KFC put a lot of time and effort into making sure that their Chinese launch went off without a hitch. This meant spending countless hours on translation, product testing, and market research. But, all this footwork did nothing to stop them from horrifically mangling the Mandarin-version of their slogan. Instead of telling consumers that their food was “finger lickin’ good,” KFC asked them to “eat their fingers.” While this issue was quickly fixed, it left a sizeable dent in KFC’s profits. You might be wondering where they went wrong. While they researched their target market, they failed to hire the correct language service professional. What KFC really needed was a transcreator.

WHAT IS TRANSCREATION?

Transcreation is a portmanteau of ‘translation’ and ‘recreation’. To transcreate is to take a source text and recreate it so it better resonates with members of a target audience. Unlike translators, who work to preserve the wording of the original text, transcreators attempt to mimic its tonality, emotionality, and impact. This often means that transcreators make drastic changes to the original content in the process.

WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT IS TRANSCREATION WELL-SUITED FOR?

Every localization project, regardless of scope, needs a great translator. But, sometimes, like with the KFC case above, that isn’t enough. That’s doubly true when dealing with creative or persuasive content. Word-for-word translations of such pieces often go right over the heads of people in other markets. If your content contains any of the following items, it might be time to call in a transcreator:

• Idioms and puns
• Humor
• Slogans and taglines
• Country-specific phrases
• Cultural references
• Persuasion
• Emotional appeals

Put simply, transcreators are to translators what copywriters are to writers. This means that transcreators come with their own unique skills and abilities.

FOUR THINGS EVERY GREAT TRANSCREATOR NEEDS

With that new skillset comes a completely different set of requirements. While we’ve discussed the qualities of a great translator many times before, we’ve never delved into the makings of a great transcreator. I think it’s time to remedy that. Here are four things I’d require from my future transcreators:

• WRITING CHOPS:

  As they’re the language-service industry equivalent of a creative writer, good transcreators have ample experience with the written word. To verify that they write well, you should start the conversation by asking for links to a web portfolio. If you have little knowledge of the language he or she works in, you can also ask your transcreator for concrete proof of their ability.

• ADAPTABILITY:

  Some content calls for a cool, professional tone. Other pieces, such as taglines or blog posts, require a much conversational style. Your transcreator must be able to roll with these sudden changes in voice and tone. To ensure that they have this ability, ask for a variety of samples up front. I would also suggest providing a list of the content types you’ll need translated. Doing that will stop you from finding out halfway through that your transcreator isn’t comfortable with your more technical content.

• KNOWLEDGE OF THE SOURCE AND TARGET LANGUAGE:

  Don’t hire a glorified copywriter with only passing knowledge of your target language. If you make that mistake, you’re going to end up with content that’s well-written but ineffectively translated. To ensure this doesn’t happen, ask to see a resume detailing the transcreator’s experience in your target language.

• DEEP FAMILIARITY WITH THE CULTURE:

  Transcreators have to do more than know a language. They have to live and breathe it. This familiarity with a target culture can make the difference between a poorly-written, ineffective piece, and a well-written, super-effective one.

• PASSION:

  Whether it’s your company’s niche or the transcreation process, you need to hire someone who’s truly excited for the project at hand. If not, his or her boredom will shine through every line of text. When you’re looking to tug on people’s heart strings, the last thing you want to do is put them to sleep. To gauge their interest, ask the transcreator why they applied to the job in the first place. Can any applicants who give a wishy-washy, or overly-generalized, response.

Please note that the above list is in no way exhaustive. You should always trust your instincts when making hiring decisions. As transcreation can cost a pretty penny, you need to ensure that you only hire people you feel comfortable with.

CONCLUSION

Transcreation is a vital part of any localization effort. Without it, your persuasive and creative copy will lose much of its punch. But, you should never hire a transcreator without carefully vetting them. Failing to do so can leave you, and your company, in some hot water. If you’re looking to have something transcreated for the Swedish market, you can contact me at tess@swedishtranslationservices.com. Please visit swedishtranslationservices.com to learn more.

Check also:

• 4 Types of Quality Assurance for Translators
• The Role of Translators in the Software Localization Process
• How to Spot a Subpar Translator?
• The Benefits of Choosing Swedish Translation Services

Introduction

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.

The Linguist: The Scientists of Language

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.

The Interpreter: The Verbal Bridge Builders

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.

The Translator: The Alchemists of the Written Word

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.

Conclusion

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.

Check also:

• How to Reach the Swedish Market with Transcreation
• Five Things That Differentiate Translation and Transcreation
• Definitions of translation, localization, internationalization and transcreation

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.

This is a guest post by Alexander Zeller

Online translation tools commenced with the easily accessible Google Translate, which has now been out on the internet for 10 years, but it seems it hasn’t had that much of an impact on the demand for human translators. Most people believed that once translation tools were developed that would be an end to human translators. This doesn’t mean that machine translation is losing its momentum; it’s more the case that the two methods of translating now co-exist together.

However, the general trend in global business is for more and more businesses opening up their products to many more countries. Experience has indicated that it is of little use marketing a product to, for example, the Russian market unless at least some of the product information is written in Russian.

Terminology Banks

Some of the translation tools which are computer based help translators complete their translation tasks. A few of these are what are called ‘terminology management systems’ where useful terms are stored online in multiple languages so that the translator is only a click away when searching for the desired list of terms. These terminology banks allow translation divisions of an international organisation when allocating translation jobs to human translators that they can be assured that there is a standardisation of terms being used by a group of translators.

March of the Translation Apps

It is expected that throughout this year more apps will be released which will aid faster translations. There is a device that is currently being trialled and that is a translating earpiece. It allows people who don’t speak the same language to understand one another. This could theoretical reduce language barriers considerably.

A device developed and marketed by New York City company Waverly Labs is called ‘Pilot’ and is fitted into the ear. It has an in-built AP which is able to switch between languages. This language translation product is going to be introduced first of all in the main European languages: French, English, Spanish and Italian. The idea later is to load the device with other languages that are widespread, such as Arabic, Hindi, Slavic, Semitic and many African languages.

Pilot May Take Place of Google Translate

Apple fans love iPhone accessories so the Pilot is expected to be a winner as it has many smart language features. It works by using speech recognition so the person using one can hear and understand what another person is saying because the conversation gets translated into the user’s native language. Being what is called a wearable device it brings together this much loved feature with machine translation. It is quite possible that Apple fans will soon be deleting their Google Translate apps in favour of the Pilot iPhone app instead.

Apple is promoting the Pilot app well before the launch by giving away a free app every week. The actual launch date has yet to be decided. So far there has been unprecedented support for the product and crowd-funding is being sought to help in producing it and releasing it out on to the market.

Author Bio:

Alexander Zeller is a project manager and translator working with The Migration Translators in Australia, providing legal, medical, business, marketing, technical and website translation services in over 130 Languages.

When you have a translation project and contact a professional translator, here are some tips to make the project run smoothly and efficiently for both of you.

1. Provide as much information as possible at first contact.

This will help you receive a faster response from the translator. This includes the subject, language pair (obviously), target audience, length (words, pages etc.), deadline, if there is reference material, if a specific tool should be used, if a project database needs to be used and all information on how to use it.

2. If project is accepted, send the translator a Purchase Order or sign one from the translator.

The purchase order should contain a reference number, fee/price, deadline, payment terms, and contact information both for during the project, when the translator has questions, and for after the project for invoicing.

3. Provide a glossary if possible, or ask the professional translator to make one, especially if the project is big.

4. Provide a contact person to answer any questions the translator might have.

This contact should be available as much as possible during the project, and be able to find answers in a timely manner. This increases the quality of the final translation.

5. Give formatting guidelines for the final document

6. Provide as much reference material as possible.

This includes previous translations, correspondence, glossaries, translation memories, links to websites etc. This also increases the quality of the final translation, since the translator can see what style has been used before, words that are specific for your/this company, more context etc.

7. Have another professional linguist proofread the document.

This linguist can be somebody you use, or somebody that the translator works with. Either way, provide the translator with the proofread/edited document with track changes. This is a great feedback tool and learning opportunity for the translator, plus if the translator has final responsibility for the translation, he/she should be able to approve the changes.

8. If you require a rare translation tool (or TEnT), try to provide this tool at a discount.

Or for free if possible, and provide as much training and material about the tool as you can.

9. Always confirm good receipt of translation, and ask questions or give comments as soon as possible after receipt.

10. Make the invoicing procedure as easy as possible and the earlier you can pay, the happier the translator gets.

If you follow these guidelines you will create a fruitful relationship with your professional translator, and receive high quality translations that can increase your credibility, and boost your business. A win-win situation!

Check also:

• 7 Reasons You Need a Professional For Your English to Swedish Translations
• Is It Worth Hiring a Professional Swedish Translator for Your Marketing Materials?
• How Much Does Professional Swedish Translations Cost?
• What Benefits Does a Professional Swedish Translator Provide?
• How to Buy Translations from a Professional Translator – in 3 Easy Steps
• How to Spot a Subpar Translator?
• Save Money By Providing Key Info for Your Translator