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Inttranews Wire Service Lists 15,000 Articles on Global Language Industry
The archives of the French/English Inttranews, the wire service for the global language industry, now has direct links to more than 15,000 press reports, published in more than 70 countries.
Translator Among 4 tried for 'insulting Turkishness' by publishing Chomsky book
The International Herald Tribune reports that the trial of a publisher, translator and two editors charged with crimes for producing a Turkish version of Noam Chomsky's book, "Manufacturing Consent," was adjourned to December to give the defense more time to prepare. The four men face up to six years in jail for "insulting Turkishness" and "inciting the people to hatred and enmity" by publishing the American leftist writer's book.
Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk had charges of "insulting Turkishness" dropped against him earlier this year by the freedom-of-expression-challenged Turkish government.
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
Was Miss Japan's Miss Universe Title Lost in Translation?
Asian fans claim that Miss Japan lost the 2006 Miss Universe contest because of an interpreter's bad translation. Miss Japan, Kurara Chibana, lost to Miss Puerto Rico, Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza.
During the Q&A section, she was asked: "If you had the opportunity to change the history of humanity, what would you change and why?"
According to blogger Yumi Toyama's translation, Miss Chibana's response was that if exploitation and violence against women could be eliminated, 'the world would be better'
However, it was alleged that the official Miss Universe interpreter missed out the feminist element of her answer, an error that cost her the crown.
Delay in Translation of Bird Flu Warning Raises Fears
Bad enough we have to deal with the possibility of a global pandemic. Now we need to worry that translations of published warnings aren't reaching the World Health Organization for as long as three months, according to the current issue of Nature Magazine (Subscription required). Why doesn't the World Health Organization or the US government use a translation service for relevant multilanguage health publications?
Continue reading "Delay in Translation of Bird Flu Warning Raises Fears" »
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" »
Language Is an Emotional Issue in Philadelphia
Stephen Baker writes on Blogspotting that Joey Vento, owner of Geno's, the legendary cheesesteak shop in Philadelphia, is now being sued for posting a sign demanding that patrons order in English. Read the hundreds of comments the Philadelphia Inquirer's article has generated, and you can see that Philly's bursting with English-centric cheesesteak lovers.
In addition to 168 contentious comments, the Inquirer posts audio of interviews with customers - a good use of social media.
Maybe a sandwich shop in Philadelphia can insist that all of its customers speak English, but global businesses certainly cannot. Nor can companies rely on ridiculously poor machine translations from Google and Alta Vista's BabelFish.
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.
Pop Culture Translator Demonstrates the Difficulty of English
These sound like multilanguage translations, but really, Pop Culture Translator is translating the English words of pop stars to intelligible English.
Tongue firmly in cheek, this viral promotion for Canadian College of English Language in Vancouver makes the point about the importance of correct translation while making you roll on the floor laughing. The site provides deadpan English translations of the words and lyrics of Gollum from "Lord of the Rings," Brad Pitt in "Snatch," 50 Cent, BYOB, and Ozzie Osbourne. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I sure loved Ozzie.
Hat tip to Mike Sussell
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" »
"Swampy Reed Weed" Disclaiming of Translations Smacks of Ethics Problem
In January 2005, Tom Braman of GovTech News blog pointed out that, for its website, Seattle was paying "a California company, Systran, about $6,000 a year for use of [machine] translation software that takes the English version and currently allows people to view it in Russian, Japanese, French, German, Spanish and Italian."
Nonetheless, on the official state website for Seattle Secretary of State Sam Reed, his name was "Swampy Weed Reed" in a bungled Chinese translation. The line "Reed proposes statewide mandates to restore public trust" was translated into Chinese as "Swampy weed suggests whole state order recover open trust." The same line in Korean: "A plant reed proposes national mandate to recover public property trust."
Ethics Breach?
More than a year later, the site still carries a "translation disclaimer" written in legalese jargon meaning that the state can't vouch for the accuracy of Web translations.
Continue reading ""Swampy Reed Weed" Disclaiming of Translations Smacks of Ethics Problem" »
Edelman and Technorati to Announce Multilanguage Platform on Monday
Rumor has it that Edelman and Technorati will formally announce on Monday the details of "a system that will work across seven languages -- PR agencies willl be able to watch seven languages, real time, for your clients," according to Richard Edelman.
By that I believe he means you'll be able to see translations of blog posts in seven languages. The question is, will they be machine or certified translations by literate humans? Machine translations are pretty laughable at this point.
Edelman told Dave Weinberger about it during an interview at Syndicate earlier this week.
Related Posts:
- SRF Global Translations Demonstrates the Difference Between Machine and Human Translations
- Incorrectly Translated Blog Posts Can Be PR Landmines
Bilingual Website Announces Muji Worldwide Design Competition
As the Internet shrinks the world, viral campaigns are going global, and multilingual. Muji, the Japanese company that provides "good quality, low-price natural and simple design proposes rational lifestyles for today's world," is sponsoring the global Design Award
"calling for entries from all over the world of designs that shake up and stir people. The results will be announced at the Milan Salone. Our first theme is "SUMI", We're asking you to focus your design, not on the major pieces that are central to a room, rather to observe the extremes of the space, the unexplored areas of consciousness. We invite anyone in the world to propose a new Muji product!
via Trendwatching
What's Your Asian Tattoo Really Say?
She thought it said "blood and guts." but it really said "blood and intestines." He thought it said "General Tso's Chicken special" but it really said "gullible white boy." (The tattoo in the photo says "God" and "Beauty".)
James Morel, CEO of Dr. TATTOFF in Beverly Hills, Calif., says he is seeing a flood of people asking for their Asian tattoos to be removed because of mistranslations.
"We got a Chinese guy at a convention in Canada who sold us a bunch of sheets," said Mike Bakaty, owner of Fineline Tattoo, the oldest continuously running tattoo parlor in Manhattan. "But even the slightest change in tone or of the stilts in the characters can change the meaning. I always say, 'I know I look Chinese, but I can'twrite Chinese and I can't speak Chinese - and I don't actually look Chinese, either' I think they like it more for the look, anyway."
Just to be on the safe side, says
SRF Global Translations president
Sloan Friedman, "you might want to cover your Chinese character tattoo if you are trying to open the Chinese market for your company."
Report: FBI Lost in Translations
According to CNN, The FBI is collecting more foreign language material than it is able to translate, with audiotape backlogs now totaling hundreds of thousands of hours in material associated with terrorism and intelligence cases.
Continue reading "Report: FBI Lost in Translations" »
Um, Does Everyone Say "Um"?
Not everyone says "um", "er" or "ah" when they hesitate while speaking. It depends upon the language.
Continue reading "Um, Does Everyone Say "Um"?" »
Key Move: Go Global Out Of The Gate
"If starting a company sounds tough, doing it in another country might seem downright daunting," says Forbes.
American Glenn Coggeshell started Black Dot Coffee -- which seems not to have a website -- in Russia.
"I hear so many excuses from small companies who are afraid of investigating foreign markets first," says Coggeshell. "I just tell them to get on a plane and go there."
Not so quick! Make sure can provide nuanced, localized translation of your advertising and marketing materials, packaging and point of purchase information.
Going Global: Accurate Multilanguage Translations are Crucial
"Don't think for a minute that jumping into the export market is a sure ticket to sales success. But if you develop an international action-plan and cultivate one other fundamental competency --"stick-to-itiveness" -- before you go global, your chances for success overseas will certainly improve."
That's what
Laurel Delaney, writes in
MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog today. But Delaney, a well-known
"border buster," leaves a very important and fundamental requirement for global business success out of the post:
Make sure your sales, marketing, point-of-purchase and instructional materials, packaging and business cards are correctly translated into the language of the countries in which you want to do business.
Here's a Great Global Business News Site
Global news junkies will love this site.
via Global Small Business Blog
Study: World Wide Web Really Global at Last
The World Wide Web is finally living up to its name according to the sixth annual "E-readiness Rankings" of the world's largest economies, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), using a model developed together with the IBM Institute for Business Value. The world is more "e-ready" than ever, with over 1 billion Internet users and 2 billion mobile-phone users worldwide.
"This is the first time we see a level playing field between developed and developing nations in terms of connectivity," IBM's Peter Korsten told Reuters.
"Economic progress is increasingly dependent on innovations in the use of technology," said George Pohle of IBM.
Companies competing in the global marketiplace need reliable multilanguage translation capabilities in order to complete. Multilanguage translations of websites, packaging, advertising, marketing and corporate codes of conduct and ethics compliance materials need to be done correctly and with nuanced understanding of local usage.
Chinese Blogger Is Now the World's Most Popular. Look Out English!
Xu Jing Lei, the Chinese movie celebrity who regularly gets thousands of comments and hundreds of thousands of page views for each article she writes, is now the most popular blogger in the world, according to blog monitoring service Technorati -- and she's writing in Chinese, not English.
Technorati responded to criticism about its English language bias by blogger Sam Flemming on his "China Word of Mouth" blog.
Xu Jing Lei displaced Boing Boing and Gizmodo, which each have millions of readers. Multilanguage translations will grow exponentially in importance as bloggers join the global conversation.
"Machine translations by Google, Babel Fish and others are often laughable," says Sloan Friedman, president of SRF Global Translations, publisher of the Ethics Crisis blog. "Companies need to be prepared to understand what is being said about them by bloggers in any language, and if they're smart, they'll have a certified multilanguage translation service like ours on call. Blog swarms happen quickly and they can have a huge impact on a company's business. And after all, you can't put out a fire if you don't even see the smoke."
Media Coverage of SRF Global's Ethics Crisis Blog
SRF Global Translation's Ethics Crisis blog is off to a flying start with media coverage covering the launch:
Adrants
"Covering the broad topic of business ethics, the blog will report on global business ethics issues and offer readers the ability to anonymously confess unethical things they have done in business as well as rate the severity of other's confessions. For SRF Global Translation customer, the blog also serves as a means through which customers can obtain a quote, upload files for translation, adhere to various compliance issues under Sarbanes-Oxley, gain unifies management of multilanguage project management and pay online for these services."
CEO Bloggers"The cleverest tack I've seen lately is one taken by the Ethics Crisis blog. It's the marketing companion to a business called SRF Global Translations. (The blog appears to be the company's Web site, as well.)"
MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog"The best part of the site is the "ethics confessions": Readers are invited to anonymously confess the most unethical thing they've ever done in business, and to comment on and rate the confessions of others on a scale of one to five from "always acceptable" to "never acceptable."
Micropersuasion
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