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 [&
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-m
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… […]
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 […]
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 discuss
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 natu
Who is the end user? Not understanding your client’s true needs will most likely make you lose a sale. There are many occasions when a client will not mention that all they really need is to know what that document says for their company’s internal use. Meanwhile, a sales account manager is providing this client [&helli
A couple of years ago, while I was studying in Argentina, I decided to go see a movie that my friends could not stop talking about: “The Hangover”. It was hilarious. I laughed out loud a million times….but I noticed that some times I was the only one laughing. Am I weird? Do I have […]
The value of up-selling & cross selling. To increase revenue and margins of an order by selling products / services at higher prices i.e. up-selling or by selling add-on products and accessories, a tactic also known as cross selling, share the idea of needing to prove our consumers that there is something in it for [&he
What is Plain English? Plain English (sometimes referred to as plain language) is a style of writting that is simple and direct. It “emphasise clarity, brevity and the avoidance of technical language”. Why Plain English? “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any other document (or any part
In the US, when a transcript contains a translation of conversations spoken in a foreign language, a qualified witness must authenticate and verify the translation. See United States v. Llinas, 603 F.2d 506, 509-10 (5th Cir. 1979). A party who wishes to challenge the accuracy of a translation is responsible for presenting
I’ve talked before about the list of glossaries that a friend of mine put together (and which I’m sure she’ll add to in the future). While going through these glossaries, I came across a couple of little grammar problems in Spanish that can be troublesome. The first topic is the use of the personal pronoun
Veo arboles verdes, rosas rojas tambien Las veo florecer para ti y para mi Y pienso para mi mismo, que mundo tan maravilloso. Sound familiar? I came across a site last week called Song Translator that while entertaining, shows just how difficult it is to produce a top-notch song translation. Like poetry, music lyrics have [
Poetry translations are notoriously difficult and force a translator to walk the fine line between accuracy and beauty. In a similar vein, song translations frequently receive a mixed reception. Case in point: the US National Anthem in Spanish. There have been a number of “Star Spangled Banner” translations, t
Accent marks can be somewhat of a mystery to non-Spanish speakers. Even if the Spanish student (or translator…) remembers where in the word to put the accent mark, he or she still might not be sure how to do so. There are three basic ways to write Spanish accent marks. 1. Keyboard Setup (Windows) –Go […]
The Apple Ipod has taken the world by storm and, along with its sibling the Iphone, become the must have accessory for the 21st century. Each new Ipod has brought along a fresh idea, be it video capabilities or an insanely compact size. It has been heralded for much more than its entertainment capabilities, with […]
Twitter, tweet and tweak your heart out globally now with a number of new products and services. If you have not yet heard, Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows people to stay connected, and according to the New York Times, Twitter is “one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet.” Friends kee
The idea of machine translation was introduced to the general public on the 7th of January, 1954. The project was a collaboration between the University of Georgetown and IBM, who provided a model 701 to serve as the “brain” for the translation. The machine was fed over 60 relatively simple sentences in Russian
What is a glossary? A glossary is basically a catalog of words from a select discipline or area of study in which the terms are arranged alphabetically and defined, discussed and/or translated into another language. There are general glossaries on subjects like medicine, economics or art, for example, and then there are mor
Every word has a meaning, but some words have more than one, such as homonyms: bark, bear, groom, etc. Sometimes a word means or symbolizes “something more” and the author can give it a special meaning or name (the best example is “Rosebud” from Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane). The dictionary defi