Wishing all our suppliers, staff and customers a very merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

If you need us urgently, we will be answering e-mails and customer orders on the none-public holiday days between Christmas and New Year. Best to e-mail, or fill in our contact form in the first instance, and we will get back to you within 1 working day. Translators like a rest too, and most of our suppliers work in countries which have extended holiday around the Christmas and New Year period. Having said that, as holiday days vary country by country, there are always translators willing to take on urgent projects, but realistically, time-scales are likely to be longer than at other times of year.

Viewers of the UK version of The Apprentice, have watched contestant Stuart Baggs make a string of outrageous claims throughout the series. Ousted yesterday by Lord Sugar famously saying that he was “full of s##t”, I was left wondering about the business impact of his appearance on the hit TV show. Some quick research on Google this morning seems to counter the claim of “Stuart Baggs the brand”.

Most of us would love the level of national exposure that the TV show has given Stuart, yet I’m left wondering whether he has really missed an opportunity. He appears to have a Twitter account (if genuine) @baggsthebrand, yet has only sent an apparent 11 Tweets since October. Though there could be contractual restrictions about what he can say about the show, if he really was a brand, you would have expected him to piggyback off the exposure to create a stir and get followers. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t have a website. I would have expected him to snap up “StuartBaggsthebrand” or something similar before the series started, and to be set-up and ready to go. My conclusions are obvious, not great as personal branding, and tends to support the views of the interview panel in yesterday’s show that his claims didn’t have any substance.

Pity really, his one shining achievement for me was how he dealt with the task in Germany in week 8. He made a real effort to communicate in German, advised Laura to be careful in her use of English, and not to speak too fast, which she managed to ignore when pitching, and seemingly speeded up. Of course we would have loved to translate the Stuart Baggs the brand website into 13 languages, and would probably have done a good discount on German translation in recognition of his efforts. Find out more about our translation services.

Translation Services advice and support is often something you need when you are away from your desk, or away from the office. betterlanguages.com has a dedicated mobile site allowing you to access translation advice and support, and our latest translation news directly from your mobile. Fed-up with trying to read full size websites with tiny text? Our mobile translation site has slimmed down graphics, and simplified text, so that it is much faster to load, and easier to read on a handheld than a conventional website.We’ve also simplified the process of contacting translation advice, with a click to call feature. Of course you can also access the main site from the www.betterlanguages.mobi domain. Check it out today. Also very happy to receive feedback, and ideas for how you would like us to improve the service.

On the face of it you might think that the current political debate in the UK has little impact on a translation company, but digging a little deeper, changes in higher education funding in the UK could have future grave consequences for our industry. Both freelance translators, and direct staff, are always at least first degree level educated. In most instances they will have post-graduate level qualifications. The UK is already seeing a decline in language graduates following the crazy decision of the previous Government to remove the requirement for pupils to study a foreign language to GCSE level (age 16). Our concern is that a proposed 3 fold hike in tuition fees, will deter many potential undergraduates from pursuing a university education. sadly, our industry will be the worse for this, but looking further afield, it will also affect many of our other suppliers such as professional services companies, web design etc. The worrying trend here is that in other parts of the world, and indeed within the European Union, there is a greater emphasis placed on degree level qualification, the likely long term result of this is that a decline in UK funding for universities, will result in a decline in UK competitiveness in the global economy. Our sincere hope is that the Government will think again about raising tuition fees.

The view from our office in Bingham is spectacular this morning, with frost and snow across the fields behind our industrial estate. England has been gripped by record low temperatures for the last few days, despite this, we are working as normal, and feeling envious of some of our translators who are based in warmer parts of the world!

Ecommerce translation services are a major part of our website translation work. E-commerce sites are typically database driven, and we are often asked to translate in an Excel format, allowing the client to load the translated product descriptions directly into the back end.

10 top tips when preparing for e-commerce translation:

1) Before even thinking about getting content translated, think through your business objectives, which languages/countries are you targetting and why?

2) How will you sell or distribute your product if successful? No problem for us to translate the site into Simplified Chinese or Kazakh, but can you sell successfully in the target markets. Can you get the product shipped economically, and can you support any necessary after-sales service?

3) Do you need your whole site translated? Some sections like terms and conditions may be very wordy, and not necessarily the first priority. Google and most other major search engines love to be drip fed content. It may be best to start with a few products, and build up.

4) Is your product appropriate to the target market? We could probably all point to cultural mistakes made when trying to sell in a different market, can you sell the same product, or does it need some adaption?

5) Pricing: if you price in pounds you are in theory playing safe, if you know the likely shipping costs, but customers will expect to pay in their local currency, so you may be deterring people from buying.

6) Return on investment: translators are not cheap, especially if you want to sell a technically specialised piece of equipment to high end-customers, they will expect good quality information to enable an informed decision.

7) Remember that translation is not the only cost in preparing a multi-lingual site, there are also things to consider like hosting costs, and any time devoted by your web developer. you should also factor in the need for updates when you sell new products, or amend existing ones.

8) Target market research: its important to consider that internet trends may be very different in your target market, a country like Germany has very high internet use, but in many countries people are resistant to buying online. Indeed people may even use your product information to research, and then buy from a local competitor!

9) Google translation: don’t be tempted by “free” or low cost translation offers, we have a good article on why to avoid “free translation”. Good translators are in demand, and tend to be busy, translating a large ecommerce site will be time consuming, and will cost both time and effort as well as money.

10) The biggest positive, is that Britain is at the forefront of e-commerce with the highest level of online purchasing of any country in the world. This means that in many countries you will be ahead of the game if offering ecommerce solutions online, but do expect it to take time to get established. Being first mover can have definite advantages, but it may take the market some time to catch up.

The aim of this article is to give some general pointers for people thinking about developing a multi-lingual e-commerce website. Inevitably this is a short discussion of a complex subject, and our aim is to make you think about some of the issues. The article is deliberate in pointing out some of the pitfalls, we could (and some agencies do) just take your money and churn out anything you want, but ultimately, your commercial success is our commercial success, we want to work on e-commerce sites which are successful and achieve their objectives. If you are thinking about going multi-lingual on your website, and would like any advice, without obligation, contact betterlanguages.com and speak with a translation professional (no call centres, I promise).

Mike Hunter

CEO

betterlanguages.com Ltd.

This article may be reproduced providing the copyright of the author is acknowledged, it is directly back linked to our website and the article is not changed or amended.

Food labelling is one of our major areas of work, whether you need translation into a single language for a single product, or you have 500 product lines needing translation into 27 languages, we’d like to talk to you! As with many areas of packaging, translated pack copy for food labelling needs to be legally compliant. We work with specialist compliance partners, who can advise on the compliance aspects of international packaging. From a translation point of view, the task is to accurately represent the product in the target language. As with many areas of translation, attention to the source text is really crucial to a successful project. To take an obvious example, if the product is mis-described in the source language, as the translators are working from the source text, it will also be mis-described in translation.

As we work with food labelling regularly, translators are specialist in translating for the food and drink sector. We always use professional translators who are native of the target language. In many instances translators are in-country and this helps with ensuring most up-to -date terminology.

As with many areas of translation, food labelling has both marketing and technical aspects. Translators have to be faithful to the original text but also describe the food in the most appetising way possible. We also check and approve finished artwork in the target languages, particularly where an artwork team is not native of the target languages, it is very easy for errors to creep in at the artwork stage. This is a brief introduction to a complex subject. If you are thinking about going multi-lingual on food labelling the earlier you contact us the better to discuss your translation requirements. More information is available on our food label translation page.

Its been a very busy week for better languages, if you would like to read a warts and all account of the experience of the directors of a translation company, follow us as we are featured on business reality website inafishbowl.com, better than The Apprentice, or Dragons Den for business advice, case studies, and resources! Real business owners, experiencing real business issues, all in real time. Including regular Twitter updates, blogs and question and answer articles from a panel of business experts. Our latest article, “The joy….or not of being busy” – tells of the typical “feast or famine” feeling of running a translation company. Our twitter updates are @fish3em you can also follow our business news at @betterlanguages, have a good weekend.

Packaging in an international environment

Guest article by Chris Penfold, CEO of packaging consultants & designers Design Cognition

Packaging has to perform a number of highly important functions, many of which are required well before a pack ever lands in your shopping basket. Over the years there have been a number of varied definitions of packaging and all have a slightly different spin, but one thing is for sure and that is that an effective package will need to ‘contain, protect, preserve, transport, inform & sell.’ In an international context there are significant implications in all of these areas.

From a structural point of view, the rigours of international transportation can put additional strain on a pack from shock, vibration, compression & crushing from all-manner of transport modes, but also from aggressive environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, gas (oxygen & carbon dioxide) and attack from vermin such as rodents.

From a graphic point of view, there is no doubt that the visual aspects of packaging design are critical to shelf standout & success.  All sorts of cultural needs have to be considered, the most obvious being language, but there are others including colour, image and local barcoding requirements. There are certain legal obligations for a manufacturer to provide health & safety information, instructions for use and increasingly, in some markets, requirements on disposal & recycling with all of the appropriate (often local) symbology.

A good international example appears in the healthcare sector, where the amount of ibuprofen that you are allowed to administer to a child in France is much higher than anywhere else in the world (mg per Kg of body weight), so if you simply translate French text for use on a UK product (or any other market for that matter), your pack will be illegal. Another example is that of  ‘Red Crosses’ used for ‘First Aid’ and ‘hazard’ symbology, which have strong religious connotations in some countries and could offend if used on some packaging and are thus best avoided.

Colour has a strong effect on human behaviour and feeling and there are culturally constructed linkages that vary with time, place and culture. Humans react differently to each colour, so choosing the correct colour for your product is extremely important. The colour purple, for instance, although having many connotations of royalty, nobility and spirituality, in some markets (particularly East Asian countries such as Japan) is strongly linked to death and should be used with care!

These issues can be a ‘minefield’ for any pack developer, but luckily can be avoided by seeking suitable advice from relevant packaging translation specialists. Give us a call if you’d like to know more or check-out: www.designcognition.com

Chris Penfold

CEO, Design Cognition – packaging consultants & designers

Many businesses in the UK will be watching keenly the announcements from central government this week on the comprehensive spending review. As with many areas of the economy, we feel that there is likely to be a mixed impact of spending cuts on the translation industry. Much of our work is private sector, so you could assume that as a business we would be sitting there quite smug, but nothing could be further from the truth. Firstly, whilst we aren’t directly affected that much, some of our clients are likely to be. For example we have several construction industry clients, who could be directly affected by cuts in Government spending programmes. Then there is the voluntary sector. Despite David Cameron’s “big society” vision praising the voluntary sector, and encouraging it to make a bigger contribution, Notts County Council have already announced substantial grant aid cuts to the sector, and we expect this to be mirrored across the country.

Interpreting is a big area of spend by Government, and you would probably expect this to be an area of cut backs, we aren’t that directly affected here, as it isn’t a big area of work for us, but less work for public service interpreters is likely to be bad for the translation industry, especially as new entrants might be discouraged from training.

Then there is business support, having announced substantial headline changes to business support (abolition of RDAs and business link for example) it is so far unclear what will come next. As a small but growing company, you would think that we would be the kind of business that the Government would be keen to support, yet the business support message is at best confusing. We need to live in real time, finding support, and making decisions about how we develop. Lack of Government clarity doesn’t help here, and we await future developments with interest.

So what do we think will be the direct result of the spending review on our industry? We think some of the larger agencies could be quite badly affected, especially those with large Government contracts. Lack of business support could hit some of the smaller agencies, especially those like ourselves looking to grow.