Are the Safety Policies Multilingual on Your Website? If they aren’t then they should be. The obligation to provide safety training in a worker’s native language is implied rather than expressly stated, at least in most jurisdictions. There shouldn’t even be the slightest doubt that employers do have an obligation to provide safety training in the language their workers speak and understand. There are a few steps that should be taken to ensure that your safety policies are understandable and absorbed by all employees. Step #1: Determine The Languages Used In The Workplace: You must determine the languages your workers understand. You must be diplomatic and address all of the languages, not just the dominant ones spoken by the majority of employees. Even if only one worker speaks a rare language, you must ensure that the worker gets specific safety training and materials in that language or else they likely won’t properly absorb the instructions and material. Step #2: Use Pictograms When Possible: Language barriers may be broken down with the utilization of pictures. For example, by using hazard symbols or pictures of hard hats in areas where they’re required you can instill in the employees what to do and what not to do in specific areas of the work place. Pictures with lines through them can also indicate things that are not allowed or should not be done (i.e. cross through a cigarette used as a signal for no-smoking). Step #3: Have Translators Provide Information: For information that can’t be provided with normal means like signs and symbols, such as the workers’ right to refuse dangerous work, you...
Global Brand Recognition Acquiring new customers with Facebook: You can drive prospects to your site by targeting your ads at your target market. By opting to reach out to people based on things like age, gender and demographics, or by targeting a custom audience, you can specify how and who Facebook targets with its advertisements. Ads can appear in the news feed on desktop and mobile apps, the logout screen and the right hand side with Facebook Exchange. They are very hard to miss and can be very eye catching. As a strategy involved with your marketing approach you can also use Facebook Exchange to capture in-market shoppers who have visited your website. Grow sales on desktop computers or mobile devices: It is very useful to merchandise your products in the news feed and right-hand side advertisements. You can link these directly to your product/service pages on your retail websites. Not only is this great from a sales perspective, but you can derive data from this and get detailed attribution numbers from who is clicking your advertisements on Facebook. This proves to be especially useful in creating future marketing campaigns, and figuring out a more specific demographic to target that should be focused on more intently. Build global brand loyalty: Using Facebook can foster very positive relationships with active customers and help solidify their loyalty towards your brand, thus retaining business and drawing in new business via recommendations from those customers to their friends. By publishing to your customers everyday with engaging content, word-of-mouth marketing and retention can be maintained and your brand will surely become more globally recognized. Here at...
Although this is an appealing alternative to paying for a service to have access to stock photography websites, it is a bad idea that could lead to complications and have negative implications. Firstly, there are copyright laws for images on other websites. Not only is it stealing, but your company could receive a fine for using somebody else’s images. In addition, copying images from a website usually leads to poor quality images with low resolution. If you want your company to exude professionalism, then you must use images that are visually stimulating and nice to look at. Pixelated images can be very detrimental to your company’s overall image in the public eye. Finally, having a unique image can set your company apart from others. The last thing you want is a customer to do a google search by plugging in the URL of your image and finding out you stole it from another company. Have images that are relevant to your product/service: Although this is a given, there are many ways one can improve the focus or perspective of a picture to highlight what they want to advertise. First of all, zoom in on your product. If it is not somewhere where the eye is naturally drawn to (most attention grabbing portion of the picture) then you should be re-evaluating how you can re-take the photo so that it will centralize the attention of your audience on what you are trying to market. Also, light your product well. If you have an image on your website that is really dark with low contrast it is likely that your product...
Language dilution. Language dilution can be defined by using a word with a strong meaning to express a much less strong idea. For example, one can use the word ‘literally’ even when something is not literally true, just to emphasize it. It happens because people use the words ‘awesome’, ‘wonderful’ and ‘amazing’ even when they do not really mean them. They do so because they want to make their statements as effective as possible without using too much effort. Doing so, people waste the meaning of words, which are one of our most precious resources. If you use ‘literally’ when you don’t mean ‘literally’, you are not only adding a useless word to your sentence, you are also devaluing the word, so that when it is to be used in its proper meaning, it no longer means anything. We only have one word for ‘literally’, and if ‘literally’ no longer means ‘literally’ then we’ve lost a word. On the other hand, words take on connotations with passing time and according to the social group using them. It has become acceptable to use the word ‘awesome’ to describe a cake, because everyone does it. In this case, ‘awesome’ does not mean ‘inspiring awe’ anymore. Language Dilution also makes people more creative when they do intend to say that something is awe inspiring, because we all know that nowadays, ‘awesome’ means ‘quite good’. If you need translation services without language dilution, call LingoStar today or send us an email for a free quote! Here we have qualified translators from all over the world able to work on any kind of...
Sometimes, one single word in German has the meaning of several words in English. For example, “bitte” means at once “pardon”, “please”, “go ahead”, “here you go”, “you’re welcome” and “not at all”. That is why, when translating, you have to be careful and figure out what is the appropriate meaning for each word in every sentence. This phenomenon can be explained by the German language only having 185,000 words whereas the English language has over 1,000,000,000 words. This represents 2,000 times as many words as the Chinese language has and 10,000 times as many words as the French language has. The German language uses so few words because words are made of several words put together. For example, “Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz” means “the law for the delegation of monitoring beef labeling”. Also, in German there are 6 types of definite articles you can use (“der”, “den”, “dem”, “des”, “die” and “das”) depending on the gender and number of the noun, whereas in English, there is only one: “the”. In addition, all of the nouns have a gender which must be learned separately by heart. This is a good overview of why Mark twain used to say: “A gifted person ought to learn English in 30 hours, French in 30 days, and German in 30 years”. Here at LingoStar, we can offer high quality translation from and into German. Call us today or email us for a free...
How big is the American Translation market? Despite the current economic situation, the translation industry has done well over the past few years (annual growth rate has been greater than 2.5%). This can be explained by different factors. First, more and more immigrants come to the United States without necessarily being capable of speaking fluent English. Then, more and more American companies do business with overseas companies and consequently have to communicate regularly in several languages with customers, partners or employees located in other countries. Finally, a great deal of business is generated from the government and in particular, the military. Nowadays, the American translation market is the largest single market for translation services (Europe is the second) What is the value of the American Translation market? Today, more than 52,500 companies employing more than 74,600 people generate $5 billion a year. According to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, the translation industry is expected to grow by 42% between 2010 and 2020 and reach $37 billion in 2018. If you need translation services from or to English, call LingoStar today or send us an email for a free quote! Here we have qualified translators from all over the world able to work on any kind of document....
Some Figures about the Canadian Translation Market. How big is the Canadian Translation Market? According to Statistics Canada, the number of individuals who declare revenue from translation in the whole country is greater than 12,000, and few professions have as much growth potential as this one. Quebec is the leading region, with 5,325 translators, followed by Ontario with 4,155. The two provinces combined account for 80% of all translators and interpreters in Canada. However, British Columbia is also a leading province for translation, with over 600 translators just in Vancouver. What is the value of the Canadian Translation Market? The value of the Canadian Translation Market is estimated at about $450 million, excluding the value of translations provided by the in-house translation services of Canadian businesses and organizations. This market is served by over 800 firms and some 4,500 independent workers. 48% of firms are in Quebec (which represents 382 translation agencies), 37% are in Ontario (296 translation agencies) and 6% are in British Columbia (52 translation agencies). Prospective growth of the Canadian Translation Market looks excellent as the expected rate of annual growth ranges between 5% and 10%. If you need translation services in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, call LingoStar today or send us an email for a free quote! Here we have qualified translators from all over the world able to work on any kind of...
During the 5th century, three Germanic tribes (the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes) invaded Britain. The Celtic speakers that lived there were pushed west and north and the language spoken became known as “Englisc”, also called Old English. In 1066, Frenchman William the Conqueror invaded England and brought with him a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court and the ruling classes, whereas the lower classes spoke English. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. During the Renaissance, many new words and phrases entered the language. Also, with the invention of printing, books became cheaper and people learned how to read. The dialect of London, where most of the publishing houses were, became the standard. From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct variety of English. American English (and subsequently British English) was influenced by Spanish, French (through Louisiana) and West African languages (through the slave trade). Nowadays, most documents are written in English. Here at LingoStar, we can offer high quality translations from and to English. Call us today or send us an email for a free...
Trends in Voice-Over Translation Businesses and organizations entering international markets naturally spend considerable time crafting their message and translating that message with care until the most fitting words and expressions can be found. Yet the act of translation is enhanced by voice-over translation professionals, artists that lend elements like tone and expressive nuances of voice to deliver the carefully-wrought message with an actor’s sensibility and a translator’s ability to convey meaning directly and accurately. Just as new technologies have complemented the field of translation services, voice-over translation has benefited from various trends that many companies with international interests may want to consider when they seek this viable service. It used to be that the main end of translation was to simply convey meaning between two languages. This is still the heart of translating services, but translated communication involving voice-over technique has advanced to encompass no small degree of art. While some will say that translation has always enjoyed an artistic component, it now features voice-over translation professionals who are also performers. Voice-over experts, for example, can embody a character that can bolster a marketing message. The voice-over translator may convey empathy in some way or create a connection with the audience that goes beyond translated speech. Performance elements aside, today’s voice-over translation and its translators are also increasingly supported by digital solutions that shorten or alternatively lengthen the performed translation. When a corporate video voice-over is needed, it’s important that the voice-over performer remain in sync with the video. Luckily, the technology allows for more ease of the syncing process. The result is a seamless representation...
Translation industry 1 – Cloud translation Cloud translation is the process of translating a document across the internet by using a portal that allows you to upload and manage files from just one location. You no longer need to use emails in order to send files, receive a quote, approve it and finally receive the translation. Thanks to this tool, you can now log on from any device to order a new translation job, approve a quote, check the progress of a project and download your translation. It will be really helpful for the translation industry 2 – Social media translation Social media is a good way for the translation industry to target a multi-national audience; however you have to take into account the differences between cultures in order for your campaign to be effective. Translating your content is just the first step. It is also useful to create a page / an account per country to communicate with customers on a local scale according to their interests, their cultures, the events they are going to, etc. 3 –Mobile apps translation Another way to target a multi-national audience for the translation, is to localize your mobile apps for different languages and different platforms. This way, you will be able to keep in touch with people from all over the world using different kinds of devices. Here at LingoStar, we specialize in localizing content to meet the specific cultural standards of your target market. If you want to make the best impression on your market, call us today at 604-629-8420, or email us at info@lingo-star.com for a free...
