Effective communication is essential to our business, personal, and social relationships. Nuance, tone, feeling, cultural tendencies, and so much more is conveyed through our many communication styles. The written word can evoke joy, pain, and every emotion in between if properly expressed, as is evidenced by great works authored and subsequently translated into languages not […]
Skype recently announced the first working approximation of Douglas Adams’s famous Babel fish: The Babel fish is small, yellow, leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the universe. It feeds on brain wave energy, absorbing all unconscious frequencies and then excreting telepathically a matrix formed from the conscious frequencies and nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of […]
Edith Grossman translated many of Gabriel García Márquez’s works into English. She talked to the Washington Post about the late author’s works and her particular style of translation. One comment that stood out to me was Grossman’s opinion that translating a piece of literature is like writing a new piece completely rather than simply changing or […]
Your content is always changing, growing, and evolving. What about in other languages? If you don’t keep everything aligned with the realities of today, you risk misinforming your customers, the consequences of which could be severe. Though updating the translations can be a chore, it doesn’t have to be. Follow these three simple steps with […]
You’ve contacted a company to translate a document for you, worked with them to define exactly what you need, and received the completed translation. What’s next? Can you feel confident publishing it? Many people in your shoes would feel better if someone else reviewed the document first, someone in their organization. This process is known […]
Without knowing both languages, and knowing them well, it’s nearly impossible for you to determine how good a translation is. I’ve had this problem myself when looking at documents in Chinese. While I do speak some Chinese, reading and writing is something I’m still working on. When I see something translated into Chinese, I can […]
Embrace America’s multilingual culture to increase your reach. English is the language of business. But is it the language of consumption? The answer is not as simple as marketers would like. The good news is that there are plenty of data available that can help make the decision to translate or not to translate easier. […]
It’s a valid and important question, and one that we in the Translation Department hear on an almost daily basis. And often, it’s not entirely clear what this certificate is, what it means, or if you even need it! It certainly doesn’t help that there seems to be no standard way in the U.S. to […]
When you need something translated, it’s important to get it right the first time. Otherwise, you run the risk of embarrassing yourself at best, or insulting someone at worst. Hiring a certified translator seems to be the best way to avoid a faux pas, but how do you know that you’ve hired the right person […]