Many companies assume that they can rely on overseas distributors or in-house native speakers to translate their documentation or localize their website content. And of course your people will always say that their translations are correct. But if you don\u2019t speak the language yourself, how will you really know? Can most Americans write a good English paragraph? Can they spell without a spell checker? Do most write with proper grammar? You know the answers. So why assume that your distributors or native speakers can write any better in their native languages?<\/p>\n
Are they using some non-standard regional dialect from where they grew up? One company\u2019s German employee wrote its brochures in German \u2026 but in his dialect near the Swiss border. And that definitely is not considered standard, professional language.<\/p>\n
Have your distributors or native speakers chosen words correctly? In one case we reviewed, the in-house speaker used the term for \u201csalad oil\u201d instead of the intended \u201cmotor oil.” Another client asked us to write the simple term, \u201cHappy Easter\u201d in Vietnamese. The version their speaker provided effectively said, \u201cCelebrate Easter.\u201d That\u2019s not the same meaning. Yet another high-tech client\u2019s Chinese speaker translated \u201csilicon wafer\u201d as \u201csilicon biscuit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or consider what big difference a small comma can make as in, \u201cThe goal is to try, Max\u201d vs. \u201cThe goal is to try Max.\u201d In this second instance, does \u201ctry\u201d mean to take Max to court or does it mean to give him a chance at something? (Or \u201cto give him a go\u201d as British English would say). Without context, you simply don\u2019t know. And this is why language agencies provide certainty or at least know what clarifications to ask from the writer.<\/p>\n
All these small examples demonstrate why it\u2019s important for your firm to control your message and to use professional, subject-specialized translators. If you do rely on others, always ask your professional language agency to review their edits first. Your agency is your ally and will catch these kinds of mistakes quickly \u2026. saving your company\u2019s image and reputation in the process.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many companies assume that they can rely on overseas distributors or in-house native speakers to translate their documentation or localize their website content. And of course your people will always say that their translations are correct. But if you don\u2019t speak the language yourself, how will you really know? Can most Americans write a good… Continue reading Potential Problems of Native Speakers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","entry"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auerbach-intl.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auerbach-intl.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auerbach-intl.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auerbach-intl.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auerbach-intl.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auerbach-intl.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21456,"href":"https:\/\/auerbach-intl.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions\/21456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auerbach-intl.com\/staging\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auerbach-intl.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auerbach-intl.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auerbach-intl.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}