Languages similar to other languages: proceed with caution!

Yesterday I did a translation from Portuguese to Spanish. A written translation, of course. Because, as a matter of fact, I don’t speak Portuguese. Never in my life have I studied it. But being a Spanish native speaker, and having studied Italian, French, Latin and other Romance languages, understanding written Portuguese is sort of a given.

Am I writing this text to turn this usual assumption around? No. I did understand it, and I did deliver a good translation, if I can say so myself. But an important part of the reason why the translation was a success, was that I had a talented proofreader who understood the intricacies of both languages and the subtle differences that can mean a world of difference in a translated text.

Romance languages are effectively very close to one another. But precisely because of their similarities, the people who are familiar with only some of them tend to get a little overconfident in understanding them all. Especially when we are talking about Spanish, Portuguese and Italian speakers.

These three cases are so similar that if three people native to any country where these languages are spoken met and talked to each other in their own languages slowly and clearly, they could probably understand most of what the other is saying without much trouble. Reading is usually not that big of a problem, either. They share most their word origins, and the verb tenses are similar in their structures.

But not identical.

Words like “burro” (butter), “salire” (go up) o “genero” (son-in-law) in Italian; “suceso” (event), “vaso” (glass) or “aceite” (oil) in Spanish; and “cena” (scene), criança (child) or “seta” (arrow) in Portuguese; they are all tiny examples that can confuse a translator to the point of delivering a final product that can only be good for a laugh. And whereas that might sound fun for a hobby, it is simply not acceptable for a professional translation agency. After all, they can mean the difference between a choppy job and a translation that can grant you trust and more potential clients.

That is why it is a professional translator’s and proofreader's job to be aware of this, and to put into a translation all the care and the caution that it deserves, even –or maybe “even more so” would be more fitting- when it is a translation from a language that is especially similar to one's own. Because we are not doing something that just looks and sounds “right”. We are providing a service that only we can do, and our knowledge, our added value, is key.

And if you are not sure that you can deal with all of this, then don’t be shy to admit it. Always focus on what you do best: don’t go wandering into uncharted territory when you don’t have a proper map. If you are fluent in only two languages, then stick to those.

Better to deliver one high quality product than a thousand mediocre ones, right?

iWL and FIFA: the new team for the World Cup!

inWhatLanguage is currently celebrating one of the greatest projects this translation agency has ever had the chance to undertake!

FIFA, as in, the Fédération Internationalede Football Association -the international governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer, comprised of 209 national associations and responsible for the organization of football's major international tournaments-, has chosen us to translate its materials into 10+ languages in preparation for the upcoming World Cup. Just how awesome is that?!

We were selected after a two month competitive process against 15 other pre-selected translation companies, so I guess we could say that iWL’s quality and its employees’ skills really shone through - enough for the seasoned professionals at the FIFA headquarters to finally pick us as their trusted provider of translation services.

We are already translating website content, magazines and print media, and we will also begin translating news and press releases periodically until next April. We will then continue to translate throughout the world cup and beyond.

So congratulations, iWL! This is the real deal!!

Since we are on the subject, I would like to take the chance to ponder a question that has been bugging me for a while. As a European citizen, I never understood why what we call “football” here is called “soccer” in America. Well, after doing a little research, I found the answer in Yellow How To – quite an interesting example of how new words can be created out of the less significant events. Namely, a word joke, in this case.

“In the mid 1800s in England, two styles of football were emerging and becoming codified. One, based on passing the ball with the hands, originated in the posh public school, Rugby, and took that name for its own. The other, based on dribbling the ball with the feet, came to be called “association” football after its parent body the Football Association.

Once the forms of football had their identities and official names, the English penchant for slang and abbreviation came into play. Rugby was often known colloquially as “rugger” and association football was shortened to “assoc”.

There is a story that Charles Wreford-Brown, an official in the Football Association, was once asked by some university friends to play a game of “rugger” with them. Making a play on that word, he told them that he’d rather play “soccer” instead.

Whether this story describes the real origin of the name “soccer”, or whether the abbreviation “assoc” simply evolved into the more rhythmic and euphonious “soccer” over time, will probably never be known.”

There are more interesting facts surrounding this football/soccer phenomenon that you can read directly in the source article.

For now, let us just rejoice in iWL’s latest –and possibly greatest!- project, and await even more eagerly the next World Cup in Brazil. It’s gonna rock!!

inWhatLanguage goes to Brazil!

For those of us who knew inWhatLanguage when it was still a tiny new company trying to find a place in the competitive world of translation services, it is truly amazing to see how the agency has grown – in size, in reach, and in reputation.

This is, of course, thanks to the collective effort of the amazing iWL team. Each and every member of the iWL family does his/her bit to turn the company into one of the best, most reliable translation agencies one can find out there.

There is, though, a factor of chance, as well. Or a factor of chance-taking, perhaps. Great opportunities don’t come in huge numbers, and that makes it all the more important to realize when one comes your way. Such is the case of iWL’s latest adventure: a visit to the wonderful country of Brazil.

iWL CEO Cody Broderick didn’t hesitate when he was offered the chance to go there on a trade mission with the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development to promote Utah, along with approximately 30 more people from different industries of the state. Not only was it a great opportunity to discover the wonders that this paradisiacal country has to offer, but also “to create new relationships, explore business opportunities, help represent the state, and most importantly, explore and open new business development ideas for iWL,” Broderick states.

In the six days that iWL CEO was in Brazil (September 22nd – 28th), he got to visit Sao Paulo, Campinas, Curitiba, Londrina, and Rio de Janeiro. In each of these cities, he met with government officials, and discussed ways in which they couldn collaborate for business opportunities. “These discussions included every sector I can think of: gas and oil, finance, energy, telecom, agriculture, retail, services, etcetera,” Broderick explains. “After these talks, we attended dinner and networking events in the evenings."

“Business ideas and collaborations were definitely flowing!” Cody Broderick adds. “It helped to mention that we work with IBM, Harvard, MIT, and other reputable organizations that already have a presence in Brazil.”

That, and the fact that Broderick speaks fluent Brazilian Portuguese. In the true spirit of a professional translation agency, he got to speak with the locals in their own language, achieving a degree of closeness befitting of the Hard at work!representative of inWhatLanguage. Sure enough, though, not everything was business-related: “The people, weather, food, and cities were all wonderful!” Broderick stresses emphatically.

“I am grateful for the relationships I created with the other Utah delegation members and I’m confident that we will have a lot of business that will come from this adventure,” he concludes. “It truly was a trip of a lifetime!”