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3 Reasons Quality Translation Isn’t Easy

Despite the speed of an “instant” online translation, creating high-quality translations is not as easy as you might think. In our interconnected world, translation is crucial for so many reasons. We rely on expert human translators to correctly understand the subtleties of statements political leaders make, the complexities of biopharmaceutical procedures, the exact terms of legal contracts, and so much more. Here are three of the biggest reasons why translating is much more challenging than you might imagine. Word For Word Is Not Enough Anyone that has struggled to read

August 4, 2016 No Comments

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5 Languages That May Soon Go Extinct

According to UNESCO, many of the world’s languages may soon go extinct. At the current rate at which less common languages fall into disuse, at least 50 percent or more of the languages spoken by people today will disappear by the year 2100. This was a conservative estimate, with more cynical projections putting the rate as high as 90 percent. It’s easy to see why. As globalization continues, more and more people take up a “lingua franca” or language of business and work in order to function, with languages like

August 2, 2016 No Comments

Marketing & Communication

3 Translation Errors in Advertising

Adapting advertising for new languages and markets is one of the greatest translation challenges. An advertising slogan or marketing concept is carefully crafted to make a high-performance impact on the target audience. Advertising translation mistakes are expensive. Some people might say, “If it worked so well in one country, it should be easy enough use the same thing in others, right?” It’s a disastrous mistake many companies make. Good advertising works because of the specific, targeted language. Slang, cultural references, puns or other high-level language work makes translating a marketing

July 27, 2016 No Comments

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North American Spanish And European Spanish Are Different

It’s a curious cultural phenomena that even though England and America share colonial origins and speak the same language, it is referred to as English. However, when it comes to Spain and Mexico, it’s not uncommon to hear non-natives refer to Mexican as the language spoken in that country even though, they actually speak Spanish as well. Both pairs of countries share the same kind of colonial ties, and both of them have preserved the language of the mother country, but many people still prefer to talk about Mexicans as

July 22, 2016 No Comments

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3 Things Translators Need To Consider Post-Brexit

In what is surely one of the biggest cultural and historical incidents of the year, the United Kingdom (UK) is officially leaving the European Union. This has created a titanic amount of uncertainty in every single business and political sector. And with good reason: the European Union (EU) was a solid, if internally bickering, political unit that created corporate, government, and economic predictability for the entire European region of the world. Such an influential country leaving the Union raises many questions about how to move forward. This is especially true

July 21, 2016 No Comments

Translation

3 Reasons Banks Need To Translate Financial Services Information

A few different groups in the United States, namely Americans For Financial Reform and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have made recommendations to the entire U.S. banking industry, urging it to provide more translations for the financial products and services it offers, especially loans. Providing information in several languages benefits banks and consumers. Banks can reach new customers, increasing their profits and encouraging loyalty. And consumers can access information they understand well to make better financial decisions. So what exactly is the reasoning behind these recommendations? The LEP Factor In

July 13, 2016 No Comments

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Even Emojis Aren’t A Universal Language

A picture is supposed to be worth 1000 words, but if that picture is being incorrectly interpreted, then that’s 1000 wrong words that need to be explained. This is apparently the case with emojis as well, which were once supposed to be the savior of electronic communication by giving people a whole range of faces with different expressions to more succinctly communicate moods. After all, if a face has tears coming out of its eyes, it’s likely that a sad moment has occurred, and tears can usually get the point

July 7, 2016 No Comments

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5 Ways Cultural Signals Are Misinterpreted

There’s no getting around it: when you grow up in a certain region with specific types of gestures, behaviors or even speaking patterns, there is absolutely no guarantee that when you go to another country, those same mannerisms are going to be interpreted the same way. What can be a compliment or a show of affection in one culture or country can be a blistering insult in another. Here are some of the more unusual ways that differences between East and West or even North and South can differ when

June 16, 2016 No Comments