subject: Win Customers For Your Foreign Web Site By Translation Services [print this page] For some internet marketers it's become a cutting edge strategy to offer multi lingual navigation and promo material on their sites in the hope of expanding their client base. While it is true that international users whose mother tongue is anything but English are beginning to hit the web in hefty numbers, catering to them in their own linguistic format is an art in itself which doesn't lend itself to the cheap and easy "no brainer" pseudo solutions currently being hawked on the net. Count it as a well-meaning blunder as much as you will, fact is these clients-to-be can be quite relentless if you convey the impression that you couldn't care less about offering first class services. Don't forget that very many people actually love their mother tongue and don't enjoy seeing it massacred.
Linguistics and translation are sciences in their own right demanding due respect or professional handling. One thing the non-expert should get rid of - the sooner the better! - is the fond myth that familiarity with your mother tongue implies that you know all about language and its social ramifications. And it's not about lack of command of a foreign tongue either - more often than not, it's the basic concepts which are flawed, such as the belief that a word-by-word translation, though admittedly not very elegant, will at least give you a "general idea" of the source text's content. While this may actually be true to some extent within the very limited context of highly specialized technical fields, the old law school adage "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" rules even here.
Translation bots tend to reflect this faulty reasoning, and their backing by popular opinion - uneducated in these matters as it usually is - is no great help either.
With the current US dominance of the WWW clearly waning, getting linked internationally will become ever more critical. Worldwide, surfers aren't content with sticking to local or localized search engines in their own language: rather, the English language is rapidly gaining ground everywhere, even in the former communist states, not mention in formerly French or Spanish dominated regions. These people, more and more of whom are well educated, bilingual and fairly well versed in English, are increasingly making use of stateside search engines. It is only a question of time until even All-American engines will have to adapt to this situation, if only to accommodate their international advertisers. Hence, it stands to reason that only link popularity based on real world web demographics will be able to satisfy advertisers' and users' demands.
So do it right or do it not! Either employ a bona fide professional translation service or get someone to revamp your online copy to accommodate all those international clients whose command of English, while fairly well informed, is not quite up to par with your US or UK biased industrial lingo.
This holds true vice versa for non-English sites as well, of course: don't even dream of relying on one of the translator bots doing a good job and permitting you to cut one single sale! And while your English teacher at school may have lauded your enthusiasm over and again, don't delude yourself that this makes you a native speaker.
If you are interested in English or American or Australian or New Zealand clients at all, don't give them the impression of amateurish incompetence by refusing to acknowledge the fact that your command of English may be less than perfect.
Aunes Oversettelser AS has been in the business for 26 years, and we are specialized in technical translations. We are specializing in the Nordic languages, and can offer services into Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Icelandic. The premier translation agency for Norway and the Nordic region! Technical translation services for businesses in the Nordic countries and translation agencies world-wide.
