Tag: localization

‘Transcreation’ Helps Maintain Your Brand’s Image in Foreign Markets

As the world gets smaller and cultures continue to blend, sophisticated business leaders and marketers are refining the way they communicate their messages into foreign languages.
Think about how hard it is to get your message heard above the din of competing brand campaigns in your own language. Trying to do the same thing in another language is even trickier. How do you go about marketing and maintaining your brand image in another country? How do you ensure that the essence of your brand will resonate with customers in foreign markets?  Companies spend plenty of time and money trying to figure that out.
That’s where transcreation can help.

Knowing Chinese Culture and Customs Will Enhance Your Global Customer Engagement Efforts

For more than 30 years, we’ve helped many companies with their translation and interpreting projects. Some of that work targeted customers living in the U.S. who speak another language. Other times it focused on sharing marketing messages and product global travel graphicinformation with people in other parts of the world.
One thing we continue to emphasize to our clients is that translating or interpreting words is only part of a successful multilingual communication process. Another important piece—whether conducting business outside of the country or entertaining visitors at your company—is to adapt to the cultural, social and business customs of your foreign speaking customers. This means paying close attention not just to the words you use, but also to the images associated with your message, the method used to convey the message, and even the personal interactions you make with clients or customers on their home soil.

History Lesson: Multilingual Websites No Longer Just a Thing of the Future

Remember way back when in the 1990s, at the dawn of the mainstream Internet Age, when bigger companies began launching these things called websites? Many small and mid-size companies, as well as government and non-profit organizations, were slow to joinwebsite URL graphic in. The reasons varied. Some thought it was just a costly fad peculiar to a small segment of tech-savvy geeks. Others could not envision how a website would apply to their operations, that traditional customers would never consider buying goods or receiving services online. Still more found the whole matter too intimidating and complicated, with the new languages (HTML), terminology (what’s the difference between a Home Page, a website and a URL?), and concepts (sure, this “internet” thingy is really gonna revolutionize the way we live!).
 

Why is Localization Important in Translation

Did you hear about the global pharmaceutical company that advertised its headache medicine through a simple sketch diagram showing a “sad” stick figure taking a pill and turning “happy”? Problem was, the company’s foreign customers who read right to left, instead of left to right, interpreted the message as a warning sign for poison.
So begins our examination: why is localization important in translation?Country Direction sign image
You may know the term in relation to your global outreach efforts, but what, really, constitutes localization? More importantly, why can it be the difference between success and failure in attracting new customers to help grow your business?
At its core, the translation and interpretation process is the act of converting words—either written or spoken—into a different language. Simple enough, right?

10 Tips to Ensure a High Quality Translation

Using a professional language services provider will guarantee an accurate translation, but there are steps you can take to ensure that your project is completed quickly and within budget. Here are 10 Tips to ensure a high quality translation:
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1. Identify the specific target audience for your translation so the appropriate language dialect and associated word choices are used. It’s not always enough to know which language to use. Just like in different parts of the United States, the vernacular may change depending on the regional location of your target audience. The more your message is localized, the better.

ASIST Launches Panoramas Newsletter

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Welcome to our new newsletter, Panoramas. In each issue we’ll take a wide and comprehensive view of the expanding translation and interpreting landscape, and how it affects you.
As the world grows smaller, the demand for translation and interpreting services grows larger. The dynamics of these two phenomenons are tied together through communication. We’re all doing more of it, and we’re trying to do it better.
Whether you’re a business looking to cultivate new foreign markets, an organization trying to serve limited-English-speaking clients, or an individual just trying to stay connected, language is key to making it all work. But it’s no longer just a handful of key languages we’re conversing in, like Spanish, Chinese, French or German. Now we are interacting with virtually every corner of the world and the myriad languages that exist out there—from Acholi to Zulu.

The More We Change, the More Our High-Quality Translation and Interpreting Services Stay the Same

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Translation: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
This proverb by 19th century French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr captures our mindset at ASIST Translation Services.  We’re excited to announce some new changes in our company, but proud to say we’ll continue to provide the same high-quality translation and interpreting services our customers have enjoyed for the past 30 years.
First let’s talk about the things that have changed.