One Hour Translation Blog

The popularity of English as international business language continues to grow by the day as top business schools and universities irrespective of location are pushing for English as the teaching medium in order to meet the challenges of globalization and with an eye on revenue. Even in France which is a traditional English hater, universities are offering parallel business courses in English to attract international students. This could raise the demand for French translators who are fluent in both English and French.

The Lille School of Management in France is no longer treating English as a foreign language and teaches … Continue Reading

The story of evolution of English as a dominant international language is an interesting one. The internationalization of the English language has not happened overnight but is a product of development of the language over many centuries. English language is West Germanic in origin having been brought to Britain by Germanic invaders in pre Christian era.

Old English is said have been a collection of diverse dialects spoken by the Anglo Saxon kingdoms of England. The English language has undergone several linguistic shifts due to many invasions of England notably by the Scandinavians and the Normans. The influence on the language … Continue Reading

The primary language used in trade and commerce worldwide has varied over time as well as geography. Latin and Greek in Europe, Chinese in parts of Asia, Sanskrit in the Indian subcontinent, Persian in Islamic countries of Asia and Africa and so on have been the dominant language for some time or the other over the years. More recently in the 19th century, French was the language of diplomacy and was used in royal courts of Germany, Russia, and Italy besides France and French colonies in Africa.

Over the last century or so, English has become the dominant language of business … Continue Reading

With the internet becoming the most important means of communication in every possible field and that it is the only medium that has actually revolutionized the meaning of the word global village where the boundaries of language and geography no longer exists, the need for translators and the importance of translation has become very important. Today, from news to socializing everything has become an important part of the online process. Small businesses are flourishing due to the scope of reaching more and more customers through the innovative methods of online advertising.

Translation has become very … Continue Reading

Let’s say that your business sells its products both at the US and in Japan.
You translated all your website content to Japanese and put it online.
In doing so, you hope to attract more traffic from potential customers who live in Japan and search the Internet in their own language for products that your business sells.
My tip is: consider using a Japanese top-level domain (such as “your-company.jp“).
The reason for doing this is that search engines like Google use the domain name to order the search results according to the country where the search query came from.
Of course, this is … Continue Reading

Every day, our customers receive dozens of comments from our translators’ community regarding their business emails and letters.
The most frequent comments relate to the fact that the original text does not include important details, which the recipients expect to see and are common in their language and culture.
Here are few quick tips that will help you overcome cultural barriers when contacting foreigners:

1. Use the recipient’s correct title. In many countries – like France, Germany, Spain, China and Japan – you should use a proper polite title. Sometimes you should refer to the person using the third-person form. Use professional titles such … Continue Reading
   

Although many other languages can presently take the claim of being international languages in their own right, English remains an influential and global tongue that spreads its influence across matters like politics, trade and commerce, and entertainment.

Then again, in contrast to what many westerners think, it’s not the world’s most widely spoken language any longer. Chinese, Arabic, French, and Spanish share the throne with English as languages that the majority of the planet understands.

On that note, in the world of commerce, it has become a prerequisite to use business translators—professional translation experts that can do extensive … Continue Reading