translation project out of your inbox! Find a modern collaboration space you, and the translator like, and stick to it. This will cut down on translation time and make it easier to stay on track. Additionally, as you can easily keep track of project milestones, you’ll be able to see where jobs are getting stuck and quickly determine the source of any delays.
A lack of meaningful dialogue is at the core of many unsuccessful translation projects. Provide your translation team a clear process for relating questions and suggestions to your team.
Don’t let your translation team work blind. If the company permits it, supply your vendor with a mock-up of your website beforehand. Granting them visual perspective helps to limit judgment calls regarding page formatting and semantics.
If set up with the proper technology and software in place, localized content could be something that earns your company compound returns. Select a translator that offers a translation memory tool. That way, you’ll never have to translate the same page twice.
Translation is not a project; it’s a process. Listen to your analytics and follow the tides of the evolving media. Never let your localization work become mundane and dry. Never stop experimenting.
For professional translations into Swedish, please contact Swedish Translation Services.
Let’s look at what localization is and how you can put it to work in your English to Swedish content marketing.
In a global society where consumers can conduct business with companies halfway around the world in seconds, it’s common to forget that individual markets still matter.
Studies show that geo-targeted posts on social media earn six times the engagement as those that offer “global appeal”. What’s more, website visitors are likely to stay on a website longer if the content is in their native language.
Localization is becoming one of the largest missed opportunities to grow your global markets, and it’s a factor that businesses won’t be able to afford to overlook much longer.
Briefly, localization refers to adapting content for a specific market or country. More than just translating a website into a person’s native language, localization also combines things like traditions, values, culture, and imagery to create a truly native look and feel.
Pursuing any type of cross-border content strategy, whether you’re venturing into one country or 10 countries, requires a local-first mentality to ensure you’re connecting with your audience the way they’re receptive to.
Best Practices for Content Marketing: English to Swedish
If you’re pursuing a content marketing strategy across borders, put these best practices to use to maximize your ROI:
Turning English content into Swedish is rarely a word for word translation. Hiring a professional translator who is skilled in both languages and can apply cultural aspects to the content will make your content effective and impactful.
The content you create for your English audience won’t necessarily have the same effect on your Swedish customers. For example, if you’re telling Americans how it’s raining cats and dogs, telling your Swedish buyers “det regnar katter och hundar” won’t do you any favors. In fact, poor translations like this will only make your business appear ill-suited for their market.
Instead, you can diversify your messaging and tailor it to local interests. Not every audience needs to receive the same campaign.
Coca-Cola earned the attention of Chinese buyers by putting Chinese celebrities on its cans. It was a simple yet powerful move that helped to localize the company to the intended market.
Using cultural icons, history, imagery, or other notable factors can help you to blend seamlessly with the audience and make you a part of their society.
The secret’s out: professional English to Swedish translation gives your content marketing the best chance to appeal to your international audience.
To find out more about translation services, contact Tess to schedule a free consultation.
High quality and accurate Swedish translation of your site may be amongst the most vital measures to take in the overall improvement of conversion rates if you are aiming for customers in Sweden.
Some companies just cannot afford cheap translation. The long-term costs of lackluster translations often exceed the peanuts saved in the short term. It is just too risky. This is especially true in industries where lives are at stake. Let’s go through the real costs of bad English to Swedish translation!
A handful of the largest organizations compromised their quality and learned a good deal about why they tried saving money on translations and received cheap translation services, and ended up getting what they paid for—poor quality.
Especially with documents like legal or medical texts or how-to manuals, having professional translation services which take language, as well as culture and dialect into consideration is imperative.
Creative translation can also be tricky, as direct translations aren’t as logical as they seem, especially when it comes to marketing. Some big-name translation failures include:
There’s no telling what kind of profit losses these translations caused their companies, but one thing is certain:
Cheap translation is bad for business. Translation errors have killed people, crippled patients, and destroyed multi-million-dollar pieces of machinery.
Here are some negative consequences of getting it wrong:
It is inconvenient and not something on the top of a company’s Christmas list. But, they’re usually preferable to customer death or destroying priceless equipment. Here are four tragedies that resulted from erroneous translations:
Not all translations are linguistic. There is sometimes some math involved. A translator’s failure to properly convert English measurements to the metric system resulted in a catastrophic failure that sent the 125-million-dollar satellite careening off course. The planet’s harsh atmosphere tore the brand-new satellite to pieces. Not really a “cheap translation.”
In what was likely an attempt to save money, a US manufacturer of radiation machines did not offer dosage information in French. Administrative staff at the French hospital relied on bilingual coworkers to translate the English information. This lead to four deaths and dozens of cases of severe radiation poisoning.
A US maker of knee prosthesis made two different models for their German customers. Though the company offered instructions in German, the product’s outer packaging was only available in English. After asking a coworker to translate the packaging, these prosthetics were incorrectly marked as non-cemented. This labeling error led to 47 failed surgeries and millions in compensation claims.
Japanese is a complex language. Many words have multiple meanings and the correct one often depends upon surrounding content. After the US and allies demanded the unconditional surrender of Japan, they made it clear that any “any negative answer from Japan would invite “prompt and utter destruction.” When journalists pressed Japan’s Prime Minister for comment, he said that he was currently withholding comment. The government had yet to reach a final decision and he was unable to relay anything substantial. But, international news agencies mistakenly quoted him as saying that the ultimatum was ‘not worthy of comment.’
No company is immune from translation failures. But investing in proper English to Swedish translation services can give you the best chance of attracting your target market and avoid becoming an example of the cost of poor translation.
Though the definition of translation is straightforward, businesses are often surprised to find that not all translation services and options are created equal. Cheap services like those offered by freelance translators can offer lower price points on English to Swedish translation, but again, quality issues are called into play. The translations may be linguistically accurate, but they may fail to incorporate other elements that can add impact to your message.
As you can see, translation errors are so much more than something to snicker at on your lunchbreak. Cheap translations are sometimes the quickest way to sign someone’s death warrant. These cautionary tales should remind you of the dangers of subpar and machine-based translation. If your product can change someone’s life, it is vital to hire a reliable translator.
Utilizing a professional translator with expertise in your business may result in more than an improved document and a more complete understanding, it may result in bigger return on your investment. Utilizing something less may result in mistakes, errors, and misunderstandings which might cost you lost business or a client.
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Transcreation means taking a message written in one language and modifying it to better resonate with speakers of a different one. While this sounds a lot like what a translator does, the two terms are in no way interchangeable. While translation often focuses on mimicking the content of a document, transcreation focuses on recreating its effect. This often leads to the transcreator making significant changes to his or her source text. This difference, however, is just one of many. Read on to discover five other things that set translation and transcreation apart.
Translation is great for instructional and informative texts. One does not need to be Hemingway in order to teach someone in a different language how to assemble a barbeque grill, after all. In these sorts of texts, there’s not a lot of room for emotionality or nuance. In advertising, marketing, or fictional content, however, that’s not the case. A formulaic translation of Fido’s death, for example, might not evoke half as many tears as a transcreated one. A word-for-word translation of an English advertising slogan, on the other hand, might leave Swedish audience shaking their heads. So, when an emotional response or a purchase is your goal, transcreation is often the best choice.
People who specialize in transcreation are often copy or content writers. This grants them a level of mastery over the written word that’s difficult to find in your typical translator. This also means that they can typically deliver the intended message of a client’s copy in a way that is more impactful than a straight translation. The fact that writing is their focus, however, often means that they’re rarely acquainted with the same groups and associations as translators. If you’re looking for a transcreator, I’d suggest starting with a writing association in the target market.
Translation often begins the second the client sends the source text. Any initial meetings are typically brief and intended to hammer out terms such as cost and project deadlines. The transcreation process, meanwhile, starts with a creative brief. Instead of merely providing the source text and leaving the transcreator to their own devices, the client will have to furnish documents which clarify the tone, intent, and desired results of the intended copy.
Creating copy that sells takes time. Transcreators will likely spend hours researching the company’s industry, brand, and target market before they ever set pen to paper. This initial research will often be followed by two or three rounds of drafts. There is also a lot more back-and-forth between transcreators and their chosen clients. Simply put, transcreation is a process that takes a lot of time and energy. And, the transcreator must be compensated accordingly.
Aside from updating labels and captions, translators rarely interact with the more visual aspects of their source text. This is not true for transcreators. They are often in charge of helping clients adapt their branding and illustrations for their target market. A color that’s known to signify jealousy in Germany, for example, would not be suitable for the logo of a transcreated dating site. The best place to see this aspect of transcreation in action is on international book covers. The Chinese covers of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, for example, features a water-color design.
To help drive home the difference between translation and transcreation, I’ve scoured the internet for a few examples of the latter. While these examples showcase transcreation at its best, you should know that there are plenty of times where the opposite happened. So, be careful to vet any transcreator before hiring them. After all, they’re going to cost you a pretty penny.
Marvel was worried that the friendly neighborhood Spiderman would not do well in the Indian market. So, they completely revamped the comics before releasing them in the Indian market. In addition to changing Spider-Man’s name to Pavitr Pabhakar, they replaced any mention of New York with locations familiar to Indian readers. In this version of the story, his powers came from a spell laid by an ancient yogi instead of radioactive spider bite.
Intel is a technology giant that specializes in computer chip design and manufacturing. To help them succeed in the Brazilian market, the company dropped its popular slogan, “Intel: Sponsors of Tomorrow.” Why? In Portuguese, this slogan implied that Intel would be slow to deliver on its marketing promises. Those in the Brazilian market are now pretty well acquainted with the updated version: “Intel: In Love with the Future.”
You know I couldn’t leave this article without mentioning a great example of Swedish transcreation. In the 1990s, Saab launched a popular ad in the US with the tagline “Saab vs. Oxygen bars.” While these establishments were super popular in the US at the time, they were practically unheard of in Sweden. So, the marketing team went back to the drawing board. Knowing that the original advertisement was intended to imbue their cars with a sense of spaciousness, they changed their slogan to “Saab vs. Claustrophobia.” The new slogan resonated better with the Swedish market than any reference to an obscure American hangout space.
People outside of the language services industry think that the words translation and transcreation are synonyms; they’re not. While the former is ideal for ensuring that information transcends cultural barriers, it rarely merits creative freedom. When you need something creative, it’s usually time to call in a transcreator. This does mean, however, that you’ll have to come prepared with a heavier wallet, a creative brief, and an open mind.
Luckily for you, I’m not just a translator. I’m also a marketing specialist with ample transcreation experience. So, if you’re looking to have a slogan or advertising piece adapted for the Swedish market, you can contact me directly at tess@swedishtranslationservices.com. Please visit swedishtranslationservices.com to learn more.
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There are just over 170,000 words and terminology in the English language according to the Oxford Dictionary. Some of these words are nearly identical. A single letter can change laughter to slaughter and mean to meant. There are also words that seem so similar in meaning that to include them all seems ridiculous. And, just when you think you got it all down, up pops another exception to the rules. It’s little wonder that people make mistakes.
But, as a language service professional, there’s one thing I want to clear up: translators, interpreters, and linguists aren’t the same thing. Hiring one when you need the other can really set back a project.
Average Yearly Salary (US): $57,909
Number in the World (Estimated): 32,485 (2014)
A linguist is a person who studies a language, or languages, in a scientific manner. They are interested in how speech and vocabulary evolved to meet our current needs. They’re not interested in whether a word is right or wrong, merely how it came to be. While many linguists happen to be polyglots, they’re not overly interested in translating your web content. If we ever needed a professional who could decipher the underlying rules and concepts of an alien language, we’d hire a linguist. While rarely employed as interpreters or translators, these professionals are often involved in updating and developing translation management software. In doing so, they make the rest of our jobs a lot easier.
Average Yearly Salary (US): $51,260
Number In the World (Estimated): Unknown.
Interpreters are language-service professionals who provide real-time translation for people in business, medical, and legal settings. Typically called upon to bridge the gap between parties speaking two or more different languages, interpreters ease the process of communication and negotiation. Translators flourish in cases involving the written word while interpreters can be relied upon to take care of the verbal terminology. Next time you’re at a play, look around the stage. You’re likely to see a sign language interpreter hard at work. Just know they won’t be the people you hire to translate your website.
Average Yearly Salary (US): $51,260
Number in the World (Estimated): 640,000
Translators are people who help make your company’s written materials to speakers of other languages. These are the people you hire to help localize your website, doublecheck the language in your patents, and translate your contracts. The translation process goes well beyond the simple replacement of a word in one language into another. A translator not only needs to have a thorough understanding of the source language text and subject matter, but also the ability to convey (translate) the meaning and style. Translators must have excellent grammar and writing skills to produce translations that don’t sound like translations. As a general rule, translators translate from their working language(s) into their native language using appropriate terminology.
There’s so much more to language services than simple translation. In addition to the three careers highlighted above, there are also closed captioners, language learning specialists, and speech pathologists. So, next time you kickstart a language project, make sure you have the right professional on call. Otherwise, you might be left playing charades with the alien invaders.
If you’re looking to have something translated into Swedish, you can contact Tess Whitty. Please visit swedishtranslationservices.com or contact her at tess@swedishtranslationservices.com to learn more.
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Localization to another market isn’t very easy, and if done improperly, can be dangerous to your bottom line. This is especially true for translation. SDL International found that “eight out of 10 international businesses lose revenue, delay product launches, or pay fines for non-compliance because of translation errors.” We’re guessing that’s a majority you don’t want to be a part of when you are going global.
There are many obstacles standing between your business and international success. Here are three of the trickiest:
Not handling these challenges effectively can land your company in a pot of hot water.
Knowing the nature of the localization beast better equips you to combat it. Here are seven things you can do to make going global easier:
Otherwise, your firm might end up on the wrong side of the law.
Any business looking to grow in this day and age must venture beyond their home markets. While not impossible, international expansion is never a task to be taken lightly. Keeping the tips above in mind, however, should make it a little bit easier.
If you are a company looking to make your mark on the Swedish market by going global, you can contact Swedish Translation Services for your translation and localization needs.
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You can see that cultural adaptation is critical when expanding your company internationally or even targeting audiences from a different culture within your country. Don’t limit your reach by limiting yourself to a strict, word-for-word, translation. Hire a professional translator to help.
Image courtesy of Master isolated images at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
This is a guest post from Aniello Attianese from Language Reach.
The world of business is changing rapidly. A trend towards globalisation and expanding businesses abroad, especially with the recent growth of internet, is something that I, working for a professional translation agency, personally see rather clearly. A lot of the businesses from every corner of the world, even small and medium sized, see a truly great opportunity in approaching new international customers and exploring new markets. Many business owners who require our professional translation services however do not realise that translating word for word sometimes simply isn’t, and shouldn’t be, the whole answer, especially when working on marketing material, such as websites; this is where localisation comes into play.
Companies and businesses around the world now spend great portions of their budgets each year for marketing efforts; paying close attention to crafting the perfect message, choosing the right colours or even the right font. But what if they were only to discover, that their perfect marketing material which worked flawlessly in one country, causes offence in another? Having marketing material which is culturally inappropriate will certainly cause more damage than good.
In simple words, localisation amends and adopts content, such as websites or brochures, in order for it to be suitable within a specific market by removing any local sensitivities. Global companies such as Apple or McDonald’s have values and ideas which they like to communicate to consumers across the world, without causing any misunderstandings within any country specific market. This is the reason each of their campaigns is not only very carefully translated, but also localised to suit their specific foreign target market.
American Airlines on the other hand are a perfect example of a company who decided not to trouble with localisation, and only to translate their marketing material word-for-word. After introducing their new stylish leather seats on the planes, AA came up with a slogan which in America worked perfectly fine: “Fly in leather”. Not carefully localised for the Mexican market however, the message caused the operator to blush slightly as “Fly naked” wasn’t very appealing to the Spanish speaking customers…The lack of localisation in the above example is pretty obvious, and not only caused the airline to embarrassment but also to money loses.
Words however aren’t the only thing which can be a cause for concern if marketing material wasn’t carefully localised. Another great example would be the use of colours. Did you know, that in China the colour white is associated with death? Now, you wouldn’t want your products or services to be associated with such, would you?
Going back to McDonald’s example, you’ll be able to see good, if not great, use of localisation services. The fast food chain restaurant not only localised all of their marketing messages, but they also went a step further and localised their menus, which are perfectly localised for each of their markets. And so in New Zealand for example you will be able to order a Kiwi Burger while McDonald’s India offers chicken Maharaja!
Giving that both U.S and Sweden are rather specific markets, with different cultures, values and ideas, localising marketing material for the Swedish audience should really be a priority for any U.S business thinking of approaching the Swedish consumers. Taking into the account any local sensitivities such as religious, political or cultural differences can have a significant impact on the success of your brand in a foreign market, and although localisation simply cannot guarantee an instant success, the lack of it can guarantee instant failure.
Aniello Attianese comes from Pagani, Italy. He speaks Italian, French and German fluently and has just started learning Swedish. He currently works for Language Reach and Translation Services 24 as a translator and a project manager. In his spare time he enjoys travelling and good music as much as he enjoys learning languages.
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