What if Three Quarters of the Human Race Was Bilingual?

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Over the dozen years we have been providing translation services to US clients I 
have noticed a pattern that seems to describe the evolution of a knowledgeable 
buyer of such services.

At first the translation services buyer has only one criterion - accuracy. The 
buyer wants to be assured that what they have said in one language will be
faithfully recreated in another. If the provider gets that right, they get the 
business.

Then, as the buyer becomes more experienced he or she comes to realize that 
language in translation is more than a simple matter of substitution of, let's 
say, a word in English for a comparable word in Spanish. Mastery of the subtlety 
of language emerges as a consideration. What is needed is a provider who understands 
how a phrase in one language can mean something entirely different in another. 

The translation provider must have a native sense of the idiom of the culture into
whose language and linguistic customs the message is being translated. Now the 
buyer wants deeper accuracy - accuracy not simply of the word but of the meaning
and someone who is capable of erasing borders while respecting boundaries. 

Next the buyer comes to learn that the very subject of the message requires additional 
expertise on the part of the translating service. If the material is advertising, 
the translator must have a sense of the forms, purposes and practices of advertising
within the culture into which the advertising is to be translated. The provider must
also be familiar with the segment of the market to which the message is addressed. 
If the material is technical, then the translating service must be competent, not 
only in the target language, but in the jargon, syntax and specialized language of
the technical subject.

When all these criteria are met, the client company can reap the real rewards of 
working closely with the translation services provider by bringing the provider 
into the development of materials rather than at the end of the development 
process. This is not a recipe for all industries or cases. But the tone and creative
concepts, the language of marketing, advertising, training, safety and all the 
other categories of business can benefit by being created in the language of the
end user or customer. Now, translation begins with crafting the meaning of the 
message rather remaking it after the fact.

Having achieved these standards the buyer now applies other ordinary business 
measures to the selection process - criteria like price, speed of delivery, 
ease of doing business, responsiveness and the provider's understanding of the 
goals and procedures of the buying organization.

The best translation services provider is not an expert in everything and every 
subject, but one that has access to unbiased consultants and peers who can help 
your company globalize and localize in the right way.

By the time the working relationship between buyer and provider of translation 
services reaches this point, the lines between outside resource and true partner 
are indistinguishable. Now the goals are the same for both parties and the process 
of working together is as seamless as working with another department within 
the organization.
May you all reach that happy working arrangement.
See you soon!


Martha. 

 

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About the Author, if using, please include:

Martha E. Galindo, President and CEO of Galindo Publicidad, Inc.
A multilingual translations agency, selected twice as a Florida 100
company by the University of Florida. Author of “How Do You Say…?” an 
eNewsletter designed to help you improve your business communications 
in other languages,
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GPI, Inc. Request a free project quote- 
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