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admin | July 9, 2010
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Getting your message heard: Speaking the language of SEO

There are approximately 1.67 billion internet users worldwide (Miniwatts Marketing Group).  Given the apparent dominance of English on the web, I was surprised therefore to learn that of these 1.67 billion users, only 30% actually have English as their first language.

Research shows that buyers are 10 times more likely to buy from a site which is in their own language and companies are becoming increasingly aware of the necessity of having a multilingual website in order to compete in the global marketplace.  However, many find that once they’ve invested in getting their website translated, their product doesn’t prove to be as popular overseas as they had hoped.

Sound familiar?  You may have experienced this yourself and it might be down to the fact that there’s no real market for your product or services outside of the UK but it’s more likely to be because potential customers aren’t finding your website easily, and this is usually because you haven’t thought about your multilingual SEO strategy.

In Google, more than 60% of web searchers will click on one of the top three listings.

It is therefore crucial for a website to rank as highly as possible on the first page of search engine results and by choosing the right keywords, you’ll see a great improvement in your rankings which will in turn result in more traffic to your website.  When it comes to multilingual web pages however, things get a bit trickier.

Through experience, I’ve come to realise that a successful global multilingual SEO campaign is not about simply translating your English keywords into the relevant languages and hoping for the best.  When it comes to internet search, each language and culture has very different search patterns.  Online shoppers in the UK and France may be searching for the same product or service but what may prove to be a popular and lucrative keyword in English may not have desired effect when translated directly into French.

In order for your global campaign to be a hit, you need to take the time to research local competition and user behaviour in each of the markets you are trying to crack, creating localised keyword lists based on your findings.  You also need to be aware that whilst Google remains king of the search engines, many country-specific search engines are growing in popularity since they offer better country-based search options and results.  In some countries, such as China (Baidu) and Russia (Yandex), these local search engines have actually surpassed Google in terms of popularity.

I mention this because in order to obtain those vital top rankings in local search engines, your site must conform to their algorithms and these algorithms vary from search engine to search engine.  The easiest way to produce search engine friendly content is to start right from the start and build your site from the ground up, bearing in mind your global SEO campaign and ensuring that your site’s web architecture and coding strategy conform to the algorithms of the local search engine in question but for many companies with existing multilingual websites, it’s too late for that.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or dealing with an existing site, the most effective way to develop your SEO strategy and understand just how a particular local search engine ticks is by employing native speakers in your target countries who have a good knowledge of online marketing and SEO best practises in their cultures.  Finding qualified in-country specialists can often prove to be a challenge, particularly when you are dealing with numerous languages but it really will pay off in the long term.  Enlisting the help of a specialist multilingual SEO company can often prove beneficial as they will have the necessary resources and experience to help, saving you a lot of time and effort.

When it comes to multilingual SEO, this is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are plenty of other factors to consider for a successful international SEO strategy, including the possibility of buying a local domain (as some search engines express regional favouritism) and multilingual link building campaigns but we’ll save all that for another time…

Category: Languages, Localization, Translation | Tags: , ,
admin | February 11, 2010
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Assessing interpreters for public service assignments

Alireza SheikholeslamiBy Alireza Sheikholeslami

In the past few years, the non-English speaking population in the UK has increased significantly.

As a result, the language barriers that have arisen create major concerns for public services.

Those concerns stem, understandably so, from the potential consequences of even the slightest of errors with translation and interpreting. There are also other concerns which tend to grab the headlines (and be fuelled by them!),  but I won’t add to that, since we’ve been very clear about our stance on the matter.

As a former freelance Farsi interpreter, and as the Interpreting Manager for Applied Language Solutions, I am frequently asked about the assessment and development of (our) linguists. I’ve decided to answer this question and explain how we assess interpreters at ALS in this post.

If only we were as (rich and) glamorous!

If only we were as (rich and) glamorous!

Before I continue, it has to be said that throughout the ALS blog you will see lots of examples of mistranslations and other language-related gaffes – none of which are ours by the way!

Some are funny, some are embarrassing (notably for whoever is behind the gaffe) and others are, of course, far more serious. The latter is my main reason for this post.

In healthcare, you could put a patient’s safety at risk if something is misinterpreted or mistranslated, whereas in legal services, it could even result in a miscarriage of justice or an incorrect plea or testimony.

As a language services provider with many public sector customers, we constantly look to improve standards to counter any such potential risks with our services.

This begins with each and every new candidate that comes to us looking for work as a linguist, or supplier, to use common industry parlance. Since language services will only ever be as good as the people doing the interpreting/translation, we have to make sure we properly assess our existing talent pool before we can make any improvement suggestions.

How to assess interpreters?

There are two key areas for assessing an interpreter. Each comes with its own ‘checklist’:

1- Language Assessment

  • Fluency: ability to convey the message from English to the target language and vice versa
  • Listening: ability to demonstrate a good understanding both in English and the target language and respond accordingly
  • Vocabulary: based on the area of work, candidates should be able to demonstrate a good knowledge of vocabulary in their area of specialty e.g. health or law

2- Interpreting Skills Assessment

  • Accuracy: ability to provide accurate interpretation.  It’s important that it should convey the correct meaning and the interpretation is done in the first person
  • Listening and Recollecting: ability to listen and to be able to recall the words in full
  • Appropriate Intervention: ability to request clarification where necessary to be able to deliver an accurate interpretation
  • Speech Flow: ability to control the speech flow to provide clear and transparent interpretation

One of the best ways to assess a candidate, in my opinion, is through role-play.  This involves the candidate, a first assessor who is fluent in the source language and a second assessor, who is fluent in both the source and target language.

The candidate will perform a role play of a chosen scenario and both assessors can then mark the candidate’s performance in both the source and target languages, and also other key interpreting skills.

Developing Interpreters. A continual process…

Interpreter Classroom: Our constantly updated interpeting resource
Interpreter Classroom: Our constantly updated interpreting resource

 

In recent years, the role of interpreting has become crucial for effective communication between public services and non-English speakers – to the point where, nowadays, proficiency is no longer measured by language skills alone.

For example, “good hand-hygiene” was, until fairly recently, beyond the concerns of public service contractors – unthinkable now!  The recent swine flu pandemic and the subsequent “catch it, bin it, kill it” campaign have profoundly raised awareness of how visitors to hospitals can help maintain best practice.  Interpreters are no exception.

So, to keep our interpreters up to date on best practices, any changes in the law (as they happen) and continual development of their language skills, we have developed the interpreter classroom website. It serves as our knowledge hub for the development of all Applied Language Solutions interpreters.

The course material also includes other topics, like introducing new or inexperienced interpreters to working with victims of crime and other vulnerable people within public services – vital for delivering a professional and compassionate service, as well as giving an interpreter the confidence to keep progressing.

By developing our interpreters via an online classroom along with the regular assessments, we can help to improve the standards of our interpreters and thus the value of what we do for our customers.

What did your interpreting provider say about assessing their interpreters?

Category: Interpreting, Languages, Technology, Translation | Tags: ,
admin | February 9, 2010
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Regional dictionaries? The case for “Span-slang” (Spanish slang)

Laura Penfold -ALSBy Laura Penfold

Having both a degree in Spanish and Masters in Spanish translation from Leeds University, I was looking forward to showing off my linguistic skills on a recent trip to Mexico.

Now, my Spanish may have became somewhat (ahem) ‘rusty’ since I left university, but I thought I would at least get by asking simple questions such as ‘where are the toilets?’ and so on. However, to my dismay everyone looked at me blankly.

It eventually dawned on me that I was making simple mistakes, like using the word ‘servicios’ (commonly used throughout mainland Spain), when I should have been using ‘baños’, the Latin American equivalent.

The local ‘Slanglish’ conundrum

Alas! My errors should have become apparent to me sooner, but it all reminded me of what happens regularly at work. In an effort to reduce cost and turnaround many customers ask us to produce an International/Neutral Spanish translation, but there is a long-standing debate as to whether such a thing exists.

A translator can of course avoid any obvious slang words by keeping the language as standard as possible, but then it really isn’t targeted to a specific audience. This may be a real issue for marketing campaigns reaching out to a specific demographic.

Not the Spanish Inquisition, but rather a poignant question about Spanish langauge variants and the use of local terms & slang.

Not the Spanish Inquisition: Rather a poignant question about whether Spanish language variants and the use of local terms & slang justifies local dictionaries.

This got me thinking. How far should we go to address this as even in a country as small as England completely different words are used in different locations for many everyday items?

As a southerner now living in Leeds I am only too aware of this and working in Manchester I have even noticed the language barrier of the Pennines (among others)!

Admittedly most of these term are ‘slang’, but I wonder – as slang terms become more recognised as standard language (see John Dixon’s recent blog on Slanglish) will we one day end up with regional dictionaries?!

Well at least the nomenclature of Cocktails seems to remain international, as I didn’t have any trouble ordering those!

Category: Cultures, Languages, Localization | Tags: , ,
admin | June 29, 2009
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Gazprom Highlight Need for Brand Checks

Russian energy giant Gazprom recently announced a joint venture with the state run Nigerian energy company NNPC. Unfortunately they didn’t think it wise to get their chosen brand checked for inappropriate or culturally offensive meanings throughout the world.

The new brand name for the venture must have been decided last thing on a Friday afternoon; it’s the only way to explain the amount of creativity taken to come up with “Nigaz”.

“Hmm, a gaz company in Nigeria…I’ve got it Nigaz!!”

Such branding schoolboy errors come around far more often than they should, and it’s the big boys that are often the biggest culprits.

When Kentucky Fried Chicken translated their slogan “Finger lickin’ good” into Chinese, it came out as “Eat your fingers off”.

In Italy, a campaign for “Schweppes Tonic Water” translated the name into “Schweppes Toilet Water”.

When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was apparently unaware that “no va” in Spanish means “it won’t go”.

Perhaps next time Gazprom launch a new brand in a foreign country they will use our international brand check service.

We get 10 linguists per language to answer a series of 20 questions relating to the brand, to make sure:

  • Your chosen name is not already in use
  • Your chosen brand name doesn’t have an offensive meaning in your target country
  • The colours you have chosen are not considered unlucky in the county of your launch
  • The brand name you’ve picked translates well and the meaning is maintained
  • Your product is not culturally offensive

So next time you launch a product in a new country make sure you keep a small bit of budget for your brand check and avoid yourself a costly re-brand.

Category: Translation Mistakes | Tags: , , ,