Cindy King's International Business Blog » international english content

Translation Friendly International English

Cindy King — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:00:07 +0000

Last week I wrote about how international businesses need to follow the use of translation software.

I am a very strong advocate of using free translation tools for

Online international market research, followed up by phone research.
International business or competitive intelligence, combined by human translations when appropriate

So naturally I like to follow how other professionals also use translation software to get a competitive advantage in international business. I wrote about how:

Translators use translation software to speed up their work.
Content writers adapt their writing for translation software.

Now, there is one other aspect to international content you should also be aware of.

International English Content

Many international businesses write content in English for international audiences. These international audiences include a very large percentage of non-native English speakers.

When you write for such a large international audience in English, and you also analyze the feedback from your audience, your writing naturally evolves into a unique style.

This is what I call International English.

You adapt your writing to avoid common miscommunication problems.
You also adapt your writing to use words your audience easily understands.

When you get feedback from your audience, you quickly understand where there is misleading content.

Difficult passages to understand.
Words your readers stumble on or misinterpret
Things, concepts, processes, instructions or ideas you do not explain well enough
Further clarification your readers need

The process of adapting your writing happens very naturally over time. Your writing acquires cross-cultural communication skills.

Cross-Cultural Communication

In cross-cultural communication there are two key ingredients:

Clarity
Consistency

Strong cultural references are also avoided.

Now what does this leave you with?

International English & Translation-Friendly Content

This International English content is also very similar to writing English to be translation-friendly for future software translations. Both methods of writing provide content that is easier to translate using translation tools.

An International English content will get you better results with software translations.

There is also one other point…

International English For Localization

The process of website localization also includes a phase of reviewing content to make it translation-friendly. This is an important preparation if you want to make it easier for different translations.

Online businesses leverage templates for successful website localizations. But you need to start off with a good base.

Templates provide easy international expansion tools. They save businesses time and money.

International English content makes this template process easy.

Start International Business With International English

International English content is the best place to start for either human translations or software translations.

International English content also gets your message across different cultures more effectively.

If you are developing your business into international markets, give International English content your full consideration.

It can:

Save you money in the short term – avoiding misunderstanding for both clients and translators.

Provide a much stronger marketing advantage in the long term – the current trend is towards implementing more and more languages. International English content makes this easier

What you need to know about International English:

International English Guidelines

Translation Software – It Is Time To Question Old Truths

Cindy King — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:00:31 +0000

Translation Tools

Recently I had yet another request about whether businesses can use free translation software tools. This last inquiry came from an American without any foreign language exposure.

She had always been told to avoid translation software like the plague. And her question was, should she look into translation software despite this.

It Is Time To Question Old Truths

Now this is a very interesting detail:

Translation software = the plague

A couple of clicks research and I found another detail.

This reader is also obviously old enough to have at least 15 years professional experience behind her.

Now you may wonder why I note this.

Expectations Too High At The Start

The thing is, when translation software first came out it was far from perfect. Much worse than a Micro Soft new product release. It was hard for most people to imagine actually using it.

The general public quickly labeled translation software as not being worth while. And this was the right thing to do…then.

The problem is that things have changed.

Drive For Progress

While these same people held on tightly to their first judgments, the translation software environment moved further ahead.

Oh, translation software is still far from perfect.

I have written other articles on how you can use them, so I will not go into that today. Have a look at the articles listed below.

Here is the key point…

While the general public abandoned the idea of translation software, there was a significant number of companies that needed this to work. It was vital for them.

You see…

They have massive quantities of information to translate into a large number of languages. Traditional translation costs were prohibitive. And even if they did allocate a sufficient amount of money to this budget, there were still stumped with the manpower requirements. It would take years and years to complete. Business could not wait.

Now you have to realize that this was not just for a couple of books, and not just sales materials. We are talking about very large information libraries. Most companies do not have the same problem.

Luckily, these companies are big enough to have the budget to invest in developing and improving translation software. It also made great business sense. So that is what they did.

That was a few years ago. And is still going on.

Further Along The Road To Perfection

The result for us, is that the translation software available today is much, much better than the first software that influenced the general public’s negative opinion.

Younger people are able to evaluate today’s translation software more accurately.

More experienced professionals who categorically refuse to look at translation software today will probably give up their competitive edge in the near future.

International business professionals with more flexible attitudes are already trying to take advantage of the speed and cost efficiency in international business.

When translation software improves just a notch or two further, it might be too late for the old badgers to catch up.

Tomorrow I will write about how people are already using the translation software available today.

Need a free translation widget to put on your website?

Download this Translation Widget on Get International Clients