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How Do You Say "WASP" in Portugese?
ABC TV is making the interesting move of franchising Spanish-and Portuguese-language versions of the first season of "Desperate Housewives" for broadcast by networks around the region, using star-studded local casts to re-enact the original scripts.
Producers will shoot different versions of “Desperate Housewives,” to take into account cultural and linguistic differences within Latin America. Argentine Spanish, for instance, is heavily influenced by Italian and has many usages and phrases that would sound odd in Mexico or Venezuela.
Challenges emerged not only in translating the backgrounds of the main characters, says the NY TImes. (subscription required), but also in translating words like "WASP" and "Desperate."
Language lessons are part of Hollywood's global approach
In 1998, American director Bryan Singer, introducing his movie "Apt Pupil" at the Toyko International Film Festival, decided to surprise the crowd by speaking in Japanese.
But he bungled the translation and, instead of saying "I look forward to seeing you after the film," he said he was looking forward to having sex.
He went back to Japan last week to promote "Superman Returns," but he practiced his Japanese - a lot, says the New York Times
via Agenda Inc
Translation Issues Can Impact on Search Engine Placement
Search Engine Roundtable, reporting from Search Engine Strategies Latino, notes that translation issues can have impact on search optimization and sales.
"Challenges, cultural aspects, different languages, different vocabulary, different user profiles, different web use habits and more. When preparing a campaign you need to understand all these items.
You should have different ad management styles for each country. Each country may have its own objective, which areas are a priority, so managing the results locally is important. A good report should support web site strategies definitions, should highlight user profile differences on each country, should bring up strategic information that may be used by marketing department even offline."
SRF Global Translations provides nuanced, certified, localized multilanguage translations of marketing and advertising materials for multinational companies.
Consider Piloting Blog-Based Marketing Campaigns in France. But Don't Let Your Message Get Lost in Translation
Global marketers would be wise to pilot blog-based marketing campaigns in France because it's one of the most Internet-savvy countries on earth, says Eric Kintz of HP on his Marketing Excellence Blog. But don't let your message get lost in a bad machine translation, says Sloan Friedman, president of SRF Global Translations.
Continue reading "Consider Piloting Blog-Based Marketing Campaigns in France. But Don't Let Your Message Get Lost in Translation" »
SRF Global Translation Challenges and Corrects Google's Translation of Italian "Monitoring Your Brand" Blog Post As a Public Service to the Global Business Blogging Community
Yesterday, Steve Rubel at Micropersuasion spotlighted a post in Luca De Fino's Italian blog, Fluido, about how to monitor your brand online. Since the original was in Italian, he also linked to a Google translation of the post. It was complete gibberish, as machine translations so often are. Since every business needs to monitor its brand online, SRF Global Translations is providing a certified English translation (below) of the post and the comments it generated, created by a literate human as a public service to the global business blogging community.
Read the Google translation for a laugh. But think about how serious it could be if you used Google or BabelFish to translate something said about your company on the Internet. Every sentence in an incorrectly translated non-English blog post about your company could be a PR minefield, says Sloan Friedman, president of SRF Global Translations.
Here's SRF Global Translations' certified correct English translation of the Fluido post.
Continue reading "SRF Global Translation Challenges and Corrects Google's Translation of Italian "Monitoring Your Brand" Blog Post As a Public Service to the Global Business Blogging Community" »
Expanding Globally? Language is an All-Important Issue for Data
Expanding globally? The world of international direct marketing is complex, and partnering with a company that has in-depth knowledge of the local market, the language and relevant legislation can be the key to your success, according to BtoB online.
When selecting a list broker, you'll need to consider "the all-important language issue: Do you plan to communicate in English or to translate into the local language?" asks Mediaprisme U.K. Director Denise Henderson-Cleland. "The only way to tell if a contact is proficient in English is by selecting someone who either reads an English-language publication, has attended an English-language event, purchased from another mailer who recruits in English or who is a known English-speaking expatriate. If you are not sure, don't write in English is the rule."
SRF Global Translations specializes in the multilanguage translation of compliance and marketing materials for multinational companies. Don't leave English without us.
Oddcast Does Real-Time Multilanguage Text to Speech
Oddcast, a media technology company that develops conversational character products has fascinating Text-to-Speech (TTS) software that gives real-time multilanguage conversion of any text to immediate speech by an avatar.
Click on "Talk to me," type in any content and the avatars will say it with the accent of a dozen languages. So, type your content in English and click Japanese, and the avatar says it in English with a Japanese accent.
The software also translates Oddcast's marketing message into a dozen languages, and offers a remarkably effecrive marketing tool for multinational companies.
The company's V-Host software was the power behind Career Builder's immensely successful Monk-email viral campaign that has seen over 7 million unique visitors since January 2006. Over 14 million Monk-e-Mails have been sent, and played.
Companies Tout Their Ethics Compliance in Enron's Wake - But Only in English
"Nothing focuses the mind like the knowledge you will be hanged in a fortnight," said Columbia University business law professor John Coffee.
He's talking about the way corporations are rushing to tout their ethics codes on their websites in the face of the Enron convictions. Unfortunately, they seem to be doing it in English only. Clearly, American companies still have a ways to go toward true globalization.
Continue reading "Companies Tout Their Ethics Compliance in Enron's Wake - But Only in English" »
Japanese Have Fun With Engrish
SRF Global Translations' translators of Japanese see a certain amount of playfulness, that we in the West seem to have lost, in how the Japanese deal with language, especially foreign language. The website www.engrish.com contains a wealth of funny instances of English called to serve in Japanese advertising, with products that target the locals. "Engrish," says the site, "can be simply defined as the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design."
Does calling a brand of moist tissues "My Wet" mean that advertisers and marketing specialists in Japan have chosen to ignore the importance of accurate, and culturally sensitive translation? Of course not.
Japanese Text: Ornamentation, Not Information Sells Better
Anyone who has studied the phenomenon will explain that many Japanese marketeers use English text as an element of design, not to convey information. Apparently, merchandise packaging that displays strange alphabetic pictures on it sells better with the Japanese public.
Continue reading "Japanese Have Fun With Engrish" »
Marketing Sherpa: How to Market to Tourists in Three Languages
Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau found it was a mistake not to translate their entire website according to a MarketingSherpa case study. (Free access until about June 3, then paid.)
"Fact is, international visitors have different information needs than Americans do. For example, they may want to know about how the exchange rate benefits them or what U.S. gasoline costs are."
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