WHY DO COMPANIES IGNORE THE HISPANIC MARKETPLACE ?

Granted not all companies ignore this market of 40+ Spanish speakers in the US, but there are enough to merit this brief discourse. If you expand from the US to Latin American and European markets, you are then addressing a potential audience of Spanish speaking people in excess of 400+ million and growing. Even if not all are on line, the numbers are significant.

Let’s examine some of the arguments against Spanish translation:

• It's too expensive, we do not have the budget, nor can we afford professional Spanish translation.
  

ANS: Can your company afford not to have growth, especially in this economy? Can your company afford to ignore an untapped market that’s right under your very nose? Take a minute to pause, reflect, and think about it.

• Even if we had a Spanish website and collateral, we do not have any Spanish-speaking employees.
  
  

ANS: With a large Hispanic population it is not difficult to find bilingual college and high school students who appreciate a job opportunity and the opportunity to learn new skills. Bilingual students or retirees are trainable and affordable and can be a credit to your organization.

• We do not have any Spanish speaking sales and marketing people.

ANS: Again, can your organization afford to ignore this marketplace? Commerce is becoming more international every year. Start with markets and countries closest to you. The US dept of Commerce is here to help. Check with local universities for courses in International trade. Attend business organization meetings from International Chamber of Commerce meetings. Add foreign language subtitles to your online marketing videos. I recommend www.insidedigitalmedia.com as a good place to start to learn about multimedia and video. They have excellent podcasts and a passion for sharing the nuances and advantages of digital multimedia.

• We do not have any representation in foreign countries.

ANS: Start attending international trade shows, especially those that may be hosted in the US. Find out the important trade shows offshore, by researching on the web, attend one or two, and then try a small booth and exhibit the next year. Get contacts and leverage them. Use professional consultants. A professionally translated brochure can work wonders.

• Our employees speak Spanish, they can translate our correspondence.

ANS: The odds are that your employees are not professionally certified translators in a specific language pair, or belong to ATA (American Translators Association) or the European equivalent.

See our blog entries: http://translationorthogonal.blogspot.com/

• Spanish is the same all over.

ANS: This is far from the truth. Have you ever heard of the term, ‘Localization’?

Each Spanish speaking country has it’s own nuances. There are also dialects and regionalisms. This is also true in countries that speak Chinese or Russian. We favor in the case of Spanish speaking countries, a polished ‘Neutral Spanish’, that can be used across the board, throughout the US, Latin America, and Europe.

• We can get our translation done offshore.

ANS:We all know the maxim, “Cheap is often expensive”, especially, when you run into problems in foreign jurisdictions. Translators are not all created equal. Know Thy Translator!

See our Blog entries:

http://translationorthogonal.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

A mistake, a wrong nuance can be very expensive, make the wrong impression and even loose sales or clients. Mistranslation, even though embarrassing can be an endless source of humor in the translating profession. If you need a Spanish – English translation pair, the best of all worlds is when you have a translator, who grew up in a Spanish speaking country, but also has lived and worked for many years in an English speaking country, and is trained is specialized areas of expertise, as well as having invested in specialized dictionaries and glossaries, who keeps up with the latest changes and advancements in the translation profession.

This also goes for putting a translation out for bid. This can be ‘Russian Roulette’. You have to have an independent editor to know what you are really getting. Good luck solving your problems. Translation work can be analogous to working in a sweatshop, especially where you have agencies that underpay their translators, meeting deadlines for large contracts. Translators are not usually analysts, and quality translation is required for expert analysis.

• We can use online or machine translation.

ANS: Ok, take a machine translation and back translate it into the original language.

While some machine translation programs are better than others, these programs can butcher any language, especially translations with specialized glossaries that are medical, legal, or technical.

Buyer beware. In a pinch these can help. In the end using a machine translation or an inexperienced or poorly trained translator can be very embarrassing. You can take the latest in translation programs and machines tools, but it’s really what’s between the ears of a translator that counts.

• How do I choose the right translator ?
  

Choosing a translator is like going to a doctor. Do you want a general practitioner or a specialist? Going to a large agency can be compared to the difference between an HMO or a PPO, better yet, a specialized translator can be compared to concierge medicine. Does your translator have a passion for the translation profession, or is it someone with a computer that took a few language courses or needs to make a little money on the side?

In simple terms, how can you not afford the best? Or will you settle for mediocrity?

An exceptional translator can understand and think in both the original and target language. A professional translator has excellent literary and grammatical skills.

Do yourself a small favor, take the time to call your prospective translator over the phone or on voip over your computer, and check to see if he or she speaks with a cultivated English accent, and find out how many years they have spent in their native speaking country, as well as how many years they lived in an English speaking country, and inquire about their qualifications and expertise in specialized fields of translation.

The best translators are usually either very busy or can afford to be very choosy.At CIS Translations, we know how to pick our translators.

• How good a researcher is my translator?

Time is money, and often in the translation world, production is king. As a client, does this work to your benefit? Do you want a translator that focuses on quality research, that can back up every translated page, or do you want mercenary production? Exceptional research skills are worth their weight in gold. As a client you want a translator that can understand the subject matter in both the original and target languages, where the translation reads like an original document.

• Should I have a professional translation audit of my website and collateral ?

Ans: After many years of translating professionally we know what is out there, from the exceptional to the abominable. We do not like to call prospective clients and enlighten them on their shortcomings. It's just not good form. One should be wary about telling the King about his new clothes, but feel free to contact us if you have any doubts.

www.cistranslations.com