English here, English there... English Everywhere

Today, while surfing the net trying to find interesting stuff about languages for our awesome Facebook community, I stumbled upon the following joke:

An American visiting in England asked at the hotel for the elevator.

The portiere looked a bit confused but smiled when he realized what the man wanted.

"You must mean the lift," he said.

"No," the American responded. "If I ask for the elevator I mean the elevator."

"Well," the portiere answered, "over here we call them lifts".

"Now you listen", the American said rather irritated, "someone in America invented the elevator."

"Oh, right you are sir," the portiere said in a polite tone, "but someone here in England invented the language."

I found that hilarious. But then, it made me think. There is always this sort of squabble about which English is the norm – British or American. And I’m not trying to exclude other “English languages” in the world; but, I mean, in a world where 375 million people speak English as their first language, it is hard not to simplify.

I am not an English native speaker. My native language is Spanish, European Spanish – the comparison between British and American English and Castillian Spanish  and Latin-American Spanish is inevitable, but that’s a topic for another post-, and during my school years, British English was the norm. What can I say, our English standards were defined by the Cambridge exams. The speaker from the tapes that we used as listening exercises had a very diplomatic, yet distinct British accent.

And yet, probably because my English comes primarily from the American media –movies, shows, online radio programs-, I unknowingly developed a tendency towards American English. I write “center” with the “er”, and when I say it, I pronounce the final “r” lifting the tip of my tongue. When I get “mad”, I’m angry, not crazy. And when I’m told I’m “smart”, I don’t think of my attire. And when I want to reach my apartment floor… I take the stairs :)

Do I think American English is the norm? No. Nor am I denying it. Languages have a history that no one can deny, and knowing it makes our culture and vocabulary richer. Having a clear view of these two particular “English languages” gives me an insight into the overall language that I wouldn’t enjoy if I closed my mind to the possibility that they are both just as valid and as wonderful.

Furthermore, as a translator, an open mind about the regional differences in a language –not only English, but pretty much any language- is a valuable asset. People want to be talked to in their very own language, with their very own quirks and expressions, and if you consider yourself a good translator, you have to be able to respond to this demand.

inWhatLanguage's professional, native-speaking language translators understand this need. They are among the most qualified in the translation services industry. Every language translation project is treated with the same degree of quality and precision, which is why our firm has one of the best reputations in the language translation industry with regards to customer satisfaction and quality translations.

It doesn’t matter who invented a language, or who changed it along the way… We are up to whatever challenge comes our way.

inWhatLanguage: a translation agency as it should be

What is a translation agency?

Despite how simple this question sounds, it is, in fact, a tricky one. A translation agency is, or should be, a company that provides services to cover its clients’ translation needs.

Then, why is it that when one says “translation agency”, people usually automatically think of a guy sitting at a desk with a stack of papers in different languages, or wearing headphones and writing a translation of what he hears, like the guy in this picture?

It’s not that this is not a correct perception. Document translation and audio transcription is, without a doubt, a major part of a translator’s job. But a language agency is so much more.

Nowadays, the needs one may have for a translation agency are rarely limited to a paper document or a recorded audio conference. In the era of iPads, YouTube, of Facebook, of daily updated websites and monthly newsletters, a company that sticks with just document translation can hardly be called a modern business.

As I was doing a subtitling job the other day, changing video formats to suit the clients’ needs, moving or extending a subtitle a quarter of an inch longer to make sure that it’s perfectly synchronized to the person talking in the video, I realized how wonderfully versatile inWhatLanguage is.

Our translation firm can translate all forms of multimedia, whether it's a web conference presentation, a global training video, or an interactive Flash demo for your website. Our translation team understands the importance of providing leading experts in all file types and technologies who can consistently recreate and adapt your multimedia translation project for any language and/or international market.

We have tons of stuff that goes beyond just the services you would naturally assume a translation agency would have:

• ·        Software localization services
• ·        eLearning localization translation
• ·        Multilingual voice-over recording and synching
• ·        Desktop publishing translation services
• ·        Script localization
• ·        Subtitling and dubbing translation
• ·        Foreign voice talent
• ·        Graphics and animation editing
• ·        Testing & quality assurance translation
• ·        Translation of DVDs and videos
• ·        Verbatim recording Translation
• ·        Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) translation
• ·        You name it!

No matter the format, no matter the subject matter, no matter the linguistic or cultural targets, inWhatLanguage will translate and localize your multimedia content with unparalleled speed and accuracy.

Translation: literal, literary, and all that is in-between

To think that the act of translating means the act of simply transforming words from one language into words in another language is a big misconception. That would, by definition, mean that a single person who is fluent in two languages could potentially do a translation. Which could be compared to saying that anyone who can put together a complete sentence with a subject, verb and predicate is capable of writing a novel.

A translator is, above all things, a writer. And as writers can –and must- specialize in certain fields of literature, so can translators. As great as it would be to have a single person capable of translating any kind of text out there and producing documents with minimal loss in translation, that is not possible if you are only looking for the best results. That would be the equivalent of having a reporter writing every single section of a newspaper. No, there are different people for different tasks – those who have the speed to write last minute news, those who have the analytic mind to write in-depth articles, or those who have the tact and the literary abilities to write the obituaries.

A translator who is great at translating marketing campaigns might leave something to be desired when it comes to legal documents. A translator who has a gift for translating song lyrics and poetry might not be the best option when the client asks for an instructions manual translation.

Even if the root of both adjectives “literal” and “literary” is the same, when it comes to translation, these two qualities can make a world of difference. Neither of them defines a better or worse translator, they just make them more apt for certain kinds of texts, more adequate for certain target customers.

And a good translation agency must have plenty of both, in as many languages as possible.

inWhatLanguage prides itself in its huge range of exceptionally gifted translators located all over the globe. They provide customer-oriented language translation, transcription and language interpreting services that absolutely blow away what you get from automated translation tools and websites. 

inWhatLanguage's professional, native-speaking language translators are among the most qualified in the translation services industry, boasting years of experience and specific expertise in a variety of content areas, including law, education, healthcare, and more.

inWhatLanguage recognizes the difference between the need for a “literal” translation and a “literary” one, and has an offer big and good enough to deliver high-quality work for both at affordable prices, always listening to what the client has to say.

Because, in our case, the client is, literally, our first priority.

inWhatLanguage: a family without borders

Last Wednesday was International Work Day, and as a person living in Europe, I enjoyed the holiday and congratulated all the hard-working people that surrounded me – including the members of the inWhatLanguage family via Facebook. I wrote that they are the best because, well, they are, for many reasons that I unfortunately couldn’t specify in the post.

First of all, for their professionalism. They keep their promises, they guarantee certain standards and they deliver, and that is something that our clients can confirm. They are fast, friendly and communicative. That is what others can easily see for themselves.

As for me, for instance, someone who can speak from “the inside”, I can add a couple of things that could be surprising for many. When I talk about the “inWhatLanguage” family, it’s not just a literary embellishment – I do it for a simple reason: inWhatLanguage DOES feel like a family. We are all young, driven people with a passion for languages, who can get sometimes so excited about them that we ask each other “geeky” questions or tell jokes that only people in this circle would find funny.

Last week, for instance, I was writing my previous blog post about proofreading and came up with the following sentence: “Proofreading is to a translation what yeast is to a good loaf of bread: without it, they both feel half-baked”. After reading it a couple of times, I felt that the “half-baked” part could potentially sound inappropriate, so I went around asking what other people thought. After some laughs and suggestions, we manage to change it to “without it, they both fall flat”.

It’s a funny anecdote, but it goes to show how much we care about making ourselves understood, and how much we enjoy playing with languages and exploring their possibilities.

The members of this family are always there for each other, despite the thousands of miles separating us. More than once I’ve actually talked freely with my superiors about stuff happening in my daily life – that is not something one usually does with one’s boss, but in our case it’s just natural. We work together, and we care for each other – and it works. And that is possibly why inWhatLanguage also feels like that to others, and why our clients immediately notice the closeness and the welcoming atmosphere.

I’ve been working with inWhatLanguage for a while now, and I felt like this from the beginning. With time, the feelings have only intensified. Luckily enough, because the future looks promising – inWhatLanguage is sure to keep providing quality translation services for a good while. And its fun personality is not about to change.