Being an avid Cricket (sport) fan, I have been following the Indian team taking on Australia down under. Unfortunately, India has been mutilated in the last 3 test matches against Australia. And it has been a collective failure of batting, bowling and fielding.

What exactly is collective failure?

In any organization, we work as part of a team, whether it be for marketing, sales, production, IT, HR, etc.

We have objectives, monthly / quarterly goals, personal goals and achievements that we have to meet. We have to deliver individually as well as a team.

At Spanish Translation US our business model is based on a team comprised of an Account Manager, who essentially works to serve our clientele, and a Project Manager, who is the production interface working with our suppliers whether it be in-house resources or freelancers. They have to work in tandem and in the best interest of the client. A lot of times we work under a lot of stress and tight deadlines.

Collective failure occurs when critical deadlines are not met, projects are not completed within the desired budget or there is no collaboration between the account manager, the project manager and all the members of the team to get the desired outcome. This is where the blame game starts, but it is everyone’s loss.

An Account Manager should understand the challenges a Project Manager faces. So should the Project Manager appreciate the Account Manager’s “yes we can” attitude.

Financial success should not be the only objective; you have to take pride in your work and deliver the best product/service you can.

Even if you are selling a slice of pizza at the local mall, sell it with pride and conviction. Believe in yourself and your team.

Always remember, there is no “I” in team and our culture based on shared values should guide every decision we make, every interaction among our team members, every product or service we provide, every channel we operate, every customer interaction.

In this final episode, I would like talk about the most important tool that all companies nowadays utilize, CRM tools. CRM tools are utilized extensively for managing a company’s interactions with prospects & clients. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes, sales activities, but also those for marketing, client services and tech support. Analyzing, measuring and valuing customer relationships are critical to implementing this strategy. Let’s have a look some the most widely used CRM tools and their benefits.

1. Salesforce: One of the best known online CRM tools, Salesforce was built with sales in mind.It provides features useful for a sales staff, like the ability to easily access contact information through an iPhone while you’re out of the office.
2. Sugar CRM: Sugar actually offers several different CRM tools, which happen to be open source. While Sugar CRM is not free, it’s extremely adaptable, allowing you to easily create custom modules as well as add external data.
3. Zoho CRM: CRM grew out of managing sales and marketing efforts and you’ll find the CRM tools necessary for large-scale efforts in Zoho CRM (e.g., integrated inventory management) so that you can quickly complete sales.

CRM systems are chosen based on these key features, versatility, quality, efficiency, enterprise agility, customer attention and cost.

CRM systems come with a set of challenges as well and may require extensive training of the sales staff. Interfaces that are difficult to navigate, hence, implementation can be fragmented and not entirely complete. It is also very important to understand how the CRM system being put into operation blends with the various software that are currently in use.

All being said, CRM systems are the key to success in today’s work environment. This is one investment that any professional organization cannot afford to neglect.

It is extremely difficult these days to get recurrent or additional clients to buy more translations. In this blog I will mention a few methods that either the Account Manager or the Marketing/Sales Department can perform in order to receive more translation requests from recurrent clients or new prospects.

Obviously it is the responsibility of the Account Manager to fuel the relationship by keeping a fluid communication with a client either by e-mails or phone. In this regard, it is important to find out what your client actually prefers, whether it be phone call or e-mail, as some do not want to be called.

Besides following up on a regular basis (i.e. a planned Customer Service), it is also important to have your recurrent clients included in several e-mail campaigns that offer a certain discount. Make sure only to include recurrent clients that haven´t bought a translation project within at least the last quarter, as you do not want to offer a discount to a client that recently purchased one. These e-mail campaigns are typically executed by the Sales/Marketing and/or IT department. If the discount does not work as a trigger to buy, at least the campaign will help you feed your share-of-mind.

Another way of trying to recover customers, is to call them up directly and ask them if they have any translation needs in the near future. This method is a lot more personalized, however you might end up calling them several times, before actually getting in touch with them.

Online visibility nowadays has become a necessity and not only in one language, but your website should be available into several languages, in order to expand your market share. Obviously the website needs to have informative and competitive contents in order to get your leads to leave their information. However, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Adwords are a must when it comes to positioning your website correctly within the internet jungle. This are all tactics that need cooperation between the Marketing and IT Departments.

At the end of the day, it is important to stay positive and to never lose focus. Listen to your clients and make sure their needs are satisfied.

After graduating from college, I decided that I was going to explore the world. The day after graduation I was on an airplane to Amsterdam and have not looked back since. I have lived in over ten different countries over the past twelve years, and in every country I have tried to learn the native language. I failed miserably. I took class after class, went to private tutors, read books on grammar and vocabulary, but for some reason I simply could not seem to even get the basics down. I consider myself to be a fairly intellectual guy. I am a well educated, I am a fast learner, and I am even a certified teacher. So if I am as smart as I think I am, why haven’t I been able to pick up a new language to save my life?

About five years ago I moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This was the first Spanish speaking country I had ever lived in, and I decided to take a completely different approach to learning. I decided to learn like a baby. Take a second to remember how you learned your native language. You listened to your parents, you watched cartoons, and you were surrounded by people who spoke the language that you would one day grow to master. After pondering on this for a few days, I decided that I would throw my grammar books and private lessons out of the window and start from scratch .
I like to think learning a new language as a pyramid. The base of this pyramid is speaking and listening. Obviously this is the most important part of any language, and the first thing you learn as a child. The middle of this pyramid would be writing and spelling and the last part of the pyramid would be grammar, style and rules. Now, after taking numerous classes and reading countless books, I have noticed that for some strange reason when learning a second language the approach seems to be the exact opposite. Foreign language teachers want to cram your mind with rules, grammar, and spelling before even getting into pronunciation and understanding. This approach makes no sense to me what so ever .

In summary, I became fluent in Spanish in less than two years. No books, no grammar rules, no classes. I just surrounded myself with Spanish speakers, watched movies in Spanish, and spoke in Spanish as much as possible. My advice to anyone learning a new language: Think like a baby!

It has become more and more difficult to win new clients and maintain the existing ones as the global economy is experiencing one of its toughest moments in history. Unemployment rates are rising in all continents, governments are in record high debts and there doesn’t seem to be any clear solutions on the horizon. How does this situation affect all actors within the Translation Services Industry and what can we do about this?

I believe that the need for translation services will not drop as much as expected, as translation services are closely linked to companies’ core activities. The necessity for translation Services is inevitable in International Commerce, such as packaging, labels, manuals, legal documents, medical documents, promotional brochures, marketing material and the like.

However, the effects of the crisis can definitely be felt in the Translation Industry as many companies are deciding not to have certain documents translated into all of the required languages, and only the most important, as the return on investment might be either not worth it or too risky. A good example would be that of an employee handbook, that would have been translated not long ago into several languages. Now companies will only have it translated into one language – such as Spanish- to save costs. In addition, many companies that have been using translation agencies for their translation needs are now solving these demands internally, in order to cut down on cost.

What can the Translation Industry do to survive and get through these difficult times? Client relationships have become ever more important in order to keep clients and not lose them. It is important to fully understand and know the needs of one´s clients and this can only be achieved by asking the right questions to fully know the scope of the translation project. Special per word rates for the “best” clients are being introduced, in order to secure a long-term relationship. In many cases, contacts have been added to Skype or Messenger to improve communication.

These are for sure difficult times, not only for the Translation Industry, but staying positive, focused and being innovative will assure to make the best of this difficult situation.

  How many times have you ever heard someone say “Love is the International Language” or “The Language of Love” or “Love knows no Language”? We have all heard these phrases used throughout our lives, and although I cannot disagree with these phrases, a music event that I attended this last weekend made me realize that music can also break the language barrier.
I was lucky enough to attend the Electronic Music Festival, Creamfields, last weekend in the beautiful city of Buenos Aires. I met people from all over the world who had traveled to Buenos Aires to listen and dance to some of the best known DJ’s in the world. I must say that this was a life changing event. I have never seen so many people in unity and harmony, all brought together by music. It is almost as the music had taken over people’s souls. I saw strangers hugging other complete strangers. I saw people offering water to those who looked thirsty, people offering food to those who looked tired or hungry. It was one of the most beautiful displays of humanity I have ever witnessed, and it all happened with little or no words exchanged. There were many times when people from other countries would ask me a question in a language that I was not familiar with, but somehow we would just end up dancing and sharing great vibes.
We all know that music has broken language barriers by looking at artists like Bob Marley or Pink Floyd. You can go to any country in the world and see people wearing T-Shirts from these artists who do not sing one lyric in anything except English, but yet somehow everyone can relate to their music. How is this? How can music turn a bad day into a great day? In closing, I will say that, regardless of the problems that are going on in the world today, it is great to know that music can bring us all together, no matter what language we speak.

As we all know, planning is one of the most valuable tools to reach success. Steve Jobs did not just wake up one random morning and build an iPhone, Barack Obama did not just wake up and just become President of the United States, and even on a smaller scale, we all have a plan for our personal success.
In business, planning takes on just as an important role as it does in life. Being an Account Manager for a worldwide translations agency, my day revolves around planning. I have a routine that I follow every day. I come to work, I make a list of things to do, and I check them off one by one as the day goes on, and I refuse to leave the office until everything is checked off. But what about long term planning? How do you forecast what’s going to happen next week? Next month? Next year?
Every Friday my company has a “Weekly Workshop”. We discuss sales strategies, negotiation techniques, and pretty much everything involved with building a successful sales force. Well last Friday we discussed Planning. The first part of the Work Shop we discussed ways we can plan for ourselves. We all pretty much had the same usual ideas: organization, follow-ups, keeping a list, etc. The second part of the Work Shop things kind of got confusing. How does a company plan for the future without knowing their clients’ future needs? We had some great ideas: such as calling the client and asking them if they could provide us with some information on their future workloads, but in the translation industry, at least within the niche we serve, a lot of projects just seem to “pop up”.
Honestly the only thing I can say I truly learned in this Work Shop, about planning, is that you have to plan for yourself. Make sure you are organized, make sure you always have resources lined up, make sure you have a backup plan if things go South and stay ready for anything that is thrown at you, because no matter how much you plan, the future of your business is in the hands of your clients.

Whenever an Account Manager receives a document for quotation purposes for a potential translation project, it is absolutely necessary for the Account Manager to understand and know the driver of the translation project, in order to quote accordingly. There are 3 possible drivers: Quality, Time and Price.

The highest translation quality that we provide includes our 3-step translation process: Translation, Editing and Proofreading. It consists of a Project Manager reviewing all contents of the documents and assigning them to a native target language-speaking translator, familiar with the subject of the text. Once translated, the files are edited by a second translator. The editor then references the source text, paragraph by paragraph, to make sure no text was skipped or meaning was lost during the initial step of the translation process. Finally, the translated and edited documents go through a final proofreading, performed by a third professional translator. Both editor and proofreader are also native speakers of the target language.

The translation quality drops if the client chooses the translation process of translation and editing only, translation and proofreading or translation only, of which translation only will have the lowest translation quality.

When Time becomes a driver for the client, additional translators and sometimes even more than one editor have to be allocated so that a specific time frame can be kept. However, when this takes place, the consistency of a translation suffers substantially as each translator and editor has their own linguistic skills. In this case, a glossary can be very useful, as certain consistency issues can be prevented.

The driver Price is connected with quality, meaning the higher the translation quality, the higher the price. In addition, there is also a volume discount, which means that the higher the volume in word count, the lower the price per word (provided there is a comfortable turn around time -TAT-).

It is therefore very important for the Account Manager to get as much information on the translation project from the potential client as possible, in order to provide the most suitable quote for the client. Asking the right questions and listening to what your client has to say play a very important role during a phone conversation, before a  detailed quote can be processed.

In the second part, I will discuss the Desktop Services part of the quotation process together with the Follow-up process.

Subtitling is one option whenever the source language (original narration) is in a language other than the target audience’s language.

Clients typically choose subtitling for media distribution and for broadcasting.

In the US, many times subtitling is used for national broadcasting to reach a broader audience.

First off, when deciding whether or not subtitling is suitable for programming, you must understand your audience.

In this regard, keep in mind that many countries prefer subtitles over dubbing.

If your client is creating a media disc for distribution, and you are already planning on doing voice dubbing, it is recommendable to also include subtitles in the menu, as many viewers prefer this option, especially the deaf and hard of hearing.

Your provider should have the capability to accurately translate and subtitle your programming, delivering the service in various languages directly to DVD and Blu-ray authoring systems, and even to NLE systems. This will secure an accurate delivery of your message to any audience around the world.

Trusted Translations, Inc. uses only the best translators and subtitlers available, who are always not only native speakers of the target language but also perfectly fluent in the source language.

It takes a lot longer to read than to listen, therefore each translation is carefully edited, providing a comfortable reading speed for the viewer while maintaining the meaning and impact of the video. Proper names, technical jargon, and industry terms are researched to ensure proper spelling and undertone.

Trusted Translations, Inc. has the aptitude to take personalized approach to you and your product and deliver a satisfactory final project.

In my last blog I began explaining about the four most important factors a client should consider before beginning a translations project. I covered the importance of knowing the specific dialect of your target language, and how important it is to know when your deadline is for the completion of the project. Today I will focus on quality and pricing. After reviewing and understanding these four tips, you are guaranteed to have a successful project.

3. Quality: Many clients do not realize how many different levels of translation services companies can actually provide when it comes to quality. A client will sometimes send a document to 2 or 3 companies, ask for a quote, and then just go with the cheapest offer, not knowing which service they are buying. It is the Account Managers’ job to educate a client on what services they are offering to the client and at which prices these services are sold. The best possible service for a translations project is Translation+ Editing + Proofreading (TEP). All 3 of these steps should be performed by separate, certified translators, who are familiar with the subject matter they are translating. This 3- step process will ensure a top quality and consistent translation. Other services will include just 2 or even 1- step processes. Whenever a client decides to eliminate a translation step, there is a higher chance of having errors in the translation. So far, I have been going over different work flows performed by human beings. However, the worst thing a client can ever do if they want quality is use a machine translation with no further editing. A machine will never be able to add personality to a translation and will translate everything word for word, without taking into consideration the target audiences needs.

4. Prices: Let’s face it, Times are rough right now. Everyone is on a budget, and is looking to get the most out of their money. Before thinking about buying a translations project you should always know your budget. You should always use a little common sense and realize that an exotic language translation is going to be more expensive than the more common languages. Always be skeptical of companies who charge “by the page” and not “by the word”. To me this says one thing “This Company is using machine translations”. It makes no sense to charge by the page…think about it, some pages could have 500 words, and some could have 200. Why would anyone charge the same amount for 500 words as they would for 200 words? It is also smart to let the Account Manager know your budget right off the bat. This way, he or she can negotiate with you and provide the best possible service to fit your budget!

Have you ever contacted a Translation Agency to get a quote for a translation project and the Account Manager started mentioning DTP costs besides the cost per word? What does DTP stand for and when is this Service actually necessary?

DTP stands for Desktop Publishing and it refers to the creation of documents using page layout software. Typically, this includes the combining and rearranging of text and imagery (in case there are any images) through computer software, using Fonts and Graphics of your choice, to produce documents such as Newsletters, Brochures, Manuals, Slide shows, Books, etc.

In today´s business world there are many different types of documents used, such as in the following formats: Word, Excel, Power point, Pdf, Adobe InDesign, Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe PageMaker, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Corel Ventura, QuarkXPress and many more.

When a prospect contacts a Translation Agency to receive a quote for a certain document, any Account Manager typically will ask for the source file, which is the document in which the text had originally been created in. This is important, so that the document does not have to be recreated, which can be very expensive sometimes, depending obviously on the format used.

In a specific example: the prospect has a Manual of Industrial Machinery and would like that Manual translated from English into Latin American Spanish, as the prospect would like to penetrate the Latin American Market. The Manual itself is in an Adobe InDesign format. In order to keep the DTP cost as low as possible, and to assure that the translated Manual looks as similar as possible to the original English Manual, the prospect would have to send the Account Manager the source InDesign file/s, all Fonts and Links to the Images that are contained within the Manual.

Ask yourself this question: Have you structured your life, environment so that you are more likely to accomplish your most important priorities?

For many of us, the answer is no. We start a day with great intentions. But then people start calling and emailing, asking and directing, and soon we can hardly remember what we wanted to focus on in the first place.

Our days begin to look like frenzied, attempts to get traction while making little headway. By the end of a week, we’ve forgotten what it was we were hoping to accomplish at the beginning of the week. And by the end the year, we are frustrated that we haven’t moved forward in our most important priorities.

The solution isn’t willing yourself to focus better. That won’t work. Discipline and self-control are unsustainable because in most of our environments there are too many distractions, too many things other people want us to do, too many opportunities and temptations that draw us away from lives that reflect our true values and priorities. It’s like committing to a diet while working at an ice-cream parlor.

We need to restructure our environments like cleaning our work space, computer, reduce noise, distractions, breaks etc. so we are more likely to move forward on our most important priorities and be able to focus.

Sit down with someone, your manager, a colleague, your partner and show them your to-do list and your calendar for the day. Tell them what you plan to accomplish and how it fits in with your plan for what you want to focus on for the year. Saying it out loud and having another person hear you and reflect back what they hear creates a deeper level of commitment and accountability.

Your success focusing on the things that matter most to you, will only happen in the long term when you create the environment that supports it.

Although the eternal dilemma focuses on the balance between cost and quality, the relationship between the quality of the outcome and the amount of time spent in the processing is also an important point under discussion when it comes to translation projects. Although it may seem more obvious in certain cases than others, I would like to expose my point of view on this respect.

We as people, in the modern world, are in a rush, especially Americans.  Deadlines must be met, projects must be done, and things must be completed in in the right way and in a timely manner.   While quality and efficiency are always key and desirable in projects, it is clear that the amount of time that one spends on a translation project has a direct relation with the quality outcome.  If you have 5 hours to prepare for an exam, you might score better than if you have only 30 minutes.  This obvious analogy is true in most cases of nearly everything, including translations.

While machine translations (MT) are increasingly popular and seemingly time efficient, and do produce quick results, they often result in translation errors.  This translation method is sometimes just what a person needs to get the gist of the content.  With a simple human revision (post-editing) to check for major errors and basic comprehension, a short document can be translated in a matter of hours.  This is a great option for those who are working with a tight deadline and who are not using this text for client facing work.

However, more often than not, quality is a major priority.  The more time a human translator has for a project, the better the outcome.  Allowing for enough time is important, if possible.  The average human translator can translate an average of 2,000 to 2,500 words per day.  After translation, it’s important for the document or project to go through several polishing steps.  To reach the highest quality standards, Trusted Translations uses three steps: translating, editing and proofreading.    The average editor can edit up to 5,000 words per day, and the average proofreader 10,000 words per day.  It’s important that a document goes through this three-step process to ensure consistency in the document; and if quality is a top priority, this three-step process is essential.

Often times, when translation agencies are working under tight deadlines, the translation process is split between several translators and is even split between multiple editors and multiple proofreaders.   As one might imagine, not everyone will translate in the same way.  This often results in inconsistencies which affects the overall quality of the document.  If a translation company has enough time to plan ahead and assign just enough translators, fewer editors and ideally one proofreader the cohesiveness will be of a much higher quality than when split into many hands for all three steps.

As expected, time has a strong correlation and impact with the level of quality. However, this is not to say that rush projects are always done poorly or that good translations cannot be done expediently, I’m simply saying that when it’s possible to dedicate more time to a project, it works in the favor of both parties.

Being an Account Manager in the Translation Service Industry can be a very stressful job at times. It involves not only being involved in the entire Sales process, but also making sure that the Project Manager has sufficient information regarding the scope of the translation project, following up on clients by phone and e-mail, issuing Invoices, collecting Invoices and finding new clients.

There are certain peak times in our day, when our responses and follow-ups are very crucial and we have to process many quote requests at the same time, deliver translation projects (sometimes these need to be uploaded in the FTP Server, which can take quite some time), and resolve translation issues, where the client feels there might be some translation quality issues.

During these peak moments, it is very easy for an Account Manager to start multitasking and doing 3 or 4 tasks at the same time and before you know it, you made a mistake. The danger in this is that the human brain cannot focus well, when multitasking, and mistakes are an automatic result in the work output. In addition, people take longer to complete a task, as they are involved in several tasks at the same time. This is where Time Management plays a very important role of how to overcome multitasking.

Time Management as defined by the free encyclopedia is  “the act or process of exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase efficiency or productivity”. This means that one´s skills, tools and techniques are used to manage time in order to reach an objective of a certain task or achieve one´s goal.

Before multitasking becomes a bad habit, it is very important to manage time by being able to incorporate the following activities in one´s daily work routine: planning, setting goals, prioritizing, organizing, scheduling, delegating, analyzing time spent, monitoring and allocating.

My experience as an Account Manager, is to learn how to prioritize and set certain goals, so that I am not forced to multitask and hence make mistakes, while I am trying to resolve all of my work issues at the same time.

Not sure what your day in the office looks like, but a typical day at the office for me as an account manager at Spanish Translation US revolves around many different things that seem to need my attention all at once. From answering phone calls, to replying to clients’ emails, to completing my daily tasks… which believe me are many.  I constantly find myself going back and forth to each of these tasks and often find it challenging to complete one before I am interrupted by something else. With multitasking being such an important part of my daily experience I found the section on time management in Chet Holmes “The Ultimate Sales Machine” to be very helpful and interesting.

Chet’s six tips on Time Management are:

• Touch It Once: If you touch it take action and handle that task.  Do not revisit the task.
• Make Lists: Lists help you prioritize and stay focused on your daily tasks.
• Plan How Much Time You Will Allocate to Each Task: This helps you manage your daily tasks and dedicate enough time to accomplish them.
• Plan the Day: Give yourself a time frame on how much time you will dedicate to complete each of the things on your list.
• Prioritize: Always start with your most important and difficult task. As the other guru Brian Tracy says in his book “Stop procrastinating!”. By completing the most difficult task first, you will feel a tremendous sense of control and accomplishment having checked the biggest thing off your list.
• Ask Yourself, “Will it hurt me to throw this stuff away?”: Untidiness hurts your productivity. Studies show that 80% of all filed or stored information is never referred to again. So get rid of it!!

I do not have these 6 steps 100% into effect just yet, but I am really working on it. I’m sure that applying these six steps will assist me in completing my daily tasks efficiently. I know they are going to help me manage my time and be more productive on a daily basis. No doubt that I will also help me turn into a happier man!

One of the quickest ways to increase your sales is through up-selling, or selling more pricy or add-on products to customers at the time they are placing an order.

It’s a great way to increase your revenues, since consumers are basically in a purchasing frame of mind at that time. This can work for products or services.

The key steps to a good up-selling program are to know the value of your products and services, to develop new options and to figure out what your target demand is seeking out when purchasing a product/service like the one you offer.

Know the value of your product! Value, like a coin, has two different sides: the value or profitability of the product to you, and the value or usefulness of the product to your consumer.

Figure out what others have bought, have a look at prior sales and see what products your consumers often purchased together. This will give you additional ideas and insight as to what add-ons go with what primary products.

We now have enough information to develop your up-selling pitch. This is as simple as asking your buyer “Would you like —- with that?” at the time of the purchase.

This can be applied for translation services as well by offering new options like DTP, IT, localization and content management services.

Another thing to note: There is often less price resistance at the point of sale for add-on products or services.

You are now ready to go…Happy up-selling!!!

Referencing the theme of my last post, this time I will go a little deeper into why using a professional language service provider to market your products and services is an intelligent choice. Previously, I demonstrated the benefits of using translation services to the growing Latino market sectors in the US, while discussing localization using the example advertisement in Puerto Rico.

A translation is not always just a translation.  As an Account Manager, I strive to understand as much as possible about each translation project in order to provide not only a simple translation, but one catered to the intended the audience.  The concept of providing translation services also considering the geographical and cultural perspectives of the audience is called “localization”.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the AT&T ad in Puerto Rico is a perfect example of ignoring localization.  The ad had been translated from English into Spanish. Grammatically speaking, it made perfect sense.  Their mistake lied in not taking into account the cultural nuances of their Puerto Rican audience.  The end result was creating a household situation that was very unlikely and perhaps even offensive.

Here’s another example of lack of localization with an early computer operating system in the 1980’s with something as simple as a desktop icon.  The same icon Americans interpreted to be the trash can appeared to be more of a mailbox to Europeans.  This example clearly shows that while European clients were intended to by the products, no one seemed to be consulted before the software was green lighted.  While this is a small, subtle example, it shows the importance of not throwing your trash in the mailbox, or really understanding who you’ll be communicating with through the sale of products and services.

While the importance of localization services can be easily demonstrated using marketing examples, it’s actually important for all translations.  Considering who you’ll be talking to and where they will be is important in any type of communication.  Some details that may appear small and subtle in some languages or cultures can often be glossed over when not considering the target audience.  Moreover, these services should be provided by and discussed with professionals who understand these nuances that help you conduct business in the easiest, most effective way.    We are a big world and, while many people may speak English, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi or Arabic, we do not all think the same, act the same or approach life similarly.

Before I start, I would like to give a brief definition of Machine Translation as stated in the Webster´s Dictionary: “Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT, is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another.”

One of the first Machine Translations took place back in 1954 in the so-called Georgetown-IBM experiment, where over sixty Russian sentences were fully-automatic translated into English. The experiment was a huge success of its time; however, the problem became very clear when the Russian term hydraulic ram was translated as “water goat“.

In 1959, IBM created a MT Software called Mark I; and by 1963, the Mark II had been already developed, which provided word-for-word Russian language translations at the rate of about 5,000 words per hour. By 1971, a MT Software had been developed on the IBM 360/67 computer that translated between 80,000 to 100,000 words from English to Vietnamese per hour!

Today, a vast amount of software programs exist on the market that provide Machine Translation. Some of them work on-line, such as the SYSTRAN system which used to power both GOOGLE translate and also AltaVista’s Babel Fish. GOOGLE had been using SYSTRAN for several years when, back in 2007,  switched to a statistical translation method. CANDIDE from IBM was the first statistical machine translation software.

Humans can translate somewhere between 1,500 and 3,000 words a day, while an average MT software can translate up to 4,000 words a minute. In addition, a MT software can store translated documents and re-use phrases that have already been translated. However, there is no MT software with an output to be qualified as a “perfect” translation, and this is why we still depend on human translators.

Following my last entry, I’m going to start off with some shocking and/or interesting statistics of the ever changing fabric of our American quilt.  While there are many demographics of immigrants and non-native English speakers in the US, this entry will focus primarily on the rapidly growing Hispanic population in the US.

• Young people 24 and under represent 35% of all Hispanic online users.  (Emarketer)
• The US Hispanic market that is online has grown from 15.7 million to 20.9 million in the last 5 years alone.  (Emarketer)
• “The 47 million-plus Hispanic population in the U.S. accounts for 15% of the total U.S. population and have spending power of $850 billion. (University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth)
• From 2000 to 2006, Hispanic purchasing power in the US climbed more than 63%, to $798 billion. (University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth)
• Latinos and other minorities were responsible for 85% of US population in the last 10 years (Adage)

It’s clear to see that the Hispanic market in the US is nothing to ignore.  There is an ever growing percentage of Americans that are looking for your messages, your products, and your services: in Spanish.  Making this connection isn’t easy, but it’s not as hard as you might think; it’s a learning process.

However, if we’re learning anything at all, it’s that Google translate isn’t going to get us there.  A translation is not just a translation; reaching out to the Hispanic market takes more.  It means understanding cultural nuances, sensitivities, humor and colloquialisms. In addition, Spanish phrases and idiomatic expressions are not consistent among all Spanish speaking countries.

Esther Novak, CEO, VanguardComm hits the nail on the head here when she says “Those who are anxious to tap the market but inexperienced at reaching it must not make the easy mistake of “selling to the Hispanic bloc” — the assumption that a Cuban thinks like a Mexican thinks like a Puerto Rican. Each of the 22 Latino nationalities has its own cultural nuances, idioms and assimilation. Businesses need to understand these factors, which include a connection to home country; multi-generational households; mistrust of institutions; a belief in fate; respect for the elderly; the influence of community leaders; the role of faith; and the upholding of tradition, celebrations, humor and cultural icons.”

Here I have a couple examples of a good and bad way to approach the situation:

Here’s a failed attempt by AT&T.

The telecommunications giant AT&T created a series of marketing ads in Puerto Rico where a wife tells her husband to go downstairs and call Mary because they are running late.   Seems innocent enough, right? Oh no!  In Puerto Rico this behavior was seen as offensive, as many wives would never order their husbands in this way nor would they think it’s necessary to call regarding their late arrival.

This campaign proved to be ineffective and failed to resonate with the consumer on a personal and cultural level.   It did not draw on cultural experiences nor connect with the consumer.  Instead the poor translation became distracting and was merely an advertisement gone awry.

Here’s a successful approach by The Home Depot.

When I say successful, I mean excellent.  The Home Depot has successfully integrated a variety of ways to approach the Hispanic population.  They have shown a strong commitment by providing bilingual signage on all of their products, offering bilingual workshops and how-to-clinics, as well as tips and tools on Spanish directed Youtube site.  What’s more, they sponsor Major League Soccer as well as the Mexican National soccer club.  They clearly understand the cultural importance of soccer to their Hispanic clients and show their loyalty by supporting their teams.  By taking this multi-faceted approach The Home Depot is able to connect with their customers not only in Spanish but also to their cultural needs and wants.

Bottom line is this: It is important to address this rapidly growing and changing market in the correct way; not only in their own language but also within the context of their local culture.  Working with a translation agency is an excellent way to bring your message full circle by providing cultural understanding.  They can work with you directly to understand what you are trying to do and figuring out the best ways to approach your translation. Concisely expressing your message in the tone and voice of a native speaker is priceless.

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