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Translating Publicity Texts in the Light of the Skopos Theory:
Posted by words on Thursday, January 08 @ 05:02:11 EST (601 reads)
Topic Globalization
|  Problems and Suggestions Abstract The present paper aims to explore the activity of translating Chinese publicity texts into English within the framework of the skopos theory, with special reference to Shaoxing mingshi culture-related texts. First, the basic principles of the skopos theory are outlined, followed by a discussion of their application in translating publicity texts. An attempt is then made to analyze four types of translation errors prevalent in English translations of publicity texts by drawing on Nord's functional model. The paper concludes with some suggestions to solve the problems.
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One's Loss, Another's Gain:
Posted by words on Thursday, January 08 @ 04:58:56 EST (368 reads)
Topic Globalization
| 1.0 Introduction
 n translations of Japanese to English, issues of loss and gain are especially pertinent. Whether in translating honorific and humble forms or absent and inferred words, translators of Japanese are often faced with decisions on how to best fill in the large gap between the two languages, especially when translated text genres have not yet been clearly defined. This paper will discuss how cultural expectations of academic writing in both the Source Language (SL) and Target Language (TL) should affect how voice is constructed in translation. The translation of language with implicit relational or cultural cues as well as loss/gain issues will be discussed, particularly the problem of subject inference in Japanese and to what extent passive sentence construction should be used to translate such inferred subject constructions. The paper will first present model translations of problematic structures and discuss how these translation methods are or are not successful, and then discuss tactics that were used to overcome the same cultural problems in a translation done by this author. Methodology will focus mainly on the importance of genre considerations and a nuanced understanding of culture and genre when translating.
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Skopos in Practice:
Posted by words on Thursday, October 02 @ 04:31:20 EDT (1026 reads)
Topic Globalization
| Building an Appealing Brand Image in the Translation of Soft NewsAbstract
The Skopos theory posits that translation is produced for particular recipients with specific purpose(s) in a given situation. The maturing of the Skopos theory results in the dethroning of the source text and the de-mystification of "equivalence," foregrounding the significance and implication of "purpose" that contributes to the translation as a sort of social construction. In a small case study, the translation of a piece of soft news regarding the launch of theme collections by Swarovski is analyzed by comparing my translation and the version from PR Newswire. The significant differences between my version and PR Newswire's one demonstrate the Skopos in practice that determines the adoption of different translation strategies. The purpose of constructing a glamorous, graceful and vibrant brand image of Swarovski leads me to present a polished version with literary style, which is characterized by a refined and evocative vocabulary, whereas PR Newswire may treat this translation as one of numerous daily assignments of "hard news" that is to be completed as soon as possible. So its translation is direct, plain and down-to-earth and reads like an unsophisticated draft version in comparison with my version.
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How to Face Challenging Symbols:
Posted by words on Thursday, October 02 @ 04:27:00 EDT (313 reads)
Topic Globalization
| Translating Symbols from Persian to EnglishAbstract
Translation suffers from many limitations, one of which is the difficulty of translating symbols meaningfully in another language. In the present paper, it will be analyzed how symbols have been dealt with in the two languages: Persian and English. A brief analysis of the procedures employed in rendering symbols is presented. Symbols are deeply rooted in the SL culture; consequently, translators should exercise care in handling such cultural items. We conducted a study to highlight the fact that there are some procedures for translating symbols effectively from Persian to English omission being the most frequently employed one. However, this is by no means the most effective procedure. Trying not to prescribe a specific rule or procedure for rendering all kinds of symbols, the researcher carried out such a descriptive study in the hope of helping translation students or translators get much more familiar with the most appropriate procedures for dealing with symbols. Key words: Culture, Omission, SL, Symbol, Translation Procedures
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Growth of Translation Services Due To Globalization
Posted by words on Monday, June 09 @ 12:07:42 EDT (374 reads)
Topic Globalization
| Professional
translation services prove to be indispensable when an organization
decides to take its product or service outside its home turf. Such
brand building exercises outside the home territory require strong
words from translation services as companies encounter linguistic,
cultural, economic, and legal obstacles in pursuit of their objectives
in foreign markets. The advances in communication technology have
helped organizations to extend their reach beyond their home markets.
Distances have dissolved and differences in time zones have ceased to
be a hindrance. In fact, they are more of an advantage as clients get
their work done faster as compared to the vendors in the home countries.
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GILT-Internationalization, a right-brainer approach
Posted by words on Wednesday, October 17 @ 05:46:05 EDT (343 reads)
Topic Globalization
| As a translator, i.e. a member of the GILT crowd, you must know what it is all about In GILT literature, you will encounter the following: G11n, I18n, and L10n. They simply mean Globalization, Internationalization, and Localization respectively, taking the first and last letters of these words with the number of letters tucked in between. This is a way of making these long words short! Of course, you know GILT means Globalization, Internationalization, Localization and Translation
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Global Translation: The Dream of a Translation Tower of Babel
Posted by words on Wednesday, October 17 @ 05:31:56 EDT (364 reads)
Topic Globalization
| We read in the Bible that the whole world had one common language for all people who became skilled in construction and decided to build a tower that would reach to heaven. "... and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." (Genesis 11:5-6) Without this common language, their society couldn’t function. God disrupted their speech and split up their entire society. Their construction was not a temple for God but a monument to themselves, to reach heaven and become gods. The story is all about disobedience and arrogance.
After the destruction of the Tower of Babel sons of Adam are restoring their talents to reconstruct and pose a symbol of power with the same ramifications. But the stature of a unified language in the form of English language, the World Wide Web, Global Economy and other cultural strategies are not enough to overpower the divinely established human diversity. One should not allow a wide scope for the disappearance of diversified cultural and national identities in the process of translation which usually happens when translating from a dominant language into the dominated or even vice versa. Of course, it is the function of a true translator to preserve as much of the cultural tinge of the source language as possible.
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Chinese Characters
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 03:11:38 EDT (398 reads)
Topic Globalization
| A Quick Social, Political and Linguistic Survey
I. INTRODUCTION An old American proverb states "The only history worth knowing is the one you do not already know." This outlook is quite evident as trade globalization rapidly unites people, cultures and languages between the East and West in gaining insights to form strategic business relationships. From afar, Chinese characters may seem like an insurmountable communication barrier, but once introduced to the socio-linguistic and political intricacies of the Chinese language, one will find both uniqueness and commonalities in comparison to one's own language and history. This survey will introduce the political, ethnic and cultural lineage of Chinese characters in East Asia and its impact on the modern online information realm.
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An Emerging Giant in the Global L10n Arena
Posted by words on Tuesday, October 09 @ 01:40:20 EDT (330 reads)
Topic Globalization
| With its notoriously laid-back population and its stunning landscape, Rio de Janeiro might not seem like a major center for localization. But what many CSN readers don’t know is that Rio de Janeiro has long positioned itself as a hub of talented and specialized localization engineers, developers, and project managers—all with extensive experience in complex multilingual projects.
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From Tea Leaves to Coffee Grounds
Posted by words on Monday, October 08 @ 23:55:02 EDT (352 reads)
Topic Globalization
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The Eastern Mediterranean, where I live, is a wonderful vantage point from which to survey the rest of the world. Most of history's greatest civilizations have ruled this area at one time or another, as their armies of soldiers or merchant traders pushed east or west and back again. One of the customs in this region involves reading the whimsical and elegant patterns made by Turkish "kahve" grounds after one has finished drinking a small cup and turned it over onto its saucer. Another coffee drinker will then turn the cup over very carefully after a few minutes, peer inquiringly inside as s/he looks for the patterns that will predict the original drinker's fortunes: fish for good luck, honey bees or ants for economic prosperity, roads for travel opportunities, birds for visitors, etc.
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Spotlight: Hanspeter Siegrist
Posted by words on Monday, October 08 @ 02:25:22 EDT (371 reads)
Topic Globalization
| GLOBALIZATION INSIDER: What are the two most critical issues facing the language technology industry right now? The interoperability between technologies and enabling true collaboration among all players. (1) The interoperability between technologies (including competing technologies). For example, if a telephone is incompatible with another telephone, it is useless. Just as telecom providers had to learn this lesson, so do language services providers have to learn how to work together in order to maximize value for their customers. This increased value will improve their overall willingness to invest in technology, thereby benefiting the entire industry by increasing the size of the market.
LISA can serve as the nexus to facilitate this interoperability. This is not so much a technical issue, as it is a political one, and thus the more difficult to resolve!
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From Tokyo to Barcelona
Posted by words on Monday, October 08 @ 02:15:02 EDT (367 reads)
Topic Globalization
| Translating Japanese Anime into Catalan
What is common between Japanese and Catalan – how can Japanese humor be expressed within the context of Catalan culture? This is the equation that the Catalan translators have to figure out in order for Japanese anime and manga to be enjoyed by Catalan viewers. Dr Jordi Mas López, translation studies scholar and freelance translator, shares his insights into the process. Read on to find out why the Japan portrayed in the anime dubbed into Catalan may not be a faithful rendition of the real Japan, but rather like a postcard sent from an exotic location.
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Global to the Core
Posted by words on Monday, October 08 @ 01:58:33 EDT (310 reads)
Topic Globalization
| LISA is in the process of updating its Localization Primer, a publication read by people around the world interested in learning about localization. As part of this process LISA decided to update some figures about how companies spend their localization budget, so Mike Anobile called up Bill Sullivan of IBM to ask him how IBM spends its localization budget. Bill replied that he couldn't say, that he had no idea how much money IBM spends on globalization or what areas the money is spent in. What's more, he said that he was "delighted and indeed proud that [IBM does] not have that data". At a time when the GILT industry is fighting for visibility this sounds like bad news. Is this a return to the "bad old days" when localization was so chaotic that no one knew what they were spending, or what they were getting for their money? As it turns out, IBM's inability to say how much money it spends on GILT may herald the start of a new era of globalization.
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Return on Investment in Multilingual Websites from a Marketing Perspective
Posted by words on Monday, October 08 @ 01:57:08 EDT (300 reads)
Topic Globalization
| It is critical for global companies to build long-term trust with their customers worldwide. One of the most effective ways to do this is to address audiences in their local languages. By nature, the Internet is a truly international and multicultural engine that crosses global barriers. Effective content localization enables companies to leverage corporate assets in ways that reduce overall costs, accelerate revenues and build better relationships with customers and employees all around the world. The effectiveness of this localization effort can be measured by the development and analysis of metrics.
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The Open Global Web Architecture (OGWA)
Posted by words on Sunday, October 07 @ 23:43:31 EDT (325 reads)
Topic Globalization
|  Many techniques exist for creating and maintaining websites and applications that words multiple languages. The most established sites use Unicode for text, use proper date, currency, and numeric formats, and they store error messages in resource files. All of these practices are thoroughly documented and wordsed by modern web implementation platforms, such as Java and .NET, which makes it possible for web teams with limited prior knowledge of these practices to get up to speed.
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Globalisation and Translation
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 03:35:29 EDT (331 reads)
Topic Globalization
| A discussion of the effect of globalisation on today's translation The objective of an article I published in September 2003 in De Linguaan, a magazine for members of the Netherlands Society of Translators and Interpreters, was to clarify my statement that, because of the current trend of globalisation, the translator no longer has the absolute need to always find a translation of a term in the target language if this would make the target-language text lose credibility. This is what I have called excessive translation. An excessive translation is a translation that fails to foreignise/exoticise, i.e., use source-language terms in the target-language text, to the degree that I believe is now acceptable. As an example I would like to refer to translations of Mexican food names. There are several options to translate a word like mole; Instead of finding words in the target language (an explanatory translation like a spicy sauce on a chocolate basis), I recommend using the Spanish word (this is done in both the Dutch and English translations of Arrncame La Vida by Angeles Mastretta [De Pijn van de Liefde/Tear This Heart Out]. In the Dutch translation of the same work, the word "gorda" is translated as blauwe maispannekoek (blue corn pancake). This is what I consider an excessive translation.
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GILT: Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, Translation
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 02:53:45 EDT (310 reads)
Topic Globalization
|
As the title suggests, we should perhaps feel a little GILTy that of the above four terms, only translation is generally well understood. In a past issue of the LISA newsletter, Donald DePalma and Hans Fenstermacher argued that our industry cannot even agree on what globalization, internationalization and localization mean. Don and Hans also pointed out the lack of "coopetition", i.e. collaboration among competitors, in our industry.
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Follow the Money to Latin America
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 02:42:21 EDT (322 reads)
Topic Globalization
| Globalization has indeed come to the localization industry, but it remains to be seen which path we will follow. According to Rory Cowan, CEO of Lionbridge Technologies, in his keynote at the recent LISA Forum USA in Washington, D.C., localization will increasingly be recognized as part of a larger outsourcing trend and will eventually be ”featurized” within the larger framework of offshore services. The big issue over the next few years will be whether localization becomes just another feature in someone else’s offshore business, as has happened with payroll and call center functions, or whether it will be incorporated into the enterprise development model.
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Globalization Is Here! The Year of Content
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 02:39:13 EDT (304 reads)
Topic Globalization
| Language is a double-edged domain. On one hand, one of the saddest things about our industry is that language-related features are often considered after all others. Most often, new technologies are first thoroughly developed in English before any real language words is implemented. On the other hand though, the drive towards globalization is unstoppable: the world is getting smaller, the Internet is here to stay. Companies need to grow sales via global markets and the need for translation is constantly growing.
Editor’s Note: Links to presentations cited in this article are only available to LISA Members. If you are interested in joining, please click here. People will always favor products in their language, because language is an intensely personal thing: language defines who we are, the community we belong to (see, for example, the column You are what you speak on the BBC Web site). Companies that do not globalize will lose ground, i.e., market share, to those that do. In short, language always comes late, but language always comes. Now, more than ever, globalization technology is emerging, driven by the need for Global Content Management (GCM).
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Globalization: People, Process and Technology
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 02:26:24 EDT (334 reads)
Topic Globalization
|  Globalization is about people, process and technology. So say, in different terms, Mark Lancaster of SDL (premium content) and Savitha Varadan of PeopleSoft (premium content), both interviewed by our chief editor, and I could not agree more. Those three words are all very important and “people” is first for a reason. Many projects fail by not taking the “people” part seriously. Instead, they start out defining processes, then building technology that wordss the processes, and discover later, with great surprise, that information workers are not monowordsc, single-minded creatures like Schwarzenegger film persona (the Terminator comes to mind). It is amazing how “buy-in” (the acceptance of those involved) can make or break a project.
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Globalization of Voice Applications: It’s Only the Beginning!
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 02:15:05 EDT (303 reads)
Topic Globalization
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Globalizing software (creating software for multiple languages and locales), and the follow-on process of localization, is challenging enough for “normal” software products and not-too-complex web sites. However, when it comes to one of the “newest kids on the block,” voice-enabled applications, the fun really begins.
There are only a handful of voice technology providers who have attempted to create globalized solutions, and Oracle Corporation is one of them. Recently, LISA interviewed Curtis Tuckey, Director, and Ashish Vora, Senior Speech Applications Engineer, at Oracle’s Voice Laboratory in Chicago in the U.S., to gain insight into their vision for voice application globalization. In installment one, the two men outline Oracle’s voice applications strategy, as well as the business and technical challenges that lie ahead. In the second installment, to be published in a future issue of the Globalization Insider, they will:
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GILT: Observations from a Technical Communicator’s Perspective
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 02:01:09 EDT (271 reads)
Topic Globalization
| Bringing a technical communicator’s perspective to GILT, Steve Dyson comments on how even the biggest companies have not yet thought through the many ramifications of globalization in the economic and GILT senses of the word. He then provides some insights into why the marketing efforts of GILT technology companies have not been as successful as perhaps they should. Contracts to build multilingual web sites are still being won by graphics agencies on the basis of their creativity and design skills, with little thought being given to localization or content management. Europe-based translators and technical communicators, working in industries generating large quantities of documentation and translation work from languages other than English, cannot help but be struck by the slow uptake of GILT and allied tools. Where translation and localization jobs are outsourced directly to specialists, translation memory (TM) and other GILT tools are, of course, used. The point I’m trying to make is that their clients remain largely unaware of the benefits of these technologies and how to exploit them more fully.
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Eliminating Barriers to Web Globalization
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 01:57:57 EDT (288 reads)
Topic Globalization
| There’s a reason they call it the World Wide Web. Simply put, the web enables organizations to connect with a diverse audience—no matter where they’re located or what language they speak… That is, as long as you can speak their language. As we enter 2005, more and more organizations understand the value of a global web strategy. And increasingly, they’re looking to content management solutions (CMS) that enable multilingual web sites and to the language service providers that words them in realizing that opportunity.
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Because Knowing Is Not Preferring
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 00:58:52 EDT (333 reads)
Topic Globalization
| The mere mention of “globalization” these days is sure to stir a variety of emotions. While the term conjures up images of bad press on world economic summits, protesters and job migration, it also heralds exciting new business frontiers. So, What Is Globalization? “Globalization is an irreversible process, not an option.” UN Secretary General Kofi Annan In the economic sense, globalization is the trend toward an integrated worldwide economy. Contributing factors center on the confluence of a number of worldwide developments in the fairly recent past, not the least of which is the dizzying proliferation of the internet. Regardless of its merits, economic globalization is definitely here to stay. UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has correctly asserted, “…globalization is ‘an irreversible process, not an option.’ ”
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Maturing Internet Markets Warrant Increased Web Globalization,
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 00:54:10 EDT (350 reads)
Topic Globalization
| That's what Tekrati has to say about Nielsen//Netratings' latest global Web usage report. Their research shows that people in the US (and a few other markets) are spending the same (or less) time online, while people in markets such as Italy, Japan, France and Australia continue to increase their time spent online, as shown below:
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Where Business Meets World:
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 00:52:44 EDT (315 reads)
Topic Globalization
| Move over FIGS; Here Comes BRIC
Emerging markets are driving the Web globalization revolution. Investment bankers use an acronym that is going to have a major impact on the future of the globalization industry: BRIC. BRIC stands for Brazil, Russia, India, and China, the four countries that pose the greatest opportunities for long-term growth among emerging markets. Of course, the key words are “long term” – these markets are anything but sure bets over the short term.
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Globalisation Management Systems Discussion
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 00:46:24 EDT (288 reads)
Topic Globalization
| This article discusses the choice between a vendor such as thebigword and a GMS solution such as Trados GXT, Globalsight, Idiom, etc. It aims to be as objective as possible and is written from the technical and process standpoint. If there are any questions regarding this article, please do not hesitate to contact Ian Harris on +44 (0)870 7488000 (ian.harris@thebigword.com).
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Globalization Market Overview
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 00:40:06 EDT (337 reads)
Topic Globalization
| The unstoppable pace of globalization coupled with the growth of the Internet have fundamentally changed the way that enterprises do business. The Web, in particular, is creating a low-cost global platform for communicating and doing business with people in countries far away from the bricks and mortar headquarters of organisations. But, while everyone understands the concept of globalization and the advantages of reaching out to new markets, there is less understanding of the importance of localizing or adapting the content or the product to meet the linguistic, cultural and other requirements of a target market. As competition increases, so does the need for communications content to attract, entice and engage the target audience in an appropriate manner for the locale.
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Is thinking global killing local?
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 00:38:17 EDT (292 reads)
Topic Globalization
| Successfully integrating local insights into global strategyThe world order is changing once again. Strong brands alone are not enough to conquer new markets. Global competition is hotting up and the battlefield has many fronts. Whether we are thinking and acting locally or globally, our customers are judging us at every point of contact and assessing how much we really value them. There is a great deal of worthy discourse and debate, both in the business media and in boardrooms, about Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
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Capitalizing On The Benefits Of A Foreign Language Translation Firm
Posted by words on Saturday, October 06 @ 00:25:14 EDT (337 reads)
Topic Globalization
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In today’s ever-expanding world of business on an ever-shrinking planet, not only is it easy to market your organization’s products and services globally, but it is also just good business sense. With the prevalence of the Internet in every aspect of our English-speaking culture and society, it makes sense to reach out globally and put your products and/or services out for the whole world to take advantage of. Though it seems like the Internet has reduced the size of our world, marked cultural and language barriers still exist which make marketing a product or service from an English-speaking organization to a foreign market an immense challenge. In order to succeed globally, you must consider foreign language translation as a necessary faction of your organization. Whether you are considering opening offices internationally, or you just want to make your services available to foreign markets, consider employing the services of a professional foreign language translation firm in order to make every aspect of your business (both electronic and paper-based) understandable and user-friendly to whatever nationality you decide to promote your business to.
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