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LingoStar’s Blog 
Welcome to LingoStar’s blog! On this page, you can find a lot of interesting and useful information about the translation industry. Explore topics on website translation and localization and how successful localization can influence your business to help your company grow and go global.
Language Blog Topics
On this blog, you can also learn about professional translators and interpreters, multilingual search engine optimization (SEO), the importance of socializing and networking and translators’ professional ethics. Quite often we write posts about the languages of the world, other cultures, and their traditions. Not only do translators convert texts from a source language to a target language, but they also help people communicate with each other, help establish international contacts, and are often prominent figures in the social, economic, and political life. Lastly, of course, we want you to have fun, so on our blog, you can find many posts that will entertain you and, hopefully, make you smile!
We hope you enjoy our blog and discover a lot of interesting things!
Necessity of Translation in Vancouver Schools
Translation in Vancouver Schools It is evident that there are an increasing number of children in schools in Vancouver that don’t speak English. Over the years, non-native English speakers have increased in numbers throughout the school boards, and are having a tough time coping with the lack of translation services available in their schooling. The District Panel Advisory Committee has been asked for help numerous times by parents as the population of minority groups has grown at a rapid pace. Recent studies have shown that in some schools in Vancouver as many as 40% of the students need ESL support! Some of the more common languages spoken by the children like Mandarin and Cantonese receive a decent amount of help; however, the rarer languages with obscure dialects are often neglected and the child is essentially helpless. The School Board is recommending that parents contact their principal in order to arrange for third party services to offer translation in Vancouver schools offered at the expense of the administration. This would not only solve the issue at hand, but would also help more foreign students reach their full potential via their schooling and education. Procuring the services of a professional language services agency would definitely be a step in the right direction to ensure that all students are receiving the help they need in their education. Here at LingoStar, we have countless qualified native speakers and interpreters located all across Canada for any type of job, and we can provide language services in over 100 languages as well as English. Call us today or send us an email for a free... read moreWhy Professional Translators Are Key In Canadian Cities
Professional translators. As the years have progressed we have experienced an influx of people residing in other countries and continents travelling to settle down and live in Canada for the duration of their lives. With our bountiful resources and employment opportunities it is a great place to live, and as a result, has attracted settlers from all over the globe. Consequently, many areas in Canada are becoming more diverse and multi-cultural, with more languages than just English and French being spoken on a regular basis. Those of Asian descent now comprise a large portion of the Canadian population, and it is evident that there is a communication barrier between some of them and the English native speakers. It is highly advised that corporations start looking for professional translation services and professional translators to begin translating advertisements to Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc. to appeal to this large market that many times is completely left untapped. It is evident that some companies have already started adopting these marketing strategies, and it has proven advantageous for them by allowing their message to reach a more widespread audience. Things like having professional translators to provide menus for Punjabi restaurants, translating websites into Simplified/Traditional Chinese, or even having bilingual tutors available at schools are just a few examples of services that could be taken advantage of in specific situations to optimally provide services to the non-native English speakers that comprise large portions of Canada’s diverse cities. Here at LingoStar, we have countless qualified native speakers located all across Canada for any type of job, and we can provide language services in over 100 languages... read moreSEPARATING GOOD TRANSLATION SERVICES FROM BAD ONES
Translation Services The last thing you want to happen with your documents is that the message written gets lost in translation. Enlisting the expertise of a professional Canadian Document Translation Services agency can ensure that your written documents are translated into their appropriate language, in a tone and manner that is most relevant to your specific target market. The foundation of every quality translation is the translator. But how can you tell what makes a good translator? It’s almost always recommended for you to turn to an agency, rather than an independent contractor. The reason for this is that with an agency such as LingoStar you can check their credentials, previous job history, references, testimonials, etc. You can develop an educated assessment of their quality based upon their previous work, and you can have confidence when you proceed with them during each of your translation projects. A reputable Canadian Document Translation Services agency will work only with language professionals that are native speakers of your desired language pair. This gives the translator an in-depth knowledge of a language beyond what can be learned in classrooms and books, and will prevent you from getting a translator who may be able to speak the language fluently, but isn’t qualified to provide an extremely high quality translation by any means. High quality document translators are specialists, and a Canadian document translator will ensure that your document conveys exactly what you are trying to write in your desired target language. These days, working with a Canadian document translation services agency is easier than ever. Whether you’re in Alberta, Newfoundland, or even France or Germany, you have the same... read moreAre Language Barriers Affecting Your Business?
Language Services In the modern world globalized by the internet many things can be reached by just a click of a mouse. In the field of business the competition is fierce, and an aspect just as important as service quality is its reachability. A company offering highly demanded services or goods on a market limited by country borders prevents itself from economic growth, since such a strategy only makes sense for firms selling very specific goods which only sell well in a particular region. If your company is not among them it is highly advisable to make your services globally available. To do so, you may want to start with translating your website into the language of the country where you would like to start offering your services. Global availability cannot be reached within a short period; it is established step by step. For instance, if your company is located in Germany, you might translate your website into French to expand your business, or have your software localized for French audience. With the expansion grows your client database, new clients inform others about your services, and the chain reaction starts to bring you profit. After a while you will have enough financial means to start expanding into the next country. Another thing worth considering is the fact that cross-cultural meetings can sometimes lead to misunderstandings, disappointments or awkward situations if the participants are not somewhat familiar with their partner’s cultural rituals, beliefs, languages or psychological features rooted in them. This can become an obstacle on your way to successful business development. Therefore, before expanding into a new country, you... read moreTEN QUALITIES OF A GOOD TRANSLATOR
Good translator. Many people tend to think that a person who knows foreign languages is a good translator. However, that’s not necessarily true, as levels of knowledge of a language can vary. What are the qualities that characterize a good translator? Passion. A translator should be passionate about their translation job. They should use all their means and efforts to deliver every project in excellent shape, as if it was their baby. Translation Skills. A good translator must have a specific linguistic education. They should master not only the foreign language they work with, but also the skills of translation. Curiosity. A translator must be curious and motivated to keep on learning new words and expression. The learning process of a translator should be never-ending. Rich Vocabulary. A good translator must have a wide lexicon, not only in the foreign language but also in their mother tongue. This will make the translation process easier and the quality of the translation higher. It is also convenient for translators to acquire technical terms in specific fields, such as business, law, sciences, engineering, etc… Clarity. A good translator’s goal is to express the idea of the source text as clearly as possible, without ambiguity. They should avoid difficult structures when they can use simple ones. Translation Quality. A good translator should be obsessed with quality. Resources. In order to achieve the aforementioned quality, a good translator should use all available resources at their disposal. Accuracy. A good translator should provide an exact transfer of information. Despite it being tempting sometimes, the translator should not correct the source text, trying to maintain its... read moreIT’S NOT AS EASY AS GOOGLING ‘TRANSLATION SERVICES’
Translation Services Differ Company’s reputation and credibility: It is easy to google “translation services” or “document translation in Canada” but how can you really be sure you are working with an experienced and successful language services company? The first thing you can do is make sure to check the reviews of any company before you choose them. The last thing you want to do is book an interpreter for a huge presentation and then realize that the company has only received 3 reviews and they are all negative. Also, most reputable companies have a list of successful companies they have worked for before with testimonials. This is usually on the company website already, but can easily be provided by asking for references and testimonials. Any upstanding company will gladly oblige (like Lingo-Star). Does the company use native speakers: Upon a first glance, the pricing between different language service companies can vary greatly. However, what you need to be aware of before proceeding with a translation is that native speakers are the ones you want translating your documents. Just because somebody can speak Spanish, it doesn’t mean that they will be qualified to precisely translate your document unless they are native speakers. There are countless incidences where clients will opt for the cheaper more attractive route, only to be given a poor quality document that would be embarrassing to present in a meeting or on their website. We don’t want you to experience this so we highly suggest you switch to Lingo-Star and take advantage of the fact that every single one of our translators is an actual native speaker... read moreTHE DANGERS OF GOOGLE TRANSLATE.
Google translate. Why should I hire a translator when I can get Google Translate to do it for free? Sadly, this is not an uncommon question. A few self-explanatory images available on the web would suffice to answer, but here is a more technical explanation of the dangers of using Google Translate. Google Translate is not 100% accurate. Google Translate will look for appropriate translations by searching for linguistic patterns within millions of documents already translated by human translators. However, if it has insufficient data, it can only guess based on what it does have, which can often be misleading or simply wrong. Google Translate produces unnatural translations. Even when it manages to produce grammatical sentences, they often are too literal and, as a consequence, sound awkward or funny to a native speaker of the target language. Google Translate doesn’t offer a quality check on its translations. As a result, users have no means to know whether the translation in the target language is good or not and they end up presenting weird translations to the public like the ones in the pictures above. These may manage to get a smile out of us, but the consequences of mistranslation can sometimes be quite serious. Let’s take the translation of food packaging as an example. If the translation of the ingredients on a package is not 100% accurate, it can cause severe problems for people with allergies or restrictive diets. In conclusion, language is just too complex for machines to understand all the grammar, context and nuances; Google Translate could never replace the work of a professional human translator. ... read moreTHE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MACHINE TRANSLATION
Machine translation. Machine translation (MT) is automatic translation through a software program without human assistance. It has recently been at the center of controversies regarding reliability and quality, but few people know that there are actually different types of machine translation: statistical, rule-based, and hybrid. Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) SMT uses statistical models derived from the analysis of bilingual text corpora, usually finding a correspondence between one word and another. This is, for example, what Google Translate does. SMT tools might help you to understand the basic meaning of a text, but they will not produce good quality translation. Rule-based Machine Translation (RBMT) RBMT, as indicated by its name, is based on grammar rules. The system generates sentences in a target language after analyzing grammatically both the source and the target languages involved. This is, for example, what Systran does. These software programs usually require tedious proofreading, and as they need a lot of lexicons, they only become efficient after long term use. Hybrid Machine Translation Hybrid MT is a mix of SMT and RBMT that also includes a translation memory and thus produces translations of a better quality. This tool can be used by translators to avoid translating the exact same sentence twice. However, linguists still doubt that this tool can help achieve higher quality translations or gain time because of the long editing part. This is why translation needs are still addressed by translators. If you need a translation, 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... read moreTHE KEYWORD CRAZE: TRANSLATION AND SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Translation and Search Engine Optimization Nowadays the key to success for most companies is undoubtedly their visibility on the Internet market. When customers need a service or a product, they just type some words in a search engine and this will provide them with a list of pages relevant to their search. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) directly affects the visibility of a website by choosing the most effective keywords, so that it would appear at the top of the result list for its sector. Some tips to conduct a successful optimization include: – The choice of strings of two-three words instead of single words, as they are more specific and less competitive. Ideally you should try to think from the customer’s point of view and guess what strings they would use to search for your website; – A good keyword density. The higher the keyword density is, the more relevant to the search a page is; – The place of keywords. Keywords situated in URLs, file names, page titles and headings are easier to find than normal text, therefore they could significantly boost the page’s ranking if put in the right place. Last but not least: keyword localization. Localized strings help international users find your website; therefore their translation must be accurate. Simply using Google Translate is discouraged, what you need is a translation based on a specific context that can be adapted to a specific audience. Consequently, it is essential to give translators the means to understand the purpose of the keyword and the freedom to rephrase when necessary. This will make your business international and successful. Here... read moreARE YOUR SAFETY POLICIES MULTILINGUAL?
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... read moreFACEBOOKING FOR GLOBAL BRAND RECOGNITION
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... read moreDO YOUR WEBSITE’S IMAGES SPEAK A THOUSAND WORDS? (DO THEY SAY ENOUGH?)
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... read moreLANGUAGE DILUTION
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... read moreWHY IS TRANSLATING TO AND FROM GERMAN SO HARD?
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... read moreTHE AMERICAN TRANSLATION MARKET
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.... read moreTranslation Blog and News
LingoStar has been a language services provider in Canada, the USA, and Europe for more than a decade. We are proud to say that we cooperate with professional translators, interpreters, and other language specialists worldwide and work with over 100 language pairs. If you are looking for a reliable translation company, contact LingoStar! We are always ready to help you with your projects and documentation. Get a free quote online.