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Businesses No Longer Have to Be 'Lost in Translation' -- Business Translation Specialist Stranslations Launches Translation Audit Service
Stranslations, the business translation specialist, is on a mission to cut down on the number of translation gaffes in the business world. To that end, the company has officially launched a Translation Audit Service. This new service helps international financial, legal and marketing firms ensure that they are accurately conveying their messages to their global audiences.
Blackpool, U.K. (PRWEB) November 12, 2007 -- A corporate message that makes perfect sense in English may, at best, have no impact when it is translated into another language. At worst, it can be outright offensive to the individuals it is seeking to target. To mitigate this problem, Stranslations, the business translation specialist, has officially launched its Translation Audit Service. This new service is designed for international businesses that either do their translations internally or directly with other translation services. It provides managers with an impartial outside view of the quality of their translations. To learn more about how the Translation Audit Service can help your company please contact us for a personal consultation.
Just ask Toyota how devastating a culturally inept translation can be. The carmaker's MR2, when spoken aloud in French, sounds like the profanity for "crap." Fortunately for Toyota, it had the foresight to rename the MR2 the MR before introducing it to France. Other companies haven't been so lucky. That's where they would have greatly benefited from a Translation Audit Service such as the one offered by Stranslations.
For decades, translation gaffes have proliferated in the advertising world, so much so that even the most powerful corporations have not been immune. Some of the most notorious of these purported blunders have included the Chevy Nova, which translated to "doesn't work" in Spanish, to the Ford Pinto, which is slang for "tiny male genitalia" in Brazil. Whether these brands really did get lost in translation, however, is a matter that has been met with reticence on the part of their owners.
A recent Business 2.0 article entitled "Lost in Translation" nevertheless revealed that despite these notorious warnings from their predecessors, big brands are still winding up with translation egg on their face. As an example, the article cites Ikea's Gutvink children's bunk bed, which the company named after a tiny town in Sweden. Alas for Ikea, in German, Gutvink sounds a lot like a sexual innuendo.
It has been said that the best defence is attack, and that advice holds real water in the international business world. TJ Leary, Director of Stranslations, explains, "No matter how simple and straightforward a message seems, there are always subtle nuances when translating it into another language. The only way to avoid problems is by working with professionals whose sole translation focus is their native language. Unfortunately, many companies think a dictionary is all you need."
Business 2.0 echoes Mr. Leary's advice by recommending that a business hire native professionals to verify that its corporate message resonates culturally. With its emphasis on extreme cultural sensitivity and with the ability to capture the subtleties of the original text, Stranslations is just the type of translation service businesses need.
For further information on Stranslations' translation expertise contact us for a personal consultation or visit the company online.
About Stranslations: Stranslations is a professional translation service that specialises in accurate professional business translations: Financial Translation, Legal Translation and Marketing Translation.
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