Eastern Europe in the Translation Industry

TranslationDirectory.com has a huge database of articles about translation and the language services industry. (In fact, if you look through it, you may find that some of my pieces from this blog have been published there).

Today I read an article there called "How Eastern Europe fits into the European Translation Market", by Kevin Fountoukidis, CEO of the Argos Company Ltd., which discusses the trends of and factors behind the emergence and growth of successful language companies in the low-cost region of Eastern Europe.

Highly recommend it.

What's the world's most beautiful language?

I've been quite busy lately and haven't had much time for original posting. But here's a fun story from the AFP:

Estonian Minister announces language beauty contest

TALLINN (AFP) — Estonia is planning a beauty contest with a difference to mark its 90th birthday, according to a report Monday: the winner will be the world's prettiest language.

Education Minister Tonis Lukas wants his counterparts from around the world to get school pupils to enter recordings of sentences of up to seven words for the contest, the Baltic News Service (BNS) agency reported.

"There's a story that a world championship of beautiful languages was once held in which Estonian took second place after Italian with the sentence 'soida tasa ule silla', or 'go slowly over the bridge,'" Lukas said Monday.

"As part of the events for the anniversary of the republic, we're pleased to turn to other nations with a friendly call to check how our language sounds to others now," he added.

Estonian is a member of the Finno-Ugric group of languages and unrelated to most other European tongues.

It is spoken by only about 1.1 million people worldwide. Around 950,000 of them live in Estonia itself and many of the rest in neighbouring Finland and Russia, as well as Sweden, Germany, North America and Australia.

Preserving their language was a crucial part of Estonian opposition to foreign rule from the 19th century onwards, and remains an important plank of government policy.

Estonia is due to celebrate the 90th anniversary of its first period of independence from Russia on February 24 next year.

The country was taken over again by the Soviet Union during World War II, and became independent once more as the Moscow-ruled bloc crumbled in 1991.

Estonian is now an official language of the 27-nation European Union, which the country joined in 2004.

Dollar Woes and the Translation Industry

by Lauren Nemec

The decreasing value of the Dollar against the Euro (currently $1.46 = €1) means that language service providers (LSPs) around the world are starting to make changes regarding how they buy and sell translations. Let's explore...

How translations are purchased:

Usally, most LSPs buy translations in the target language country in the local currency. So for a translation from English into German, the LSP would use a translator living and working in Germany and would pay that translator in Euro.

So what does this mean?

--If the LSP is based in Europe: The weakening dollar does not really affect this English to German purchase since the European LSP is probably buying and selling in Euro. However, if that European LSP wanted to do a translation from German to US English, the Dollar's exchange rate is making it cheaper and cheaper to buy translations into English from the United States, benefiting the LSP. Indeed, European LSPs are starting to take advantage of the weak dollar by buying translations even into European languages from U.S.-based translators.

--If the LSP is based in the United States: That German translation is becoming more and more expensive to purchase, which lowers margins if the LSP is unwilling to increase prices. But with the dollar continuing to weaken against the Euro, U.S.-based LSPs will have to consider charging higher rates or charging in Euro.

If you'd like to read more on this subject, Renato Beninatto of the Common Sense Advisory has posted on his organization's "Global Watchtower" blog two responses to this forex trend: "That Clinking, Clanking Sound of Money and its Impact on Translation" and "American LSPs Poised to Increase Rates for Translation Services".

Photo Credit: Joshua Velasquez

Forbes: Global Guide to Tipping

Food, tourist attractions and local customs vary greatly from Berlin to Bangkok and Rio to Rome. So why should tipping practices be any different? If tipping practices around the world have you stumped, refer to this "Global Guide to Tipping" by Forbes.

Photo courtesy: Andanson James/Corbis Sygma

Wow, the world really is flat....

by Lauren Nemec

Today I finished reading Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat". It's a little funny, considering the date: November 9th, or 11/9. If you've read "The World is Flat", you'll understand the significance of this date. Today marks 18 years since checkpoints were opened along the Berlin Wall, allowing the citizens of East Germany to travel freely into the Western world. Friedman lists this event as one (in fact, as the first) of the 10 forces that has flattened the world. But I digress...

Anyway, for those who don't yet believe that the world is flat, here's an article that might change your mind: "Bangalore butler is latest development in outsourcing".

Global corporations have been looking to India to outsource non-core business operations like software development, human resource management, accounting and customer service. If you've ever had an airline lose your luggage or have needed help with your laptop, it's likely you've spoken with an Indian when calling the company's customer service line.

But now, individuals are starting to look to India for management of their daily tasks. Parents are purchasing tutoring services from India for their school-aged children using VoIP from their computers at home. For busy professionals in big U.S. cities, a personal assistant service in India can schedule appointments, make dinner reservations, provide wake-up calls, book flights, give directions, and even help their clients find love by searching online dating sites for people who match their requirements!

According to the article, this globalization of consumer services will eventually create a market of millions of households in the USA and other countries that will require services "like health and nutrition coaching, personal tax and legal advice, help with hobbies and cooking, learning new languages and skills, and more."

Does that mean when I can't remember an ingredient for my chocolate chip cookies, I can call someone in India and they will be able to help me? Really, the world is flat.

Global Brand Names - Is Yours Lost in Translation?

by Lauren Nemec

Are you preparing to introduce a new product in a foreign market? Read this first.

Naseem Javed, an expert on Corporate Image and Global Branding, has written an informative and useful article on the subject of global brand names, called "Lost in Global Translation?". In it, he explains the challenges of naming a brand for the global market, focusing on Middle Eastern products branded in Arabic. Here are some interesting points from the article, if you don't have time to read through it.

Who are the leaders in global branding?

According to Javed, Japan laid the groundwork for the systematic naming of global brands. He says, "Decades ahead, Japan was on the forefront of creating global brands, like Toyota, Minolta, Sony, Pentax, Sharp, Panasonic, Canon and hundreds of other five star standard names, as names originating from Japanese language would have never allowed such global acceptance."

What are the components of a good global brand name?

Ideally, the best global brand names are those that adhere to international rules of translation, appeal to the masses, lack negative cultural connotations, and are easy to pronounce, spell and recall. This seems straightforward enough, but is easier said than done, as many global companies could tell you from experience.

Javed's Recommendations

According to Javed, "The best thing [companies can] do is conduct a highly professional third-party nomenclature audit. Check connotations and language issues to find out where the name could be rejected or taken as too confusing and forgettable."

Translatus Brand Name Analysis Services

This subject gives me ample opportunity to introduce a service offered by Translatus.

We understand that a brand is a valuable asset- one which should be evaluated before entering new foreign markets. Therefore, Translatus has designed a "Brand Name Analysis" service, which provide our clients with linguistic and cultural analysis of their brand names, slogans and logos.

Translatus will deliver a detailed, written analysis for each brand name in each target market. The analysis addresses the following issues:

• Prior use of the brand name in the target market
• Similarity of the brand name to other companies, products or services.
• Direct translation or similarity of brand name to existing words in target language.
• Negative cultural connotations or possible offensiveness.
• Unclear use of colloquial language, slang, or idioms in the brand name or slogan.
• Ease of pronunciation and recollection.
  

This global and market-specific analysis of your brands ensures accurate representation of your brand image and company message in your foreign markets. For more information, please visit our website or contact me at lnemec@translatus.com or +420 222 517 153.

Photo courtesy: The Trademark Blog

Localization of Video Games

From the "Daily Yomiuri Online", this is the first of two articles explaining the process of video game localization.

Playing games with the world: It takes more than just translation

Andrew Sharp / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

The global video games industry is not bigger than Hollywood. But it's not far behind. More money will be spent on video games than on music this year, and the gaming market is projected to be worth 48.9 billion dollars by 2011, according to consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Many games are written by Japanese game producers, then translated and adapted for the large gaming markets of North America, Britain and the FIGS countries (France, Italy, Germany and Spain), in a process known as localization, a process that has to please the notoriously persnickety creature known as the gamer.

"Localization isn't just about the translation of words, its about the other elements that make up the game: the difficulty level, any cultural references," explains Richard Honeywood, localization director at Square Enix Co. "All these factors have to be changed from one culture to another."

An example of this would be the skirts of the female characters in a popular tennis game that were shortened for the Japanese version of the game--no doubt pleasing the kind of gentleman you could find frequenting the less family-oriented areas of Akihabara.

Read more.

Translatus at Productronica

by Lauren Nemec

Translatus representatives will be at the Productronica trade fair in Munich, Germany on November 14th and 15th. Productronica is the world's leading trade fair for electronics production.
If you will be attending Productronica and would like to speak with a Translatus representative, please email our Business to Business Services Manager, Joanna Nelson at jnleson @translatus.com to set up a meeting.

We hope to see you there!

Prague Post: The customer is always wrong

In September, I posted an article I wrote about Czech culture. In it, I very briefly mentioned Czech customer service and Czech envy.

The Prague Post put up an article the other day that delves into these concepts more fully, providing insightful commentary on how the shadows Communism still linger in the new service economy:

The customer is always wrong.

10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages

by Lauren Nemec

A boy living in England has my dream superpower.

Arpan Sharma, a 10-year-old British Indian boy, has a gift for learning languages. He has learned 11 languages so far and is eager to learn more.

Arpan's mother tongue is Hindi, which he learned from his parents growing up. He also speaks English, and learned French, German, Italian and Spanish at school. Using interactive CD-Roms, Arpan has taught himself Swahili, Mandarin, Polish, and Thai. Most recently, the young language genius has been learning the difficult language of Uganda- Lugandan.

He says learning Swahili was the biggest challenge, and that Mandarin was difficult, too. Hindi is his favorite.

The young boy enjoys studying music in school, in addition to learning languages. His headmaster believes that his musical training has helped him develop his talent for picking up languages, saying "Arpan is a language genius, a natural when it comes to listening to the exact pronunciation and repeating them perfectly. I think some of his talent is twinned with his ability as a musician. His good ear for music and tone is used for languages as well."

So what does Arpan plan to do with his talent and passion? He says, "When I'm an adult, I want to be a surgeon who can work in all the hospitals of the world and speak the language of the country I'm in."

Arpan came in 3rd place last year at the national Junior Language Challenge, and has reached the final round again this year, which will be held on Friday.

Good luck Arpan!

Photo Courtesy: Daily Times, Pakistan