Selling Worldwide

[multilingual]

As a partner in a language translation company, I would like to know people's experiences when dealing (or trying to deal) with companies in a foreign country.

Translating documents and brochures shows that you care about the reader and that you respect his culture. A client will trust you more if you have taken the time to correspond with him in his own language.

Translation is a marketing tool, and it can be very powerful if used in the right way. If you received a business proposal written in Bulgarian, would you go to the expense of having it translated just to see what it was all about? Probably not! Yet UK companies send out marketing material all over the world every day in English only. Also more than half of the internet users are surfing, right now, in a language other than English. How many sites are multilingual?

There are good and bad translation companies, and the one you choose will determine how succesful you are. It's not easy if you want to impress a client but don't know their language at all.

Imagine that you receive marketing gifts from two companies wanting to do business with you. One sends a Waterman pen with your own company name engraved on the side, the other sends you an old Bic biro with the tops chewed up. This is the difference between a good and a bad translation. It will make or break your plans.

Be interested to know how people see the translation industry, and how the industry could help more. Any experiences or thoughts are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

JB

[Cornish Steve]

One thing to note is that English is rapidly becoming the language of business. In many countries, RFPs are written in English and proposals are accepted in English. (I recently saw an RFP from Bulgaria, and it was in English.) Business meetings are conducted in English, and senior managers in most countries are fluent in English. We are fortunate that it's our language because English speakers are notorious for not learning other languages.

I could flip your comment about Internet use on its head. It's remarkable that almost one half of Internet users browse in English, which for many is not their first language. As time goes by, however, Mandarin is likely to become an important language on the Internet.

I suspect that Mandarin will become more and more important in general. In Singapore, for example, where there are four official languages (Engish, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil), children in school were previously expected to speak English and one of the other three. Today, they are expected to speak English, Mandarin, and (optionally) one of the other two. The Singaporean government realizes how important it is to speak Chinese.

I am in Bogota (Colombia) right now. This is a Spanish-speaking country. I will be the only person attending business meetings who does not speak Spanish. However, because I do not, they will conduct the meetings in English. It's unfair, but it's the norm. There's never any complaint, and it's expected.

In some countries, but not many, I need a translator. This is always true in mainland China, sometimes in Russia, and sometimes (surprisingly) in Germany. In Vietnam, where English is the third language (after Vietnamese and French), the meeting was conducted in English without a second thought.

It's a nice touch to deliver materials in the local language; however, from my experience, most companies still use English. It's a matter of economics. If a customer can understand English, and the language of business is English, why spend the money to translate? I'm not saying that this argument is necessarily valid, but it's the one most frequently articulated.

In my opinion, the more personalized your business, the more valuable it is to translate material into the local language. It's not essential, but it's a nice touch (if you can afford it) - and it will become more important over time.

[multilingual]

Fair comments, thanks for the feedback.

You have to bear in mind that until recently North American users represented the vast majority of the internet population. We keep track of the trends and 5 years ago, the figure for internet usage was about 80% English language, now it's down to 50% and falling. The fact that more people are now searching in another language means that English only sites will be taking a decreasing share of an increasing market. Most of the major search engines recognise foreign character searches now, and that is because there is a demand. It's not uncommon to see online sales double after adding 3 or 4 extra languages.

Asia is the fastest growing sector for online usage and whilst it may be true that many people speek English, it is a proven fact that people are more likely to buy from you, or trust your word, if they are addressed in their own language.

English has been, and always will be, the language of business worldwide, no arguments there. But that statement only has value when we are looking at a B2B scenario where a group of business people need to find a common language to communicate. Most of our work on websites and brochures is aimed at the consumer market, where there is far less understanding of English and a more personal approach pays off with the end user.

Its no good saying 'I don't understand you, go away and learn English, then come back to buy something'. They just won't come back.

JB

[Cornish Steve]

Its no good saying 'I don't understand you, go away and learn English, then come back to buy something'. They just won't come back.

I agree with you there. Also, you're right that the local language is more important in the B2C market.

Do you believe there's a place for programs that translate automatically from one language to another?

[dagr]

Automatic translators are still a way off being reliable. They may have cut down on the really stupid stuff over the last 10 years, but they are still far from acceptable. And if you have a specific context, then forget it.

If you want a laugh, take a sentence in English, have it translated by a machine then get it to translate back again. Below is such an example from the free "Babel Fish" online translation service:

Original:
Sale! Get 30% off all storage devices now. (Ends May).

Translation to, and back from, French:
Sale! Now obtain 30% in addition to all devices of storage. (The Ends Can).

[dagr]

The trouble with translation into other languages is that the customer, i.e. the people that pay actually for it, often have no way of evaluating the quality of the work. The same can be said of any contracted work, but it's specially true for translations where it is generally absolute. For example, a business may have no clue about web sites and web design, but they can still look at it, see any big problems, and at least say what they like or don't like, eventually being persuaded by the web designer of the underlying rationale. For translation work, the customer would have to speak another language to have the same level of input.

This 0% ability to evaluate the result causes lack of confidence further back up the process at the decision stage, with many people sticking their head in the sand to avoid this uncertainty.

[Cornish Steve]

For translation work, the customer would have to speak another language to have the same level of input.

This 0% ability to evaluate the result causes lack of confidence further back up the process at the decision stage.

I can appreciate your statements because I've witnessed the problem from the other side, having had to respond to customer documents translated from other languages into English. If the translator, usually a third party, is not familiar with the industry and industry terms, the translation can cause a lot of problems. The result can be statements not so different from Babel Fish.

[annethedonn]

If you're looking for English/Arabic translation, we can help as my hubby is Egyptian, speaks fluent Arabic and has a very good command of English having lived here for 4 years.

[William Wilson]

If you intend marketing to say France or Germany multilingual boards would give a definite advantage and show to your targeted market that you are serious about overseas trading.

I frequently visit some German photographic sites and everything is mirrored in both languages.