I went to a very interesting seminar yesterday, about doing business with Americans. Organised by UK Trade and Investment, there was a fantastic incite into some of the cultural differences between Great Britain and the US. Much of this was of course related to business culture. From a translation industry viewpoint, the old comment of Sir Winston Churchill comes to mind, that Britain and the US are two nations divided by a common language.

There are of course obvious differences between UK and US English, not just a few spellings, and different words. How do we deal with this as a UK translation agency? Well we can translate and localise between the two languages, for which as with other languages, you use translators who are natives of the target language. So what have we learnt that’s new, well a greater cultural awareness of the States, and also confirmation that its a market we should be aiming at. Our core competence of speed and quality will suit the American market. We have advantages over US translation agencies in sourcing translators into other European languages. We also have advantages in niche areas like label translation and packaging translation. We already supply translation services to businesses in the US, Canada, and recently have started translating into Mexican Spanish.

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