Press Release Translations are Best Left to Professional Translators

Press releases have become an integral part of marketing. They are best left for original messages, changes in business practice, special deals and release of new products. But for many businesses, press releases are a means by which the company’s profile is kept as visible as possible.

Businesses are much more likely to have a global presence these days and that means making sure that the message is translated into as many languages as are important to the business. Making sure that your all important press release is professionally translated into the languages of all your target markets is just as important as professionally translating business documents and the web pages of your main website.

A press release is a bit like making a speech, except it is a written speech, not a spoken one. Not so long ago, it would be common for the marketing executive or salesperson to use English as a medium of communication almost exclusively, in the hope that he or she would be understood. If the equivalent executive or salesperson was a native German, Japanese or Chinese speaker, it is highly likely that their message would fail to be understood by their audience if they restricted themselves to speaking in their native languages.

If they didn’t have an excellent command of English (or whatever the language was of the country they were visiting) hey would most likely have a professional interpreter to do the job of interpreting for them. Having to listen to someone giving a speech in halting English can be excruciating and in the end not very worthwhile. The same goes for a speech made in any other language. If it is not professionally delivered, then it can even be counterproductive. An unprofessionally delivered speech can give the impression that the company itself is unprepared and unprofessional.

What can be said about speeches and interpreting also goes for press releases and translation. A press release is not worth bothering with if it is left to someone in the office who thinks they can translate it themselves. Leave it to the professional translator and if at all possible choose a translator who specialises in business translation. They will at least understand what a press release is all about and make sure that the language used in the translation is the same sort of language used in a press release.

Bad Valentine’s Day Mistakes in Translation

Valentine’s Day is just one of those days in the year that exerts remarkable pressure on people particularly those who are seeking out love which is often for the 1st time. Those who see Valentine’s Day as an important event try hard to rehearse the best phrases to use when talking with their new partner. Sometimes, words don’t flow as easily as they should to be effective and there are many people who end up with just the wrong words which could cause offense.

One such phrase found on a Valentine’s Day card was:

“I love you okay? I expect you forever. Please call me your telephone.”

This card could certainly have done with an accurate translation from a NAATI translator to have any true effect.

This sign couldn’t be much further from being romantic: “Love me: Don’t terrify me.”

Another sign says:  “Would you mind. Love enjoy. Going with you.” This sounds as clumsy as the last one and doesn’t look quite so sincere as one might expect from a Valentine’s Day card!

Another card said

“Honey. Well you go with me.”

This looks like a misspelling of the word ‘well’ but the recipient might not be too sure.

This phrase below was found on a balloon and said

“Happy Valentine’s Day. When you are delighted I will be a good friend continuing love of you.”

This is certainly quite confusing and would not convince anyone. It needs a helpful hand from a professional translator so that it is written in good English.

Valentine’s Day pressures can affect almost anyone, but even if a mistake has been made in a translation there is always someone out there who has probably made a worse one than you, especially if it has been translated from one language to another.

If this is the year when you are going to include capturing the international market in your company’s marketing campaign through using Valentine’s Day, then you should pay extra attention to ensuring that any Valentine’s Day material you want translated into another language you use a competent NAATI translator who will ensure the translated material is appropriate for use in Valentine’s Day messages.  There is nothing worse than making mistakes in messages that are meant to convey love!

Become a Professional Translator in 5 Easy Steps

It is quite surprising how many people really believe that fluency in a language is the main prerequisite for being a professional translator. Bilingualism is no doubt a great asset but there is more to a career as a professional translator than bilingualism.

1 Get a Translation Certificate

Getting certified proves that you have reached the required standard to be a translator. There are many universities who offer both degrees and programmes for certification as a qualified translator. The best certification in Australia is NAATI accreditation because it offers the accredited translator the opportunity to work on government translation projects.

2 Take a Language Test

You may be surprised to know that proving your competency in your second language is both important to clients seeking translation services and companies seeking competent translators. There are many tests available that can test your ability in your second language and will add weight to your resume.

3 Build Up Experience

Gaining experience is next on the agenda. Everyone has to start somewhere. To be a good NAATI translator the more hands on experience you get the better. If you are currently a student, offer your services as a translator in your language pair, even if you don’t ask for too much pay in the first place. You can use your translated examples to add to your portfolio which you can present as evidence of your competence to any potential clients.

4 Market Your Skills

Once you have accumulated experience you are now ready to fast track these new skills by marketing yourself to those organisations that commonly seek translators in the course of their daily work. This includes hospitals, police stations, government organisations and translation providers. The best place to showcase your translation achievements is through your own website where you can add work samples, testimonials from satisfied clients and your translation rates.

5 Learning Never Stops

You may have started your professional translation services career translating any document that comes along and someone is prepared to pay for translating it. There is a time when you may feel you are not getting just compensation for your efforts. You can now start to specialize by concentrating on the more lucrative translation areas such as legal or medical translations. You can also spend some time updating your knowledge on such tools as translation memory software. There is some more learning involved, especially in relation to glossaries and terminology.

Why Would a Professional Translator Crave Being an Expert?

Why does anyone want to become an expert – not just those who are professional translators?

There are 3 simple reasons for the desire to become an expert
1. To be accorded status in the eyes of colleagues;
2. To be paid the best possible rate for their expertise;
3. To gain access to and choose the best clients.

The workplace is where status is very important and any move by an employer to recognize the quality of an employee’s work is a way to enhance this status. Once ones expert knowledge has been developed to its highest possible level there is no looking back as this ownership of knowledge is yours to share with whoever you wish. Once a professional translator has been labelled an expert, professional translation services may well be prepared to offer top dollars to access the expertise.

All translation companies are after expert NAATI translators as they are not only recognized by the Australian government for offering sound and genuine translations for an array of documents that the government may require from foreign nationals wishing to come to live in Australia, do business in the country or take on a course of study at an Australian educational institution.

Translation business is set to grow globally

The professional translation services industry globally is set to expand by 2018 to $39 billion. Investors are realizing the gains that can be made from investing in such specialist translation arms as document translation and visa document translations. These areas are expanding rapidly hand in hand in the expansion of the global marketing for labour, goods and services.

There is one company called “Transfluent”, whose purpose is to connect 50,000 translators with the ever increasing demand for foreign translations such as company promotional material and emails. In fact there is no better time for an expert NAATI translator to find lucrative work with professional translation services which provide the expertise to do translation work. Moreover it is no better time than to turn from being a professional translator to an expert professional translator.

Translation Typos and Other Bothersome Little Annoyances

Typos seem to be an inevitable accompaniment to typing. In the days when translators used the pen, rather than a typewriter or computer, mistakes in spelling and grammar were probably less common, but the translated text still would have needed proofreading, as there would have been inevitable mistakes in the way the text sounded which would have been hard to correct as the translation was actually being written out.

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5 Tips for Effective Language Translation

Effective language translation needs to be a lot more than just translating a body of text word for word. The translator needs to understand the culture of the two languages and its nuances as well as straightforward conversion of vocabulary. Here are 5 tips which are part of any good translation service.

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