Tips for Spanish Translation Buyers

Posted On March 31, 2011By TranspanishIn Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

When securing the services of a translation agency for an English to Spanish translation, buyers should keep in mind the following points:

Text Expansion

When a document is translated from English to Spanish, the resulting translation often contains up to 20% more words than the source text. This phenomenon, known as text expansion, occurs because Spanish often requires more words than English to express the same idea. Text expansion is a particularly relevant issue for documents that must be formatted for print publication.

Informal vs. Formal Tone

The English language employs the pronoun “you” in both informal and formal situations, whereas Spanish offers a choice of pronouns (tú vs. usted) depending upon the formality of the text. Technical, medical or academic texts will likely use a formal tone (usted), while personal correspondence or marketing materials – where the idea is to foster a sense of closeness with the reader – call for more relaxed, informal language (tú). Identify the tone you’d like to transmit through your translation, and discuss your thoughts with the translation agency’s project manager.

Know Your Target Audience

Before purchasing a translation, determine the target audience for your materials. A translation for Spanish speakers in Latin America will vary significantly from one produced for European Spanish speakers. If possible, identify the exact location of your target audience. In the case of a document that’s meant to have broad appeal, neutral Spanish may be the best compromise, as it avoids regionalisms, colloquial language, and certain verb tenses and conjugations that hint at a particular dialect.

Formatting Decisions

Sometimes a translation project entails more than just translating the words on the page. In the case of presentation slides, pamphlets, websites and software, for example, the text must be formatted for either digital or print publication. Decide whether you will be responsible for formatting the finished translation or if the agency will provide that service. Most full-service translation agencies offer desktop publishing (DTP) and formatting options, but remember that you will likely incur an extra expense in addition to the translation costs.

Are you looking for a Spanish Translation Service? Visit Transpanish for a free quote.

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Google Strikes Deal to Translate European Patents

Posted On March 28, 2011By TranspanishIn English Language, Languages, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

Last week Google announced an agreement with the European Patent Office (EPO) to translate approximately 50 million patents using the search giant’s Internet-based translation tool, Google Translate. Google and authorities at the EPO will collaborate to translate patents into 32 different languages.

Patent researchers, scientists and others will be able to conduct searches for patents in German, French and English, the patent authority’s three official languages. The EPO site’s users may then obtain an instant translation of the patent documentation into languages such as Russian, Japanese or Spanish. It’s important to note that these translations are being made available purely for research and information purposes; they are in no way meant to substitute for official patent translations done by professional translators, as mandated by law.

The EPO will grant Google access to all previously translated patents, which amount to some 1.5 million documents in addition to 50,000 new patents per year.

Officials at the patent office expect the project to be finalized by 2014.

For more information, visit EPO.org.

Also read:
The machine translation debate

Google Translate and the Struggle for Accurate Machine Translations

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Tips for Translators: Using Twitter

Posted On March 23, 2011By TranspanishIn Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators/  No Comments

Social networking site Twitter can be a valuable tool for those in the translation industry. The service offers a means for translators to get in direct contact with potential clients all over the globe; in addition, Twitter provides an excellent opportunity to network with other translators. Read on for some useful Twitter tips for translators:

  • Before you set up your Twitter account, think about your goals for using the service. Craft your Twitter profile with these goals in mind; other users will determine whether to follow you based on what you’ve written in this brief biography.
  • Always be sure to post a link to your website, blog or other social media profile, such as LinkedIn, in your Twitter bio.
  • Seek out engaging people to follow, whether they are other translators, translation agencies, people who live close by, or those with the same interests as you.
  • Prior to jumping in with your insights, take a bit of time to listen to the buzz of conversation around you. Once you begin tweeting, limit yourself to a maximum of five tweets per day until you get a feel for the service.
  • Last but not least, make your tweets interesting! While Twitter is an excellent tool for promoting your translation services, it shouldn’t be the only way you use the site. Share information and ask questions – get involved in the conversation!
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Portuñol: A Blend of Spanish and Portuguese

Posted On March 18, 2011By TranspanishIn Brazilian Market, Languages, Portuguese Language, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  3 Comments

Portuñol or portunhol – a dialect based on code-switching between Spanish and Portuguese – has resulted from prolonged contact between the inhabitants of border areas. Emerging over time as a sort of lingua franca for those living in immigrant communities or in trade zones where speakers lacked fluency in the other group’s language, portuñol can be described as a hybrid mixture of Spanish and Portuguese with a smattering of influences from indigenous languages. Portuñol speakers are concentrated in the border areas between Argentina and Brazil, Paraguay and Brazil, and Uruguay and Brazil.

The most uniform and structured variation of portuñol, known as portuñol riverense or fronterizo, is spoken near the Uruguay-Brazil border, specifically in and around the area surrounding the twin cities of Rivera, Uruguay and Santana do Livramento, Brazil. Although most linguists consider portuñol riverense to be primarily a Portuguese-based dialect, other variants of portuñol retain more of a Spanish flavor.

In the past few years, a number of literary works in portuñol have been produced, largely by Uruguayan and Brazilian authors. One of the most celebrated examples of portuñol literature is a novel entitled Mar Paraguayo by Wilson Bueno. The use of portuñol has also risen on the Internet, with websites, blogs and chat rooms dedicated to the dialect.

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The Languages of Spain

Posted On March 5, 2011By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Latinos, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

The first language that springs to mind when one thinks of Spain is – not surprisingly – Castilian Spanish, the country’s official language. However, there are actually a number of other languages and dialects spoken there, a few of which have attainted co-official status in certain regions: Catalan/Valencian, Basque, Galician, and Aranese.

Here’s a brief snapshot of some of the languages spoken in Spain.

Castilian Spanish

Castilian Spanish – so named for its roots in the region of Castile – emerged from Spain’s many regional languages and dialects to become the primary language of the nation. Castilian Spanish was later brought to the New World through the colonization efforts of the Spanish, where the language enjoyed widespread adoption throughout the Americas.

Catalan/Valencian

Catalan, a Romance language spoken in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, currently boasts some 12 million speakers. Catalan has achieved broad usage as an everyday language in these areas. The language has become the medium of instruction in a number of schools, and it’s utilized to a large extent in government administration and the media. The version of the language spoken in the Community of Valencia is known as Valencian. Though some Valencians contest that their language is separate from Catalan, the majority of linguists consider it a dialect.

Galician

Spoken by approximately three million people in the northwest corner of Spain, Galician shares many linguistic features with Portuguese. The two languages are more or less mutually intelligible, but Galician relies on Spanish orthographic conventions. In fact, scholars have been debating for some time as to whether Galician and Portuguese are actually two distinct languages or just dialects of the same language.

Basque

Linguists consider the Basque language, spoken in the north of Spain in Basque Country, a language isolate (i.e. a language with no known linguistic relationship to another language). As such, Basque shares virtually zero mutual intelligibility with Castilian Spanish and the other languages of Spain, which all belong to the Romance language family.

Aranese

Aranese – a language spoken in the Aran Valley of Catalonia in northeastern Spain – shares co-official status with Catalan in that region. Approximately 90% of those living in the Aran Valley can understand Aranese, and some 65% of inhabitants can speak the language.

Read Differences between Latin American Spanish and Castilian Spanish.

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Survey Finds Hispanics Not Connecting with American Companies

Posted On March 1, 2011By TranspanishIn Latinos, Spanish Translation/  No Comments

A recent survey conducted for management consulting firm Garcia Trujillo LLC found that 64.7% of U.S. Hispanics would show greater loyalty to companies that establish strong, visible ties to the Latino community, while over 66% indicate that they would be more likely to purchase products and services from such companies. Although survey respondents are interested in seeing companies create or tailor products and services to make them more culturally relevant to Hispanics, characteristics such as a greater number of Latinos in important corporate management roles and more community involvement rank much higher in importance for consumers.

Findings from the study include:

  • Almost 42% of Hispanic consumers think that American companies have little respect for them as customers.
  • 94% feel that products or brands in the U.S. should be represented by Spanish-speaking spokespersons in marketing and informational campaigns.
  • 15.5% want to see products and services developed specifically for Hispanics.
  • Over 60% think Latino workers face major obstacles to climb the corporate ladder. Language (almost 60%) and a college degree (21.7%) were cited as the biggest hurdles to advancement.
  • 60% think companies show commitment to their Latino employees, yet survey respondents estimated that less than 10% of leadership positions in U.S. companies are filled by Hispanics.

Sol Trujillo, chairman of Garcia Trujillo, notes: “This data demonstrates the strategic opportunities for companies and brands to connect with Latinos in meaningful ways.” With the Hispanic population in the United States growing at breakneck pace, American corporations would be wise to start wooing this segment of the market sooner rather than later.

For a copy of the full study, visit www.garciatrujillo.com.

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