Cindy King's International Business Blog » translation

Do You Use English Or American Spelling?

Cindy King — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:00:05 +0000

John Yunker on Global By Design wrote an article last month about different labels for different English spellings. Apparently the acronym “ENU” was used to mean “English – US”.

Another article raised the question of “International English” versus “American English”. I found this article slightly misleading simply because there are so many ways to use the term International English today: Global English, Universal English.

It does make me smile when an American says that “American English” is in the lead.

This reminds me of the all of trips to Canada, where Canadians would come up to me and say that Canada had been voted the best place to live in the whole world. After two different trips, I asked who carried out the study… well it was Canadian studies. The French go “coccoricco” often enough too.

There are quite a few interesting comments in this thread. I never thought the term “British English” could be considered false. And apparently Adobe uses:

“International English” (IE) = “American English”
“Universal English” (UE) = “British English”

Before you get into how you label your choice of English language, let’s look at how to choose the one you want to use.

There are in fact two business decisions to make.

Translations Or Not?

Are you writing for one broad international audience and would like to prepare the work for translating your content into different languages?

If you will need to translate your English language content into more than one language, you will save time and money by learning to write for an international audience.

If you strive for an International English you will also improve communication across a broader non-native English speaking audience.

Spelling

Are you targeting an American audience or a British, European or former British colony audience? This decision is fairly easy to make.

Although I was brought up with the Queen’s English, I have worked with American companies. I chose American spelling on my blogs because of software. I did not want to continually maintain the Queen’s English on American software. There is no major conflict for my business, so the decision was easy.

I still write in a style that is easy for non-native English readers. It is only a question of spelling and some grammar.

Clarity And Consistency

Whatever spelling you choose, remember to be consistent. This means that you should use the same spelling throughout all of your content, no matter who you are targeting. This makes your communication clear. Everyone knows how to identify you.

Do not create your own acronyms and keep your English labels simple and consistent with what your readers expect.

“EUS” does not mean anything to anyone
American English is not International English
British English is not Universal English

How Translation Ruins The International Sale

Cindy King — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:00:21 +0000

Translation For International Sales

A young French copywriter recently asked me if an international client should take the sales letter he wrote for them in French and translate it into English and a series of other languages. And this is for a direct mail piece, which means a fairly large investment for the mailer.

Translation or copywriting?

Now this is something an experienced copywriter and marketer would immediately understand.

A Unique Audience

A copywriter always writes a sales letter for one specific audience. And in addition to the demographic specifics of each audience, the copywriter also writes for a specific market maturity and environment.

This is what increases the results of your sales letter.

Now…

Different Culture = Different Sale

If you change the language you change the culture. This means you change the audience.

In fact, you are probably also addressing a different market. This market has a different environment. There will be cultural differences. And possibly other differences in market environment.

This different audience might even be at a different stage of market maturity for the product you are selling.

Different Sales Letters In Different Languages

What does this mean?

A different culture will not respond to your letter in the same way. Your sales letter will not work well.

You need different sales letters when you write them in different languages. It is unlikely a simple translation will get you good sales results.

If you are investing in a direct mail package to sell your product, you should also invest in appropriate sales copy for each different language you use.

A company that invests in hiring a copywriter to write a sales letter, knows that a good sales letter will bring in more money. That is why companies pay large sums of money for experienced copywriters to write their sales letters.

An Example Of How Translation Ruins The Sale

Have a look at this example of translation into English:

Van Cleef And Arpel’s Feerie Perfume

It is easy to see the lack of good copywriting skills in the English text. And the text reads as if it was simply translated from French. The text may work well in the original version.

But here, it does not go well with the elegant and expensive web design.

The English text will not add to the sales appeal. In fact, the English text actually takes away some of the sales appeal. And in some places the English is actually confusing.

It makes me wonder whether:

The translator did not do a good job. Which would surprise me.

Or with a company this size, I would expect the translator was told to give a strict translation and to follow the original text as closely as possible. A common problem.

Of course, in smaller French companies, the reason could also be because it was the technically minded webmaster that was asked to write the script.

The end result is a pity… especially after investing in such great design.

Foreign Language Sales Letters

As a marketing executive, I would never turn to a translator to write any sales copy. As a marketer this was easy for me to grasp even before I “discovered” copywriting as a profession.

How did I get foreign language sales copy?

The best solution is to network until you find a native language speaker with the right marketing and sales background to understand both your product and the foreign language market.

Yes, there are translators who do have copywriting skills. There are also many translators who say they do copywriting, and yet do not have the skills.

If it is my product, I would still prefer to spend the time to hunt down the person right for the job.

Professionals with good sales skills exist in all cultures. Your international sales results will increase if you learn to seek out other people with native language sale skills in your industry.

Don’t Miss…

Internationalize Your English

And in particular…

Translation Friendly International English

How To Get Your Computer To Read Foreign Alphabets

Cindy King — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:00:01 +0000

Taming Foreign Languages

It is often the accumulation of small hurdles that slow down your international business development.

And when you let a series of these little hurdles pile up, you can waste a large amount of time. Delays are fairly common in international business expansion. You simply need a little time to learn how to do a few things you have not done before.

One of the small marketing hurdles is getting your computer to “read” foreign alphabets.

You know…

…the countries that use something other than the “abc” or Latin alphabet.

The free translation tools can advance your international market research.

But…

If you have not set your computer to read these different alphabets, these free translation tools will not get you very far.

So, if you are challenged with a blank screen or a page full of “?” and “-”, don’t despair.

It is easy enough to set your computer to read a different language.

And you know what?

You can also “type” in these different languages too…

…with your current keyboard.

Find out how to set your computers here:

How To Set Your Computer To Read Foreign Languages

Over The Counter Translation Perfection Not Here Yet

Cindy King — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:00:34 +0000

Translation Tools

Yesterday I wrote about how it is almost time for the general public to question their beliefs that all translation software should be avoided like the plague.

I warned readers not to continue to base their opinions of translation software on old versions.

Even though translation software is still not perfect, people with real translation needs are using what they have today to gain a competitive advantage.

Over The Counter Translation Perfection Not Here Yet

Now, let me say once again, very clearly: free translation software are still NOT perfect.

Translation software still have quality issues. But it is often good enough for resourceful professionals to use to gain a competitive advantage.

Professional Translators Use Software

First of all, did you know that…

The primary professionals concerned, translators, often use software to help them get their job done faster. This not only helps them get their job done faster, it also helps them to give competitive rates.

Of course, professional translators always read through their work and add a human touch. But this is a common practice in many countries.

How You Write

Let’s face it, most readers here want an easy translation solution. They simply want to press a button and have a perfect translation appear.

Now what if you were to question your original content.

People with exposure to foreign languages will evaluate translation software differently. They can see where the original content was not written in a “translation friendly” way.

You see, the free translation software available today actually does a fairly good job of translating the facts. It has two major downfalls:

It cannot translate the nuances, and emotional or indirect messages. This is why it is never a good solution of sales materials.
It still gets stuck in areas where there is a certain communication flavor or quirky syntax.

This is why it is a great international market research tool. You can quickly get the essence out of the translations, but you will still need to do classic market research to dig deep enough.

Now I am going somewhere with this…

Writing For Translation Software

You see there are professionals with sufficient language experience who can predict where the software will have a hard time translating their texts. And they have created methods of writing that make it very easy to translate with the translation software. In very simple terms, they avoid writing the original text with any cultural or language quirkiness.

Yes, quirkiness is the best word I can find to describe it so all of my readers can understand. These people do use a more precise vocabulary, but you need to study languages to follow them.

And if you want to see what I mean, simply do some international online research using translation tools on a subject you are familiar with.

The areas of the text that are obvious mistakes to you are what I am referring to. And while you are there noticing the obvious mistakes, have a look at everything the translation software got right.

Now some readers here are not familiar with translation. If this is your case, and you are a stickler for perfection, you have to know something. The software may not have used the exact words you would use if you were to write the same text. But give the same big chunk of text to a dozen qualified translators and you will probably get a dozen different variations.

Bending Your Communication To Fit An International Market

Now, aligning your writing to fit with translation software may seem like you are giving up on some marketing power.

The question is, how are you communicating with your international markets?

Next week I will write about how International English is evolving to fit the web communication platform.

Need a free translation widget to put on your website?

Download this Translation Widget on Get International Clients

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

Translate Server Error

Cindy King — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:00:59 +0000

Translation Tools

There are many examples of translation and difficulties in cross-cultural communication in the press right now with the Olympics.

I found the photo below at http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2008/07/then-well-grab.html

This company sign is a fine example of why you have to be careful with online translation software.

The original Chinese characters ( 餐厅) should have translated into ‘Restaurant’.

The task of translating only two characters into one word does not seem the most difficult task for a software to do. This translation was obviously done using software, and very little human supervision, if any at all.

A simple cross reference of translating the results back into the original language would have highlighted the error.

This is a fine example of caution necessary when you use translation software to translate into a language that you do not speak.

Need a free translation widget to put on your website?

Download this Translation Widget on Get International Clients

How To Use Online Translation Tools

Cindy King — Wed, 28 May 2008 09:53:09 +0000

Translation Tools

As you know from reading my previous posts, I think free online translation tools are great… for certain tasks.

Use them for you own internal international market research. Find out what your competitors are doing overseas. Do some international product research. Try to identify cultural differences in international markets. Use them to simple try to get deeper insights into foreign cultures.

But… Never use them to write any sales content or sales materials. And think twice about relying on them for any other translations.

Having said that, using an online translation tool can be very quick and helpful. This is especially true if you are translating from a foreign language into your own language. You will probably see the mistakes that the translation tool makes and be able to decide what the writer was saying.

The Best Way To Use Online Translation Tools

There probably is no ‘best way’ to use an online translation tool, but I have a method that works for me. I use this when translating into a language that I can not read at all.

Need a name for the process? I think of it as the translate back and forth process.

I take one piece of text and translate it using the online tool. Then I take the result and translate the new text in the foreign language back into English.

Is this perfect? No.

Does this help? Yes.

This process can give you an idea where the software is stumbling on the translation.

Let’s Test The Process

As an example, I translated “For the first time ever, I have brought this group together for one, extraordinary event” into Russian using an online tool. When I took the Russian and translated it back to English the result was “I first brought this group together for its part, extraordinary event”.

Let’s see…

“For the first time ever, I have brought this group together for one, extraordinary event”

“I first brought this group together for its part, extraordinary event”.

That is not even close.

So I changed the original phrase:

“I have brought this group together for this extraordinary event”

“I brought this group together with this extraordinary event”

Another try:

“For this extraordinary event, I have brought this group together.”

“During this extraordinary event, I have already put this group together.”

Another try:

“For the first time ever, I have brought this group together for one event.”

“I first brought this group together for one event.”

A final try:

“For the first time, I have brought this group together for this extraordinary event.”

“The first time I have brought this group together with this extraordinary event.”

None of these results match the meaning the author first intended.

After working with the translation tools, I started to see that shorter phrases worked best.

When I translated “But that’s not all” into Romanian or French and back, it came back perfect. But…

Bulgarian: But this is not all

Finnish: But it is not all

Japanese: However, it is not the only

This phrase came up with 3 very different results.

I took another example, a much longer phrase, and the results I got were:

“We the people of the United States to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic welfare, to provide for the common defense, promote the general well-being, and secure blessings of liberty for themselves and our posterity, and create what made the Constitution for the United States.”

Can you guess what the original text was in English?

Need a free translation widget to put on your website?

Download this Translation Widget on Get International Clients

Who Should You Get To Write Your Foreign Language Web Content

Cindy King — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:00:21 +0000

Culturally Customized Content

Good web content is written for a particular reader. Great web content is written with a precise outline of the reader’s frame of mind at a given point of time.

Your reader comes online looking for specific information. Great web content answers all of the reader’s questions at a give point of time.

Your reader’s profile depends on many things. The type of question he needs to have answered depends on various factors. The type of answer he wants also depends on various factors.

One of these factors is his culture.

Specific Demands On Web Content

There is also another key aspect to foreign language web content. Let’s compare it to printed content.

Printed materials are used differently than web content. Printed materials are distributed in a different context to web content. You can easily see and understand these contexts. Cross cultural communication needs are visible.

Web content is slightly different to your printed content.

Why? This is not about SEO yet. It is about the step prior to any SEO.

It is about marketing and communication. It’s about knowing how to speak to the particular person who is reading your web page, knowing what he really needs to hear.

Online readers come online with a purpose. They also come from all sorts of different places.

Good web content needs to communicate well with online readers. It also needs to help readers get the information they are looking for quickly no matter where they come from.

All of your online readers are hunting for information. They just might be hunting with a different set of questions, a different set of expectations to the answers they want.

Great web content adapted across different cultures needs to be adapted to answer the right questions. These questions can change slightly in different cultures.

People in different cultures may be more concerned about different things or slightly different aspects. Cultural differences come into play with regards to politeness and various influences in perception.

Culture Customized Content

How will you create web content for your foreign readers?
Does culture affect the differences in answers are your readers looking for?

Great foreign language web content is much more than translation. It is also about cross cultural marketing.

When your readers come from a different country, the chances are high that your web content needs to be adapted to that particular culture.

If you need online content written in a foreign language, you probably need more than a translator. You will need a web content writer.

You need to find someone who does this for a living in the country you are targeting, in the language you are targeting. Find the right person to work with you to create the right culture customized content to develop your business internationally.

If you are currently using an English language website to target international audiences worldwide, prior to moving towards localized websites, and need cultural customized International English content, contact me here.

More in the Get International Clients Business Guides

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Who Should You Get To Write Your Foreign Language Web Content

Cindy King's International Business Blog » translation

Do You Use English Or American Spelling?

Translations Or Not?

Spelling

Clarity And Consistency

More on Culturally Customized Content:

More in the Get International Clients Business Guides

How Translation Ruins The International Sale

A Unique Audience

Different Culture = Different Sale

Different Sales Letters In Different Languages

An Example Of How Translation Ruins The Sale

Foreign Language Sales Letters

More on Translation For International Sales:

Don’t Miss…

More In The Get International Clients Business Guides

How To Get Your Computer To Read Foreign Alphabets

More On Taming Foreign Languages

Over The Counter Translation Perfection Not Here Yet

Over The Counter Translation Perfection Not Here Yet

Professional Translators Use Software

How You Write

Writing For Translation Software

Bending Your Communication To Fit An International Market

More On Translation Tools

Translation Software – It Is Time To Question Old Truths

It Is Time To Question Old Truths

Expectations Too High At The Start

Drive For Progress

Further Along The Road To Perfection

More On Translation Tools

Translate Server Error

More On Translation Tools

How To Use Online Translation Tools

The Best Way To Use Online Translation Tools

Let’s Test The Process

Need a free translation widget to put on your website?

More On Translation Tools

Who Should You Get To Write Your Foreign Language Web Content

Specific Demands On Web Content

Culture Customized Content

More on Culturally Customized Content:

More in the Get International Clients Business Guides