In order to provide better services to my clients, I have focused on improving my writing skills this spring. I am taking an online course in Swedish writing skills called “Skriv tydliga texter”, with a book and exercises that are evaluated. Earlier I also took a writing course for English on Udemy
With advances within social media and technology, word of mouth truly has become ‘world of mouth.’ Most businesses centralize their global Twitter and Facebook efforts. It has huge benefits, yet it also is vital that you have involvement at a local level; from those who really understand the marketplace language and nuances. We reside within a global economy and therefore it is critical that we have an understanding of our world.
The lesson to be learned here is that mistranslations are sloppy marketing. Therefore, when translating your marketing material or anything business related, it is best to contact a professional translator. A professional translator will ensure that everything that is presented to the public is appropriate and suitable for the intended audience.
If you are marketing to Sweden, contact Swedish Translation Services to make sure that your slogans and marketing materials come across as intended.
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Background information
If you’re interested in expanding your business into Sweden, don’t make the costly mistake of neglecting to get a professional translator, preferably one certified by the MITI or a similar organization.
I say “costly mistake” because trying to save money on Swedish translations can result in a lot of missed revenue. It may lead to a less than optimal, or even an unprofessional impression with a bad translation that doesn’t resonate with your target market.
This can make the difference between success and failure. A better way of saving money on translation costs is to provide your translator with clarifying information.
Some of my clients provide almost too much information, making it hard to sift through and get started. Others provide too little, making it hard to know what style is expected etc. Here are some guidelines to providing key info for your translator.
In many languages, different words are used depending on your audience. You might use different pronouns for speaking to children, for example, than you would use if you were speaking to adults. You’re buying translation services, so use the expertise of your translator, who knows this and a myriad of other subtleties of language. By telling her as much as you can about your target market, you’ll be allowing her to make decisions on syntax you haven’t thought of or might not be aware of.
Every day at work, you use words that are familiar to you but mysterious to anyone who doesn’t do the kind of work you do.An accountant speaks of “costs” for example and distinguishes between “variable costs,” those that change proportional to the volume you produce and “fixed costs,” those that don‘t.He may further distinguish between “standby fixed costs,” those that occur by simply owning a factory and “program fixed costs,” those that are locked in once you decide whether to operate two shifts or one, for example.
If it’s necessary or useful to use some jargon that your translator may not be familiar with in your copy, explain it. Have your copy read by someone outside your field to point out jargon that you may not even be aware you’re using.
English is a complex language with lots of rules of grammar. You think it’s easy because you speak it every day, generally with people who live near you and have the same level of education you have. But you could be making technical mistakes every day that don’t interfere with communication because they are generally accepted by you and your peers, but can shipwreck an exact translation. Get your English copy read by someone who understands the subjunctive case before you invest in translating it. And be sure to provide your translator a reasonable amount of time to complete proofreading and quality checks!
Using a professional translator is akin to hiring a professional electrician; it may cost a little more to pay someone for something you think you can get done cheaper. However, is it cheaper if your house burns down because of something a professional would avoid?
Save money on professional translations by providing key info for your translator and a clear explanation of your target market and goals.
Whether you are opening an international branch of your business, or breaking into international markets, buying translations services can be a difficult task to navigate. Thankfully, when you practice a few proven tips for buying translations, you can save yourself headache, heartbreak, and unnecessary project delays.
Whatever your pressing needs are for professional translation services, it is best that you know what to look for when considering a translation service provider.
This is a guest post by Jenny Brown, a freelance writer. She loves photography, travelling and learning new languages.
International websites
Translating a website isn’t as simple as putting the information into a translation tool and copying and pasting the result, and doing this without checking the translation thoroughly can have catastrophic results, often losing the meaning of the text or even changing it completely. The writing on your website is written specifically to give information and sell your goods or services; this is its purpose, so after translating this to another language you need to ensure it is still effective in producing the desired results. The intelligent thing to do would be to hire professional translation services that will have real life translators that can translate your website and ensure it retains its purpose.
If you do not want to, or cannot afford to, hire professional translation services to translate your website, and instead intend on translating it yourself, then there are some things you should be aware of, some things you should avoid doing at all costs:
Alternatively, you can always hire a professional translation service to take care of everything for you, ensuring a high quality translated website for your company and enabling you to become recognised on a global scale.
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This is part two of my interview with Anne-Marie Colliander Lind, a Swedish translation industry specialist. She has worked in the translation industry since 1989 and is now running her own consultancy business, Inkrea.se. Part one of the interview was published in my last post, so check it out!
I have been working in the translation business for over 20 years and I am still greeted with a quizzical expression when I meet new people asking what I work with: Translation… what? Followed by: How many languages do you speak? I think many of our colleagues in our business have experienced the same thing. My feeling is that the public does not know that this is an industry that gives many, many people work, not only linguists and translators, but also project managers, technical engineers, sales people, accountants, business managers and more. But when I start talking about it many see the need for translation everywhere in our lives, especially in a country like Sweden, a multicultural country with so many international brands to be proud about.
I started working in the translation industry in 1989, as a project manager for Interverbum, one of the largest translation companies at that time. Five years later I started working from the customer perspective, as a buyer of translations for a company in southern Sweden, before starting at Trados Scandinavia in 1998. I stayed at Trados for almost 10 years, a very exciting period with lots of developmets. When I started there, CAT-tools were more an exception than an industry standard, and 10 years later the product was a world leader in its niche. After that I returned to the translation company side again and helped Semantix to consolidate and develop its sales strategies, after the company had grown rapidly through purchases and mergers. Semantix was then a customer of the research company Common Sense Advisory, and after some prompting from CSA I decide to accept their offer to become their European representative. Two years ago I founded my own consultancy agency and now I am helping translation companies with strategies, sales and management. I also bring knowledge to the buying sector, e.g. to the companies that buy translation services, most often in regards to investments in technology or new buying processes and choice of strong partners, etc. I am a proud co-organizer of NTIF, the Nordic Translation Industry Forum, the second annual forum took place in Copenhagen in November 2012. As if this is not enough, I am also a volunteer for Translators without Borders, where my main task is to find company sponsors, and represent the organization at different industry conferences.
The most important for the customer is to receive what they expect, when they want it, e.g. the right quality, at the right time and price. The importance of these parameters can vary substantially. Time is probably the most important factor most of the time. If a translation job arrives late, the consequences can get very expensive for the project at large. Then it does not matter what price was agreed upon – “Better good enough in time, than perfect but too late” – so to speak. It is a different story for texts that will get published though, where quality is vital. Thankfully I am convinced that the price always comes in second or third place if we put it in relation to time and quality.
Machine translation is here to stay – no one can slow this development down. I recently read that there are companies that have achieved a level of quality in machine translation where the error margin is less than 1.5 percent. With some simple-post editing they have achieved a good translation with minimal involvement by a translator. But still the answer to your question is no, there will always be a need for professional translators. The amount of information that we have access to increases exponentially and only a fraction of what should be translated gets translated. I believe (and hope) that companies will realize that you can get large amount of text translated at a lower price per unit with the help of technology, and that you can spend the rest of the budget on the texts that really make a difference and where the artistry of a professional translator is required in order to produce top notch results. I also hope that they then can afford to pay reasonable compensation for this. The more globalized we become, the larger role the local languages will play – I am convinced of that.
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I recently had the honor to interview a friend and specialist in the translation industry in Sweden, Anne-Marie Colliander Lind. She has worked in the translation industry since 1989 and is now running her own consultancy business, Inkrea.se. Here is the translation of my interview with her below!
The translation industry in Sweden is very fragmented, just like in the rest of the world. We have some really large companies that dominate the industry and supply translation services to both the public and private sector in most subject areas, and then we have a large group of small to medium sized companies with more or less specialized services. The Nordic countries have great spending power and it is no coincidence that there are no less than eight Nordic companies on the list of the 50 largest translation companies from 2011 (according to Common Sense Advisory).
More and more customer relations are established by public tenders. This concerns primarily the public sector, which is governed by LOU (a Swedish law for public tenders), but we also see this for customers from the private sector. Businesses and institutions are increasingly looking for a partner that can offer a long term, close relationship, with integrated working methods, rather than aimlessly searching for a translation provider in the Yellow Pages. I see this as a sign of maturity. When it comes to price trends, the price to the end customer has decreased a bit, mainly due to the strong competition in the buying processes, and the price pressure naturally affects the price per unit for the subcontractors. It is interesting to see that for 20 years, the prices were higher the further away from Sweden you went (Japanese, Chinese, Korean etc.) but today it is the opposite, the most expensive languages to buy are the languages spoken for example in our neighbor country Norway, into and from English.
In Sweden, the Swedish state is among the largest buyers of translation services. There is a constant demand for translation from Swedish authorities, thanks to, for example, Sweden’s generous immigration policy. Examples of authorities are the Swedish Migration Board, The Swedish Tax Authority, the Police and the Swedish Social Security Agency. Many of the Swedish translation companies receive a large part of their income from contracts with Swedish authorities. The EU Commission is also a big buyer of translations and provides many Swedish suppliers with large translation volumes. In the Swedish economy large international companies are dependent on multilingualism and we can mention several brands with documentation and websites in more than 50 languages, in order to be competitive internationally. Here, the demand is driven by separate marketing strategies for globalization or by legislation.
Stay tuned for part two soon.
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First of all I would like to thank all my loyal readers of this blog. Many of you know that I am an English into Swedish translator with the company Swedish Translation Services. Here is a short presentation of Swedish Translation Services as a business.
Swedish Translation Services was founded in 2003, when I decided to leave my career in international marketing and focus on my passion, languages. My life situation had made me bilingual in English and Swedish and my passion for writing and languages brought me to my new career, translation. I started out slowly, with small children at home, did a lot of research and self-education through the Internet and through American Translators Association, and as my children grew, so did my business. I am now a full time freelance English into Swedish translator, a grader for the American Translators Associations English into Swedish certification exam, and certified Swedish translator for the US State Language Department with several ongoing translation projects and loyal clients.
Swedish Translation Services is headquartered in Park City, Utah, USA, up in a mountain ski resort, but is yearly relocated to Sweden for a month or so. Currently, I am working from Stockholm, Sweden for a whole year, thanks to my husband’s sabbatical as a professor, and my whole family is immersed in the Swedish language and culture.
I provide professional English into Swedish translation, editing and proofreading of business communications, both internal HR-communication and external marketing communication. With a previous professional background in the IT business, I also specialize in technical documentation and software localization.
Examples of some ongoing projects are: technical help software for computers, internal and external communication for one of the largest charitable organizations in the world, marketing and client communications for a cosmetic company, software for a multinational medical company, marketing communications for Skype and communications for the Clinton Foundation. In between these I have the pleasure of doing lots of varied translation projects and I learn something new every day.
I make an effort to stay abreast on new technological developments in the translation business and use the latest translation tools to provide consistent translations, with the same layout as the original. Many of my clients have their own project management tools and I work with at least ten of these regularly. My dictionaries and language research tools are now mostly on my computer and thanks to modern technology I can easily work from two or more, different countries. More information about translation tools can be found, for example in this article on Wikipedia.
When offered a translation job I first look through the document(s) to make sure the texts are something I am comfortable and experienced with. This means that I want to see the document, or at least an excerpt of it, before accepting a translation project. After accepting a project, I set it up in my translation tool and make sure I have all the resources I need and that everything is clear. Often, the client has some specific instructions to read and follow, or perhaps a style guide to read through. After this, the actual translation process can start. I go through the document sentence by sentence, or sometimes paragraph, by paragraph, translate into Swedish, and highlight or comment on things that are unclear. During this process I usually have to do some terminology research online or in dictionaries, and I usually check online, or with language experts, to see which expression is more common than another.
When the first run through is done, I contact the client if something is unclear or to ask about preferred terminology. I sometimes also contact some of my trusted colleagues to ask for advice if needed, while making sure I do not reveal any confidential information. After this step, I go through the bilingual text in the translation tool once more, proofread and make amendments according to the feedback I have received from the client. I do a spell check and “clean” the bilingual document so I get only the Swedish text. Sometimes I also perform a so called “quality assurance test”, depending on the project. This is a feature offered in translation tools and it checks for inconsistencies or untranslated sections. The last step is to read through the clean document again, proofread and do a last spell-check and layout check. When this is completed I can deliver the translation, invoice the client, and update translation memories and glossaries so I do not have to look up the same term or expression again for future projects.
When I am not translating I do administrative tasks, marketing or improve my skills. I might be contacting potential clients or updating current clients on my availability, new knowledge or expertise. I regularly take courses in translation, Swedish writing or grammar, business skills, plus on new developments in my fields of expertise. . I usually attend about two translation conferences a year, and take advantage of local networking in my field whenever time permits it. The professional associations I am a member of have been very useful to me, and I am trying to give back to the profession by also being involved in them. I am currently the chapter chair for all local groups under American Translators Association and I regularly give training and presentations in the field of marketing and translation for freelance translators. Being an entrepreneur and a freelancer means there is always something to do to grow my business.
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While I am travelling across Europe with my family. I will feature a guest post that I really like. This one is authored and provided by Affordable Language Services, a Cincinnati-based business translation and interpreting company.
In today’s global economy, business translation is a must for companies wanting to extend their reach. To help keep costs down, however, some choose to use automated translation software instead of hiring the expertise of a professional business translator. While this choice is initially less expensive, the consequences of such a shortcut can be costly. Keep reading to learn why you should not use software for your business translation needs.
In 2010, a Reuters article told the world about the underlying dangers of relying on automated software for business translations. The news story highlighted a pharmacy that used such software to translate prescription labels that were written in English into Spanish. After reviewing the results in the medical journal Pediatrics, Julia Tse and Dr. Iman Sharif pointed out several deadly errors. For example, in English, the instructions told patients to take a pill “once a day.” The translating software failed to translate the word “once” into Spanish correctly and instructed patients to take the medication 11 times per day, as the word “once” in Spanish means “eleven.” A professional business translator would never make such a mistake.
In a separate incident, when a medical group used translating software for prostate medication labels, four prostate cancer patients in Epinal, France died because of the erroneous dosage instructions. Regardless of advances in technology, business translation software can never take the place or match the accuracy of an expert human business translator.
Language creates meaning as much as it conveys meaning. A culture in one part of the world thinks differently than the culture on the opposite end of the globe because of the ideas that differ between words and phrases. For example, the English phrase, “on the other hand,” does not mean “alternatively” in most other parts of the world.
When brewing company Coors once tried to sell its beer in Spain, it directly translated its marketing slogan, “Turn it loose,” into Spanish. While English speakers in the U.S. understand the phrase as an encouragement to have a good time, the literal translation in Spanish relates more to the “loose” action one may encounter with diarrhea.
When a word doesn’t exist in the destination language, translation software cannot help. A business translation professional has an understanding of the culture that speaks the desired language, so he or she can accurately express the vocabulary and ideas. While an equivalent word may not exist from one language to the next, a business translator bridges the lexical gap with an appropriate phrase.
An example of such a word is gobbledygook, which exists only in the English language. Every language has its own unique words that automated translation software cannot translate. Such a translation blunder can hinder a company’s bottom line or encourage foreign prospects to not close a deal. Professional business translation services understand these circumstances as well as the culture of the language at hand, and can provide clients with high-quality translations that aid business communications.
In the U.S., the storage space in the back of a car is called a trunk. In the U.K, the same part of the car is called a boot. Language dialects differ around the world – and even by region. For example, some of the words used in Mexico have a different meaning in Spain. Among the 30 languages in India, there exist more than 2,000 dialects. These differences make business translation more challenging and create greater room for error when using translation software. Because business translations require specificity, a translator must know the differences among dialects to properly convey the intended meaning. Specificity and cultural knowledge are things that automated translation software lacks.
There are a few occasions when you can successfully translate a phrase into another language word-for-word. For example, the Spanish phrase “sangre azul” means “blue blood,” and both phrases refer to wealthy individuals. Most of the time, however, literal translations make no sense and confuse the true meaning. Oftentimes, idiomatic phrases are to blame. For example, when you ask someone in Costa Rica how they are, they often say, “Pura vida,” which literally means, “Pure life.” “Pura vida” in this Latin American country is a statement that expresses one is well. Outside of the Costa Rican culture, saying one has a pure life can convey a handful of different meanings.
Automated translation software does not pick up on wordplay, puns and metaphors the way a human business translator can. If you use software, you run the huge risk of having your ideas get literally lost in translation, which can ultimately make you look foolish, culturally insensitive or both.
Lynn Elfers is the CEO of Affordable Language Services, a Cincinnati-based business translation and interpreting company that specializes in business, legal and medical interpreting and translation services in over 150 languages and dialects. Lynn’s experience as a volunteer missionary for years in Central America ultimately led to starting her own translation service to help individuals bridge the language gap in crucial situations like the doctor’s office and court room. She has been providing language tutoring and translation services for over 16 years.
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