In this age of translation software and quick and easy automated cheats, including the dreaded Google Translate, it is tempting to believe that professional translation services are no longer necessary. Surely technology and modern advances in automated linguistics have rendered human beings unnecessary in this field, right? Wrong!
Category: Translation services
Should I translate my corporate blog?
Corporate blogs have become an integral part of any marketing strategy in a world where an internet presence has become crucial to success. The only problem is, with so many battling for a piece of the pie, the internet has become glutted with banal, dull content, with one article linking to yet another and without anything particularly interesting to say. With the advent of SEO sensitive content, the unfortunate by-product has been words for the sake of words, and the more the better. Content is produced simply to insert key-words which will hopefully show up high on google rankings.
How to recognise a good translator
Most of know someone who is adept in speaking more than one language, in some cases we may be fortunate enough to know someone who speaks several and may even be considered a ‘polyglot’. Fluency in multiple languages is always an impressive skill and one which most of us would love to acquire if we could. Some may have been born into a bi-lingual household, or maybe spoke one language at home and another outside in the local community.
Poor translation: the result of not proofreading
Have you ever read a document, be it a newspaper story, a web page description or an advertisement, and thought to yourself, “boy, this could really have done with some editing!” or worse, “wow, this is a really poor translation!”? It happens more often than you think, and most of the time, it is not so much a bad translation as the result of the writer not proof-reading their text before they publish it.
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Subtitle your Corporate Videos
In the past, marketing was understood to mean placing adverts newspapers, magazines, radio/tv, on billboards or flyers. In the past few decades things have changed radically, and the company that wishes to compete on today’s market must be digitally literate. If they want to continue or expand into the international market, that means using all of the new technologies and social media to their advantage.
Resources for Translators
All freelance translators have at some time experienced that feeling of sitting at a computer, staring at a text, fingers hovering the keyboard ready to work… but your mind is blank. But don’t worry, there are plenty of resources out there to help you out with that blank screen!
Using an Interpreter: the key to success at trade fairs and international conferences
Just imagine the scene: Your company has rented a space at an important international trade fair, sent you and a colleague there at great expense, set up a beautiful stand, prepared all the publicity material and samples that you could possibly need… and there you stand, at the last second, struggling with your schoolboy German, and realising that you have forgotten the one thing that could really have made a difference: a professional interpreter.
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A translator’s Solitude… Or, the Loneliness of the Long-Distance Freelance Translator
A freelance translator sounds like the ideal job when you’re commuting to work in rush hour traffic on a cold, rainy morning, and the thought of being able to get up whenever you want, eat and drink at your desk without anyone complaining, and above all, work in your pyjamas(!) sounds very appealing. However, is being a freelance translator really all it’s cracked up to be, or does the solitude of the long-distance translator drive you crazy in the end?
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Why you should subtitle your corporate video
In the past, marketing was understood to mean placing adverts newspapers, magazines, radio/tv, on billboards or flyers. In the past few decades things have changed radically, and the company that wishes to compete on today’s market must be digitally literate. If they want to continue or expand into the international market, that means using all of the new technologies and social media to their advantage.
The easiest and most difficult languages to translate
As English speakers we are really spoilt, as pretty much the whole world is trying to learn English, and where large parts of the world have not yet fully succeeded in the endeavour, they are well on the way. So this takes the pressure off as native English speakers, which might be seen as a good thing.
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