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Many Proprietary Limited and Limited companies of Australia looking to import/export has suffered in the past as a result of poor translations. A few years ago businesses’ attempting to import goods from overseas had trouble reaching anyone through the details listed on web sites. With no contacts overseas and no knowledge of the language, it was impossible to know whether the overseas companies even existed. Australian businesses have subsequently learned how to source, purchase and verify NAATI accredited translators. This in turn has opened up new global sales and business opportunities for Australian businesses. What has previously been an impediment to trade is now a competitive advantage as Business Managers buy in translators as part of their team. What is it that Business Managers have learned, and why is the purchasing of translation services so misunderstood? The following suggestions will help you plan your overseas ambitions with the help of translation project. 1.Employ a Professional Translation Service If your business needs the services of a translation firm on regular basis, for example, visa documents translation, it makes sense to negotiate volume discounts for higher levels of commitment. Many corporate entities leave the decision to the last minute and buy one-offs from whichever translation company they can find at the time. Establish a central purchasing arrangement across your organization and nominate a lead buyer to do the negotiation. This also allows you to put in place a quality control system to ensure accuracy of translations and timeliness. 2.Avoid gaffs using Mother-tongue translators Dump the notion that English is the international language of business. It is rarely spoken in the rapidly expanding markets of South-East Asia, Latin America and Russia. For example, English speaking businessmen are struck by the low numbers of English-speaking Chinese in Beijing. To avoid embarrassing and costly mistakes in any translations, always use a native speaker of the country concerned, someone familiar with custom, idioms and current trends. If you want to be taken seriously this is crucial. If you walk around Beijing, you would come across monuments etched in quaint English, translated by competent professionals but inaccurate in style and meaning. There is simply no substitute for using a mother-tongue translator. Some examples of bad translation by marketing giants are now so familiar that it is hard to know whether they are apocryphal or not. Kentucky Fried Chicken sells finger-lickin good chicken in the west, but if you believe the story, then Chinese were told to eat their fingers off. Pepsi wasn’t good either in Taiwan with their slogan come alive with the Pepsi Generation which was translated as Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Dead. Spooky! Author Box Migration Translators is an Australian native and graduated from the University of Vienna, in 1991, with an M.A. in Translation Studies for English and Portuguese. He provides consultancy on NAATI accredited translators and Visa documents translation to Australian corporate and business.
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