Gemini Translation Services Blog

Posts Tagged ‘translation supplier’

by Dr Stefania De Angelis Williamshttp://www.geminitranslations.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/post-new.php

In England, you might say I am “sick as a parrot”, whereas in Italy “star male da cani” literally means to be as sick as a dog. If you take off your shoes when arriving at the door of a dinner party in Rome the hostess might find you uncivilized, but fail to remove your shoes before entering a home in Asia Hawaii, or the Pacific Islands and you’ll be considered disrespectful. And do you know that when somebody wishes you “good luck” in Poland (Powodzenia) you have to reply “no, thank you”(nie dziękuję), while saying ‘thank you’ would bring bad luck?

The list of cultural differences is endless, and surely the message is clear: translation isn’t simply about changing one with the equivalent word in another language, it’s about making your translations suitable for your market.

When you go global, you have to expect people to talk and do business with you in their culture, using their customs, and these customs may be very different from the ones you apply on your country. And remember: if you don’t get culturally prepared, it’s most likely your competitors will: get ahead of the competition by breaking down language barriers in exports!

Reproduced in part from an article supplied to GTS

That heading is quite a mouthful to say, so here’s the short version; an ICP.

How you view your translation agency/supplier can make a big difference. If your translation services provider (TSP) is an ‘order taker’ then fair enough, they’ll do what you tell them to do. If your TSP is more of an extension of your business, then bring them in and get them round the table, quick!

The logistics and pitfalls of rolling out an ICP are always worth bouncing off someone particularly if its time critical. Doing ‘out of the moment’ rather than ‘in the moment’ could save time, money and most of all hassle.

A proper ICP will involve a variety of stages (translation, localisation, focus groups, readability testing). Having your TSP in at an early stage can help iron out the creases before you need to do the ironing. Plus they will be keen to showcase how good they are and will probably throw in some nuggets of information and advice for free, which will help keep the project on budget and time.

You may choose to do the project management (PM) yourselves or you could ask your ISP to become the PM, leaving you to focus on the reasons why you want an ICP and making sure you maximise your return.

BRICs, EU etc all have different cultural requirements and the once size approach will not work. Your TSP can advise and fill in any gaps, so the plan is well thought through and troubled shot before roll out. I’m sure with the prospect of some work, your TSP will be more than happy to bring along the biscuits!

Written by Darren Elliott