Business Mandarin

Nov 29, 2013 | Blog

What would you say is the most important business language to learn nowadays? We agree with popular opinion: it’s Mandarin. English has been the global business language for decades. However, the importance of Mandarin is emerging as it is the most widely spoken language in the world. According to Bloomberg Rankings, Mandarin is spoken by over one billion people throughout the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Philippines and Mongolia. Mandarin has become a popular choice for a second language and surpassed the previous favorites: Spanish, French and German. To learn why Mandarin is becoming the most important business language after English, we can look at the following reasons: 1. The next superpower The Chinese economy is still growing at present and the economics of national growth in China will reach 123 trillion dollars in 2040. A recent study from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace predicts that the Chinese economy will be 20 percent larger than the United States by 2050. Based on these surveys, the Chinese market has become the biggest growing market. And if people would like to do business with China, don’t they need to know Mandarin? Mandarin has grown increasingly important to the overall global economy and many business owners are trying to break into the international market. This is why, more and more, people have started learning Mandarin all around the world. 2. To maintain competitiveness The number of students learning Mandarin is the fastest growing student base among all foreign languages. If everyone is learning Mandarin, people need to follow the current trends. Otherwise they can’t compete. Speaking...

Free BBC Online Learning Resources

Nov 29, 2013 | Blog

Learning a second language is a must in some parts of the world. Not only does it break cultural barriers, but it also creates potential business opportunities. Most start learning English in school because they believe that it will help their future careers. There are different ways of learning languages, such as studying abroad, acquiring language-learning software and private or group tutoring and classes. With the rise of the Internet, it is easy to find free courses online in most languages. In this article, we are going to talk about BBC Online Free Lessons, which provides good learning resources in a variety of languages. Online Learning Resources Provided The BBC learning website provides free learning resources in 40 languages based on different subjects. However they focus mainly on Mandarin, Spanish and French, three of the most useful languages in business besides English. For each language, there are several topics that beginners can pick up easily such as introducing yourself, ordering drinks and food, and numbers, etc.   Spanish Besides Spain in Europe, most Spanish speaking countries are located in South and Central America. Spanish is spoken in more than 20 countries including Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and Peru. It is the most studied foreign language in the United States and it is not uncommon to see Spanish signs and hear Spanish spoken in most American cities. Beginners can download key phrases in an MP3 file to learn the most common spoken Spanish in daily communication such as greetings, booking hotels and meeting people, etc. In addition, they also provide holiday phrases for people who want to travel to Spanish countries...

The Difference Between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese

Nov 29, 2013 | Blog

Mandarin is spoken by over one billion people throughout Asia, including China, Singapore and Taiwan. Mandarin has become an imperative language in business gradually replacing English on account of China’s growing economy. However, most people might ask what the difference between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese is and why Chinese people use different written text in different countries. In translation, oftentimes our clients are confused by Mandarin and Cantonese and where Chinese people speak them. We hope this article will work out your questions and clear up some of the complexities of one of the most difficult and oldest languages in the world. Mandarin and Cantonese are spoken languages. Maybe the most confusing of aspect is why we never see the words in either Mandarin or Cantonese, because they are two spoken dialects of Chinese language. Their difference is dependent on the region they are spoken in, not on their written characters. Mandarin is widely used in Mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore as an official language whereas Cantonese is specifically targeted in China’s Guangdong Province and in Hong Kong. Simplified and Traditional Chinese are written languages. Written Chinese has been used for several thousand years and was standardized during Qin Dynasty (221 – 206 BC). Until today, although there are many varieties of spoken Chinese dialects, but there are only two primary written systems: Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Simplified Chinese The proposal for simplified characters started as early as 1906. The purpose of simplified Chinese not only made the characters faster to write and easier to memorize, but also boosted literacy rate. After Chinese Civil War ended in...

Localizing Mobile Apps

Nov 28, 2013 | Blog

“Mobile computers are spreading faster than any other consumer technology in history.” With the fast development of mobile technology and especially smartphones during the last few years, mobile applications have boomed in a way that most mobile users are regular users of mobile applications. This is why app developers are very interested in localizing and translating their applications. It is certain that doing so will reach markets in other languages and countries and augment the number of people who know about and download their apps. To achieve this, it is best to make sure the user experience is up to the standard, in other words, go for a user-friendly localization technique. A mobile user is much more likely to download and use applications that are in his/her own native language, which is why localizing an application starts with translation. It is essential to find a good translator to do the job, as a bad translation is worse than no translation at all: poorly translated content will put off your clients and make them think the app is not worth downloading. Localizing mobile apps does not only consist of translating the information. There are other factors to take into account, for instance, the layout design. Some languages have words that are longer and take up more space than others, like German for example. Also, app developers should look out for languages with different character types such as Chinese or Korean. Localizing your app will make sure your layout design is appropriate for the type of language used while remaining stylish and retaining the original aesthetic. In addition, localizing your app...

Bilingual or Bicultural?

Nov 8, 2013 | Blog

More than half of the world’s population today is at least bilingual. However only a small number of these people will become translators and interpreters. Not everyone who speaks several languages can call himself a translator. It is believed that a good translator needs not only to be bilingual, but also bicultural. If speaking two languages would be enough to be a translator, then anyone with a dictionary would be able to translate. It isn’t the case. Translators do not only translate words. They translate meanings, idioms, and phrases that would only make sense in one particular cultural background. To be able to achieve this, translators must be aware of their second language’s culture. But how does one become successfully bicultural? Multicultural people immerse themselves in the life of two or several different cultures. They take part and adapt their behaviours, values, attitudes to these cultures. It is essential for translators to take into account even the tiniest cultural references when translating a text. Failing to do so can sometimes have devastating consequences. It is also good in general to be multicultural. It can double up your social networks, improve your awareness of cultural differences, and help bridge two different countries that have different cultures. It is also said that being multicultural awards you greater creativity and professional success. It is certain that bilingualism is required for translation proficiency and efficiency. A good translator should be bicultural or multicultural and should be given training in their second language’s cultural background. Should you need a translator for a particular cultural text, here at LingoStar we have a range of native-speaking...

UBC – ELI, HELP, Conferences & Accommodations

Sep 8, 2013 | Blog, Projects

We help University of British Columbia departments educate and inform their students and respective families of program services and updates. We provide on-going translation services to three UBC departments: Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), English Language Institute (ELI) and Conferences & Accommodations, who require yearly updates and revisions to their informational letters and marketing and promotional text into the following languages: French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Polish, German, Turkish, Arabic, Farsi, Italian, Kazakh, Spanish and Portuguese, Punjabi, Tagalog. We take extra care to place the translation jobs with local linguists familiar with UBC to ensure consistency and target market...