Kwintessential have released the 2011 version of their best translator’s blogs. Following on from the first one released in 2010, the translation company have released a new version for this year. As well as their top 10, they also provide a “10 to watch” which is a nice touch.
Visit > Top 10 Translator’s Blogs 2011
It seems that Debenhams is leading the way for other UK businesses by starting to use signs written in multiple languages in their stores.
The UK company has made the move as a way of reaching out to its customers in the UK who might not be able to speak the English language. By using signs that have been translated into other languages the UK company is trying to win over more business from customers such as tourists and non-native speakers.
The UK has a diverse selection of residents and visitors who all speak different languages so it therefore makes sense that the company should try to capitalise on this and include them in its business plan.
Debenhams is trailing the translation of its usual store signs in its London stores and it has begun to place signs in multiple languages around the shop floor. When you think that over 300 languages are spoken in the UK it makes you wonder why this sort of retail translation has not been done more often.
However this move by Debenhams has not gone without criticism as some have pointed out that it has not gone unnoticed that the UK company has only used translations for the richer nations. These customers would appear to have more spending power on face value but the company has been criticised for its cynical view of the translation of its store signs into the language of a customer who it would expect to spend more in store.
Since the recession the UK has seen more foreign shoppers come over to take advantage of the good deals and as such the UK is getting a lot of business from tourists who are coming over to merely shop in the UK.
The importance of translation and translators is one of the keys to success when running a global business. In order to get a corporate message across and to also show respect for other culture in which companies are trading respect needs to be shown for the languages that are used. In order to do this a company should employ experienced and good translators to make sure that the translation service that they use reflects the professionalism of the business.
A very recent example of how this professionalism towards translation was not applied has been seen in China. A translator for the Chinese airline, China Airlines, made an embarrassing error on one of the inflight maps. A passenger on a recent flight noticed that the translation of a county in Taiwan had been translated incorrectly. The Taiwanese passenger took offence to the bad translation and he promptly complained to the Chinese airline. There was some negative media exposure of the incident and the tourist board for the Taiwan county in question (Chia-i) complained directly to China Airlines.
This was obviously a very embarrassing incident for the Chinese company and one that could have been easily avoided. However it does point to the wider issue that many companies do not hold enough importance on the translation service or the skills of the translator that they use. Very often the work goes to the lowest bidding translator and very often this can affect the quality of the translation and as such a bad translation can make a company appear unprofessional.
Translation needs to be taken seriously if a company has a serious global business strategy. Nothing will give a worst first impression than a bad translation when you are trying to win new clients. It is therefore good business sense to make sure you have a good translator on your team.
When you think of the job of a translator it might seem like a fairly straight forward principle. In order for the translator to get a correct translation all that they need do is replace single words for their equivalent meanings in the new language.
Well in its purest form this is exactly what translation is; but what happens when a translator does not want to translate a factual piece but instead is looking to translate a piece of literature for example? This is when things have the potential to become very challenging for the translator.
Literature has all sorts of linguistical nuances and these are sometimes tricky for a translator to get across in an entirely different language. Doing this kind of translation requires a much more skilled translator who can pick up on the feeling and inner message of a piece of literature so that the piece of literature remains its integrity and the author’s original message.
If a translator was to purely replace the individual words the piece could become far too robotic and cold. The literature would soon start to lose its feeling and would not translate well at all. If the translator is not careful what was once a piece of interesting and thought provoking literature might end up becoming flat and lifeless once the translation is complete.
Instead when a translator is working on a literature piece they need to get a good understanding of the message that the author is trying to convey and as a result they should then be able to use their language skills to get this message across in the translation. This might mean that that they use words very differently to the original but the most important thing is that the literature still retains its original message.
This month has seen the women of North America rise up to reclaim the word “slut” for their own. Their aim is to destroy its negative connotations and pave the way for its use as a symbol of feminine strength.
Since the European Renaissance of the 15th Century many historians have claimed that language has become more static, more set and established; that is to say that certain ‘rules’ and expectations began to dominate its use. Prior to this language was seen as in ‘flux’- syntax frequently changed, words dropped in and out of use and spellings varied dramatically. Take the “greatest wordsmith of the seventeenth century”, here are just a handful of ways his name was spelt: Shakespere, Shakspe, Shaxpeare, Shakspere, Shackspeare.
But is language really so static? Sure there may be standard expectations today that didn’t exist six hundred years ago, but spelling is far from standard, words are far from concrete and syntax remains an ever personal feature of speech and writing. Barely a child has been called ‘Ronald’ or ‘Margaret’ since the 1970s and education remains, as ever, the precursor to the syntax of received pronunciation. If language is still ever developing, then why can’t we consciously change it and fight back?
There are many words that are seen as offensive, inappropriate or plain vulgar (poor ‘vulgar’ such an interesting word), how can these be made positive? For movements such as Gay Pride the re-appropriation of the term ‘queer’ has created a sub-connotation of shared affection. The problem is that some words, such as swear words, are affective not because of their connotative meaning but because they sound so…well good.
Most swear words are short, one or two syllables, with strong consonants sounds and powerful stresses. They take emphasis, effort. Technically they are cacophonic (harsh or rough sounding) and that is partly why shouting them when you are emotional is so satisfying. This is at an instinctive level even if you feel morally guilty afterwards. Yelling ‘Su-gar!’ when you stub your toe just doesn’t feel as good.
So if we are going to re-appropriate a word the most successful words are going to be ones that feel good to say, but they also need to fit their purpose. So romantic words should be flowing and graceful (beautiful) and angry words short and sharp (kick, fight). The shorter and stronger the sound the more likely it is to catch on. But then what? The word needs an audience, so we need a significant group or sub-culture of people to get behind the word. It needs cult status. But to hit the mainstream we need media support and finally the nod of approval from the Oxford English Dictionary.
Simple. So I am just off to tweet, poke and IM my subscribers to see if we can’t start a language revolution.
Australia is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world and as a result it has many bilingual children and many second languages that are spoken in their homes. According to a recent survey, of all the languages that are spoken other than English around Australia Arabic is the most widely spoken by young people. This adds up to over 5000 bilingual children in Australia speaking Arabic as their second language.
A study by The Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) showed that around 1 in 8 bilingual children spoke Arabic as well as English. The study by the AEDI also showed that the other top second languages that are spoken in Australia are Greek, different Chinese dialects and Hindi.
The results are particularly interesting because even though it shows that Arabic is the most common second language that is spoken in Australia no Arabic nation is listed in the top 15 countries of the childrens’ birthplace. Results showed that most of the children said that they were born in England, New Zealand, USA and India after Australia.
Over 260,000 children were surveyed and the results showed that around 18% of them spoke a language other than English.
4.8% of the children studied were from Aboriginal descent and out of those around one fifth of the children said that they spoke a native Aboriginal language as their first language at home. The rest had English as their first language.
The children who spoke Arabic as their second language made up a total of 11.8% of all of the bilingual children who were surveyed by the AEDI. Arabic is therefore much more widely spoken in the homes of Australia than was first thought and this language is closely followed by Chinese dialects and Hindi.
A study presented this month to the American Academy of Neurology suggests that people who speak two or more languages face a reduced risk of developing memory-related problems in old age.
The research (as yet preliminary) supports the long-held theory that practices such as language-learning and learning to play a musical instrument can help stave off the negative effects on the memory of aging. It suggests that practising a further language at any point during your lifetime, whether continued into old age or not, will help protect the brain against memory issues.
The study was carried out in Luxembourg using 230 participants with an average age of 73, all of whom spoke or had once spoken between two and seven languages. The study did not recruit people with dementia. Its results revealed that only 19% of participants suffered memory problems and that the more languages a partcipant spoke the less likely these problems were to develop. Researcher Margali Perquin, from the Center for Health Studies (Luxembourg), stated that the research suggested that “speaking more than two languages has a protective effect on memory in seniors”.
There is something about learning an additional language, at any point during your life, which provides the brain with support that can later prove invaluable to memory. Perquin expressed the need for further research to confirm the findings and to see if other areas of cognition (such as problem solving or perception) were also positively affected by language learning.
Discovering which parts of language learning provided this reduced risk could also lead us to establishing what other activities we should do to aid our brains. If, for example, the memory power needed to remember a whole new grammar system and vocabulary was the factor that made language learning so beneficial than perhaps vocations that similarly require a significant amount of information to be learnt might also aid memory. Vocations could include driving a London Taxi and having to spend around two years learning ‘The Knowledge’ or being active university lecturers who must continue to research their field whilst teaching the subject to their students. Research conducted by E. Maguire (2000) has already revealed that London Taxi Drivers’ increased spatial awareness can increase the size of their hippocampi, so why not memory?
Maybe a cross-cultural comparison could be made to investigate whether memory diversity across cultures is determined (to some extent) by speaking multiple languages? In Luxembourg it is quite common for citizens to speak two or more languages, therefore in countries where this is not the case would we be able to see an increased level of memory problems within the population?
This research throws up many potential research questions, and whilst this research is still in its formative stages it no doubt only encourage the case for more people to take up additional languages no matter what their age or background.
The translation of text in the field of law is termed as legal translation. Legal translation is not considered to be a simple job since it involves culture dependent subjects. Legal translations should only be performed by specialized professionals. Any mistakes or mistranslation can lead to lawsuits and you can even end up losing your money. Hence a translator must be very careful while translating texts and must keep a few points in mind while doing it.
Firstly, the legal structure of the source text is formed in a manner that suits the culture and this is mirrored in the legal translations and legal language. Most of the legal translations, writings or contracts try to clearly build the rights and duties of particular individuals. The translator has to keep in mind to translate the text with the same functions as those present in the source language. A translator who is translating legal texts must refer to law dictionaries once before starting to translate text. Also one must keep in mind to consult dictionaries of high quality and not the cheap ones.
When looking for a translators, one must keep in mind to look out for the one who is most qualified and has the relevance experience since the slightest mistake can lead to major consequences. The process of legal translation requires the presence of specific knowledge and the right kind of awareness for this type of work without any uncertainty or vagueness. Any delay or mistakes in the translations can lead to a huge amount of money loss, undue delay or confusion and chaos.
It is essential for a translator to understand the legal aspects and terminology of the legal system. It is also important for a translator to match the translations with the accurate language for the correct legal information and knowledge. A translator must understand the needs and demands that have to be taken care of while translating a text. Also, usually the translations must be kept very confidential and all the documents must be kept safely under strict privacy. By doing so, a translator will earn the trust of the customer.
In the fast growing global economy, a company with a serious plan needs to have many versions of its website. A website in different languages such as Arabic, English, French, German, Spanish, etc is important.
If you want to translate your website, there are many options to choose from. As a surfer or visitor you come across websites in a foreign language and fail to understand it or at best words or phrases that make you wish the site is in your language. Most people who are doing business on the internet tend to use one language for their website or for marketing, which makes it difficult for them to reach a larger population. Since the world is full of people who speak different languages, one requires translating a website since business is something which is all about opportunities. There are many options. You can choose the (cheap) Google translator or many other online tools and translating softwares. Or you can use a professional translation company (not as cheap).
Some of the basic steps you need to follow while translating a website are:
1. Give your translator linguistic license. Don’t carry out a word for word literal translation. You will hit the mark with a natural, localized translation..
2. Make a translation glossary. A glossary will help you keep terminology uniform and controlled ensuring consistency in your website copy.
3. Hire a professional instead of using a software tool. This will save you from any errors and will provide you with better efficiency.
4. Get translation memory to keep a check on the already translated phrases and words. This will save you the burden to hire a translator every time you add a new product to your website.
5. Review your website more than just once to correct any mistakes that happened while translating it. You can even hire a professional to do this.
One of the finer points of translation in the global market is that your translation may have little to no impact on a localized market. Solid professional translations are still a necessity and the norm when reaching the global market. Anyone conducting business electronically or otherwise must also consider the translation needs of certain local markets in the target language zone. The process of translation must be rigorous so that the finished translation is clear and easy to understand. Taking it to the next step is the consideration of the specific locale – or ‘street version’ – where some variant of the target language is in common use.
The professional translator can add value to that translation if they are able and willing to take their work the “street” level of the target language or dialect. Like the android depicted in the Star Wars films – C3PO – the translation service can translate up to “2 million languages, forms or dialects”. Of course, that is just hyperbole, but it should be analogous to the type of value-added translation by the extraordinary professional translator. This extra-step should also be sensitive to daily issues like those of currency, local history and even local festivals.
When a business engages a professional translation service, they may wish to make it clear if they want the straight book translation or the local street version. The business persons involved will be able to delineate the requirements of this job and any add-ons. A word of warning should include whether or not the translation service – even the translator’s work – will be turned over to another source and why. The service of the translation needs to be current so as to include any new meanings or developments in the local parlance. This is needed to avoid loss, embarrassment and other detractors to business. The simplest things cannot be overlooked – like how will the corporate logo and marketing colors be perceived? (For example, one may wish to avoid the color orange in certain Catholic zones.)
