Marketing firms just use this tool to make the most of their available resources. They not use it but use it effectively to bring back every pence of money they have spent on this. And having said this, it also needs to be told that for firms which are into the online business model, translation is really an effective tool. But before we actually go for this, one needs to be quite clear about the demand of the customers and the ability to fulfil these.

The translation agencies should always focus on professional translation services and not just services. At the same time they should also be able to handle translations which require medical translations, document translations and business translation. These are other than the language translation which constitutes Spanish translation, French translation, Italian translation and finally German translation to end. These are just some of the basic needs and requirements which are always on the top of the list.

But when it comes to use translation and that too as a marketing strategy, one needs to understand the following requirements:

1. Working on language skill is the most important requirement from a professional point of view as because until and unless one is expert in the language, he or she cannot do any sort of translation.
2. Doing some professional course to help increase the grip on translation is very much needed at least in professional life if not in and for personal needs. By having done a professional course would also give the confidence which is very much required in this field.
3. The third thing which comes into action is the need to promote the business as because until and unless marketing and publicity I done, it is useless to go and try anything. Marketing yourself and the firm to the clients by updating the website, writing blogs and journaling articles can be very effective.
4. Catching up o the business chores also forms an important area where one can really add value to the business. This includes updating the account, sending and chasing the invoices, and completing all the piling and filing work.

Last but not the least, doing something that you really love can really mean and add a lot to and for you. This not only gives you the much required motivation but at the same time may make you feel refreshed.

Website localization or website translation means to modify your website for foreign web users by presenting the text in their language and using graphics, photos, symbols, colors, designs and layouts. that synchronize with the culture of the target consumers.

With this large number of customers why not attract consumers of internet in their language? Doing this will maximize your profits as your business will hit few extra values.

Website translation or website localization lets you overcome the language barrier. It is as simple as, you would rather buy grocery from a store that speaks your mother tongue from the one that speaks any language. You thus maximize your chances of trade with people knowing two languages but also maximize the number of people your business reaches out to. As those who do not know English can be your prospective customers too.

Website localization and translation establishes you as a credible player among the competitors. It gives a message that you understand the culture and hence the needs, habits and life pattern of the target customers. You also show your respect for the culture though website localization and translation.

After website localization and translation your website starts getting listed on the search engines in foreign language. This straight away means more visitors to your website. More hits as you know ultimately convert into currency.

Visitors are likely supposed to stay for twice as long on your website if it is provided in their mother tongue. This is sure to benefit your business chances.

All this is bound to push the boundaries that your business ever operates in and maximize the profit that your business is getting you. Website localization is however not very easy process. It demands programming expertise as well as a thorough understanding of the target language and culture. The person doing this job must be very intimate with that culture and language. A good translator will keep in mind the value system, symbols, believes, phrases and idioms etc. of the target culture.  Regional variants of the target culture are also to be kept in mind.

Recognizing these benefits of website localization and translation, most of the top shot companies today have a multi-lingual website and the website that have localized themselves are joining the league. So just start planning for your website localization and translation and see your dreams come true.

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One Hour Translation is the world’s fastest professional translation service. One Hour Translation provides Fast, High Quality Expert Translation service on a 24/7 basis thanks to a community of over 8000 certified translators from all over the world.

The importance of equivalence is realized by all scholars of translation and has always remained a key point in the study of translation. But two streams of equivalence have remained in debate ever since study of translation has started. They are formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence.  Formal equivalence corresponds to ‘word to word’ translation while dynamic equivalence corresponds to ‘sense to sense’ translation. Although both these thoughts are not demarcated by any clear line and can exist in translation task simultaneously however, the two thoughts have one thing in common. Both acknowledge presence of some problems which challenge the translator to achieve equivalence.

These factors have broadly been divided into two branches- linguistic factors and Cultural factors.

Linguistics is defined as ‘scientific study of language’. While culture as ‘the tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group’ or simply put the way of living involving society ethics symbols and values.

For linguistic scholars, translation is actually applied linguistics. In the process of translation the person actually decode the source language and tries to find the equivalent meaning of those words phrases and symbols and produce it in the target language. For a linguistic equivalence is achieved if the target language (in specific linguistic medium) carries the same intended meaning or message that the source language carries.

Linguistic factors are thus “those factors which exist at the levels of concrete form and abstract meaning of any chunk of language”- Catford (1988).

On the other hand cultural factors are those relating to value system, geographical situation, symbols, the climate, ethics, the history, the tradition, the religion etc. Cultural factor can be any impact that a culture, the societies way of living can have on a language.   Cultural equivalence hence aims at keeping the cultural features of the source text intact in the target language. This enables a cross cultural understanding of the subject. The reader can thus also do a comparative study of his culture and the one he is reading. One thing is to be noted that cultural factors cannot be seen at the level of form or meaning of language, but they exist in the background of using the language. Cultural equivalence can be actually achieved if the words for the particular culture are universally known.

However, a translator has to bear both these factors try to maintain a equilibrium according to the need.

Cultural aspects are an important factor to be kept in mind while linguistics are handled in translation.

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One Hour Translation is the world’s fastest professional translation service. One Hour Translation provides Fast, High Quality Expert Translation service on a 24/7 basis thanks to a community of over 8000 certified translators from all over the world.

All the same, the intercultural approach to translation is something that needs to be witnessed by demonstration instead of explained by theory. As such, let’s examine the different commercials for watches made by Tissot that was localized in four languages: Polish, Arabic, English, and French. The interesting thing about these advertisements was the way the human translation agency hired by the watch company adapted the message in accordance to the restrictions of the target market.

The Intercultural Approach Promotes Cultural Diversity

Let’s concentrate on the Arabic and French versions of the abovementioned ads for simplicity’s sake. The copy adaptation is obvious on two levels. On the linguistic level, it showcases rhetorical images: the French ad received a vague and mysterious “blue planet” message, while the Arabic ad featured a more emotionally charged and idiomatic, “Our mother, the Earth”.

On the ideological level, the two ads differed as well. While the French audience had a fairly straightforward translation of the word “citizen” in their version of the ad, the Arabic ad got a more ambiguous “inhabitant” counterpart in order to neutralize any political connotations.

This is significant because “citizen” in Arabic refers to a type of political ideology that’s nigh-absent in the Arab world (that is, the democratic and republican system of government).  “We are all citizens of the blue planet” is better translated as “We are inhabitants of our Mother, the Earth” so as not to needlessly irk any nationalistic regimes in the Arabian region.

The Intercultural Approach Requires Adaptation

To be clear, “intercultural” is just another term for “cross-cultural”, and both of these words connote to crossing cultural borders. Being intercultural isn’t about forcing your audience to conform to a bland and homogenized way of presenting a given message. It’s instead focused on celebrating the differences of multiple localities by having content (advertising, websites, and the like) adapted to their uniqueness. Effective international advertising makes use of professional translation that adapts images, text, and the interaction between the two to a given locale.

Translation services can learn a lot from the example set by the Lancome Company when it adapted its French marketing campaign for its Poême perfume to three other different regions: The English-speaking parts of Europe, the Portuguese-speaking parts of Europe and Latin America, and the Arabic-speaking parts of the Middle East. The original commercial’s message, as interpreted by Juliette Binoche, contained double meanings and a poetic line that states, “You are the sun that rises to my head.”

It works well in French, but it’s understandable why a straightforward translation will fall flat on its face once it makes the rounds in other international markets. Therefore, a more pragmatic translation that maintained the ambiguousness of the original content plus the subtext of sexual passion when translated in other languages like English (“You are the sea, you cradle the stars”) and Portuguese (“Tu es o sol que me escaldante a me cabeça” or “You are the sun that makes my head burst into flame”) was required.

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One Hour Translation is the world’s fastest professional translation service. One Hour Translation provides Fast, High Quality Expert Translation service on a 24/7 basis thanks to a community of over 8000 certified translators from all over the world.

Because of the globalization trend, any human translation agency that’s worth its salt must offer both translation and localization services to its clients. For many a business, localization and translation are nigh-synonymous to each other in terms of global advertising. To illustrate, let’s discuss several popular localization techniques when it comes to accommodating a promotional campaign from one culture to another.

The Graphic Adaptation Technique

Our first example of a well-crafted international advertisement implements a localization technique called “graphic adaptation”. This tactic uses an advertising framework that’s based on localized imagery as much as translated copy. In a poster for a Tuscany-based perfume company catering to an Arabic audience, the localizers transformed the ad’s framework by adapting the background image in accordance to the socio-cultural environment of the target audience.

The “Italian”-based ambiance of the original perfume ad was replaced in favor of a more Mediterranean “street scene”. This simple yet deliberate change helped a lot in selling the product in accordance to the host country’s tastes. Just like how a human translation expert would maintain a balance between original message and cultural adaptation to form a pragmatic professional translation, a translation service offering localization assistance would also do the same in terms of image selection.

As the saying goes, “When in Rome, do what the Romans do.” The replacement of the original Tuscan iconography with that of images and pictures (cafes and terraces) that the Arabic consumers are more familiar with isn’t simpleminded pandering to the consumer base at all; it’s instead another form of translation that succeeds in communicating the intended message by creating another instance that the audience would more readily identify with.

Symbolism, Iconography, and Localization

In regards to the symbolism represented by the imagery of the localized ad, translators must know what to retain or what to change. Just because localization has become quite popular, it doesn’t necessarily mean that faithfulness to the original context should be abandoned altogether. In the above example, the French and Arabic versions of the same perfume ad retained the female protagonist at the center of the image and the perfume bottle at the bottom right corner of the poster. The main character’s smile is still present, and so are the extras. It’s the same message, but it uses a different approach to present it.

Tragically, most translation services misinterpret localization as a carte blanche to change everything in an ad, as though they were the ones doing the marketing department’s job. That’s a big mistake. Comprehensibility of the original message is still their main goal, but with the added caveat of using cultural context to deliver that message; nothing more, nothing less.

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One Hour Translation is the world’s fastest professional translation service. One Hour Translation provides Fast, High Quality Expert Translation service on a 24/7 basis thanks to a community of over 8000 certified translators from all over the world.

Translation Objectives of the Client and the Audience

First and foremost, translation services must remember that they are, for lack of a term, serving two “masters”. Their first concern involves satisfying the whims of the sponsors of the ads (that is, the client or the producer of the products and services being advertised for a foreign audience) who prefer a more offensive approach when it comes to selling their wares. In general, your clients believe that professional translation is arbitrary and culture is a global phenomenon based on standard “American”, “English” or “Western” messages as well as international icons.

On the other hand, there’s your target audience who believes the exact opposite of what your client accepts to be true. An emphasis on messages adapted to locale-specific norms, mores, religion, and socio-political attitudes is important to them. In any case, after striking a balance between what your clients want and what their audience wants, the translation work itself will be relatively easy. It’s adapting to these two “masters” that’s truly difficult!

Advertising Images and Localization

One other intricacy that human translation firms must address involves the fact that images themselves sport a lot of subtle cultural messages within them. Moreover, translation and localization isn’t only limited to text. Translators must work hand-in-hand with the marketing departments of their clients to avoid misusing pictures as well as words. Just as photos and the like can speak volumes on a given brand, they can also present negative connotations that may repel the intended demographic.

Some translators may think that critiquing pictures is outside their line of work and that they should be limited to handling the copy of the promotion. That’s perfectly fine; actually, for many years, translators have been limited to reviewing advertising copy alone. However, in today’s globalized and integrated world, the translator has become not only a lingual expert but also an astute localizer.

Picture Localization Dos and Don’ts

The present trend for translators is to make advertisers and their sponsors aware of whether or not their advertising campaign is appropriate to foreign audiences. For example, it’s a no-no to use beer drinking, disco dancing, and scantily clad women in bikinis when advertising in a Muslim-populated country. It has become the task of the translator to express just how bad an idea that sort of commercial or print ad really is to Arabs.

A translation service is tasked to interpret and convey the context of a message to a designated audience. Expanding further on that description, it is now part of a translator’s itinerary to double as a localizer in order to “translate” the context behind pictures, tell their clients what works and what doesn’t, and suggest images that the target audience will look positively upon.

Is the target market a socialist country? Emphasize selflessness and cooperation between workers. Does your foreign audience value egalitarian politics? Show a director mingling with his staff. Is the intended demographic a society that respects seniority? Have the senior executive sit behind his desk in order to exude respectability and superiority.

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One Hour Translation is the world’s fastest professional translation service. One Hour Translation provides Fast, High Quality Expert Translation service on a 24/7 basis thanks to a community of over 8000 certified translators from all over the world.

A properly conveyed and translated message will allow people to have a nigh-universal comprehension of the original content, localization obstacles be damned. Then again, failure to address personal or cultural interpretation can and will result in misunderstandings, faux pas, unfortunate implications, and hilarious gaffes. To illustrate, here are some of the most heinous translation mistakes made even by industry biggies:

• Professional translation or no, there’s really no excuse for turning the Salem Cigarette tagline of “Salem; feeling free” into the long yet tragically entertaining, “When smoking Salem, you’ll feel so relaxed that your mind will seem empty and free,” in Japanese.
• A Miami-based American t-shirt company tried to take advantage of the Spanish market during the Pope’s visit there, but instead of their t-shirts stating, “the Pope” or “el Papa”, it instead read “the potato” or “la papa”. Big difference.
• A translation service was able to botch up the KFC slogan of “Finger-licking good” and turn it into the horribly transliterated “Eat your fingers off” message in Chinese.
• How did Parker Pen’s ads go from “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you” to “It won’t leak in your pocket and impregnate you”? One word: embrazar (to impregnate); the company thought this meant ‘embarrass’ in Mexico. Well, they definitely were once the ad came out.
• Human translation companies everywhere have all probably heard about the story of Gerber selling its “baby food” to Africa, which confused the natives because companies usually put pictures on the label of what’s inside, so they thought it was “baby food” in the most literal sense of the term. The prejudiced and nigh-racist tall tale’s truthfulness is highly suspect, but its message of bad translation still rings true.
• Here’s another one from China. Pepsi’s promotion that asks people to “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” ended up becoming the creepy and bizarre “Pepsi resurrects your ancestors back from the dead” in Chinese.
• Remember the Chevy Nova’s tagline that got translated into “It won’t go” in Spanish markets? Ford one-upped their competitor’s gaffe by selling the Pinto to the Brazilians. Unfortunately, “Pinto” was Brazilian slang for “Tiny Penis”, so Ford eventually renamed their infamously dangerous car into “Horse” or “Corcel”.
• The “It takes a strong man to make tender chicken” slogan of Frank Perdue was corrupted into the bestial and iniquitous “It takes an aroused man to make chicken affectionate” in Spanish.

While it’s all well and good for translators to practice translating context based on a whole discourse instead of concentrating on translation techniques applied on a word-per-word basis, it’s even more important for them to be aware of the socio-political, religious, cultural, and locale-exclusive mores and norms of the intended market.

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One Hour Translation is the world’s fastest professional translation service. One Hour Translation provides Fast, High Quality Expert Translation service on a 24/7 basis thanks to a community of over 8000 certified translators from all over the world.