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"You strive to find the perfect words in English… |
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Why is your company called Antler? How do I become a member of the Thousand-Dollar Club? Why translate - isn't English the universal language? We have people in the office who speak foreign languages. Why can't they do our translation for us? Why is translation so expensive? Would an individual translator be cheaper than a company? What other advantages are there to using a translation company rather than an individual?
Why is your company called Antler? It's a secret! There is a reason, but we only tell it to members of our Thousand-Dollar Club. How do I become a member of the Thousand-Dollar Club? Well….. Why translate - isn't English the universal language? No, not exactly. It's the universal second language. But people obviously want to make important buying decisions in their first language. (Try it: imagine going to buy that new Mercedes you've promised yourself – and imagine that the salesman doesn't speak your language. How do you feel, describing all the options you want on your shiny new toy, and arranging the financing, and discussing the delivery date – all in German?) English-speaking businesspeople often think that it's to their advantage that "all the world speaks English," but they are looking at the situation completely upside-down. They are ignoring all the suppressed resentment they are creating, as they force their overseas customers to negotiate in a foreign language. To read product specifications in a foreign language and try to figure out if that is exactly the product that they need. To study the intricacies of a contract in a foreign language. And then the English-speakers wonder what's hit them, when a rival comes on the scene, speaking the client's language, with product documentation in the client's language … and wins the sale. We have people in the office who speak foreign languages. Why can't they do our translation for us? How many people do you know who can write really well in one language? Well enough that you'd entrust your product documentation to them? Not many? Then what makes you think an employee of yours who grew up speaking a different language is automatically going to be skilled at writing in it? Or do you mean you have an employee who's a native English-speaker but has learned another language? Forget it! Professional translation is done only into the mother tongue. Why is translation so expensive? Compared to what? The flight to Europe to find an overseas agent? Your attorney's fees for looking over that foreign contract? The printing of your export brochures after they've been translated? Can you think of any piece of your overseas sales effort that's less expensive than the translation component? OK, the guy in the mailroom sticking the stamps on the overseas brochures – maybe he's cheaper than a good translator! Or look at it this way: Compared to what? The big import opportunity you missed because you didn't understand what you were being offered? The long-term client who deserted you when your competitor offered him the same merchandise as you, but with packaging in the right language? Would an individual translator be cheaper than a company? Probably. But….. Yes, I thought there'd be a "but…" But? But you need to be sure of what you're getting for your money. Many individual translators are excellent – they need to be, because when they're not working for their own direct clients, they're working for a translation company like Antler – and we have very high standards! But they are, by definition, just one person. A translation, just like any other piece of original writing, needs to be looked at by at least two people, typically a translator and an editor. If you prefer to have your work done by an individual translator, always ask whether the quoted fee includes the services of an editor. The fee quoted by a translation company such as Antler will always include the editing stage. There are no surprises. What other advantages are there to using a translation company rather than an individual? Is the same piece going into several different languages? Then the translation company is the place for one-stop shopping. Important point: translation is done only into the translator's mother tongue. If you are having a promotional piece translated into French and German, then you need a French and a German translator. If you don't have time to work with multiple translators, or the expertise to review their work in several different languages, you will do better with a translation company. With one phone call you shed that load. Let the translation company find the several translators that are needed; line up the necessary number of editors; make sure that all the language-versions are consistent. Are you working with documentation on many different subjects? Then again, you will need several different translators. Important point: the best translators are subject specialists, and you should not expect them to have expertise in all areas. Perhaps you're an importer in many different fields: working with electronic gadgets this week, medical supplies the next. Perhaps you're an investment consultant, and today you want to tell your clients about opportunities in Colombian emerald mines, tomorrow about investing in oil palm plantations. A translation company can find the several different translators needed for the different subjects. Why does a translator have to be a subject expert? Words are words, aren't they? And they're all in the dictionary anyway. Well….. What's a "bus driver"? Are we talking transportation, or electronics? Two different things, two different translations. That "rotor" in your publication on automobiles, is that in the ignition system or in the brakes? Same word in English, two different words in other languages. That "screen" in your text, is it something on which you watch pictures, or a grid that keeps dust out of your machinery? Same word in some languages, different words in others. You don't want someone who doesn't understand the subject choosing the wrong one. That text of yours on spectroscopy, with the phrase "a red shift phenomenon." You need your translator to know right off the bat whether "red" belongs with "shift" or "phenomenon." If it's misunderstood and mistranslated as a result, guess who's going to end up looking scientifically illiterate? What's a "diamond cutter?" A person who cuts diamonds, a tool for cutting diamonds, or a tool using diamonds as the cutting edge? You're in the diamond-edged cutting-tool business – how much time are you going to waste with people trying to order tools for cutting diamonds, because of an amateur and misleading translation? "Replace the filter" – what do you mean? "Put the same filter back in its original place" – replace in that sense? Or "Throw the old filter away and replace it with a new one?" Again, you need a translator who is not only familiar enough with the subject to know which "replace" is meant (or to realize that there is an ambiguity and to check with you, the client) but also who is sensitive enough to language to look for a word in the target language which doesn't have the ambiguity of the English "replace." And you certainly don't want the translator misunderstanding the relationships between the words when your copy says "We are crude oil importers," now do you?! |
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