For some internet marketers it's become a cutting
edge strategy to offer multi lingual navigation and
promo material on their sites in the hope of expanding
their client base. While it is true that international
users whose mother tongue is anything but English are
beginning to hit the web in hefty numbers, catering to
them in their own linguistic format is an art in
itself which doesn't lend itself to the cheap and easy
"no brainer" pseudo solutions currently being hawked
on the net. If you offer them one of those, chances
are you'll fend them off forever. Count it as a
well-meaning blunder as much as you will, fact is
these clients-to-be can be quite relentless if you
convey the impression that you couldn't care less
about offering first class services. Don't forget that
very many people actually love their mother tongue and
don't enjoy seeing it massacred.
Linguistics and translation are sciences in their own
right demanding due respect or - at the very least -
professional handling. One thing the non-expert should
get rid off - the sooner the better! - is the fond
myth that familiarity with your mother tongue implies
that you know all about language and its social
ramifications. And it's not about lack of command of
a foreign tongue either - more often than not, it's
the basic concepts which are flawed, such as the
belief that a word-by-word translation, though
admittedly not very elegant, will at least give you a
"general idea" of the source text's content. While
this may actually be true to some extent within the
very limited context of highly specialized technical
fields (academic papers on chemistry rich in formulae
and procedural descriptions being a case in point),
the old law school adage "a little knowledge is a
dangerous thing" rules even here. Needless to say,
relying on imperfect automatization can make matters
even worse.
Translation bots tend to reflect this faulty
reasoning, and their backing by popular opinion -
uneducated in these matters as it usually is - is no
great help either.
Here's just one example of what can happen if you
opt for less-than-professional (read: usually free)
"translation services". Let's take a real life German
site rich in textual content and have a look at what
the most popular translator bot makes of it.
"Welcomely
tsigaan soft systems
tsigaan news
Software and computer services, also very good, give
it meanwhile like the proverbial sand at the sea.
Thousands of companies and Hirnen compile world-wide
daily the most refined solutions, and although within
this area - like everywhere in the life - all gold is
long not, which probably shines there, then the
standards and the requirements of the users in the
last years nevertheless ever more rose."
Source:
"Translation":
Seriously - would you really want to see your site
represented in this manner? Welcomely, indeed!
And don't try to argue that this is, after all,
"better than nothing" - it's the seeming familiarity
of the language presented, the fond illusion of "at
least getting the gist of it" that's the really nasty
part. Because it can (and most certainly will!) lead
you astray in ever so many subtle ways, and in the end
you may be worse off by a long shot than if you hadn't
understood a single word in the first place. Simply
ask yourself if you would sign a million dollar
contract of this linguistic "quality"...
With the current US dominance of the WWW clearly
waning (as all major studies and analyses will show),
getting linked internationally will become ever more
critical. World wide, surfers aren't content with
sticking to local or localized search engines in their
own language: rather, the English language is rapidly
gaining ground everywhere, even in the former
communist states, not mention in formerly French or
Spanish dominated regions. These people, more and more
of whom are well educated, bilingual and fairly well
versed in English, are increasingly making use of
stateside search engines. It is only a question of
time until even All-American engines will have to
adapt to this situation, if only to accomodate their
international advertisers. Hence, it stands to reason
that only link popularity based on real world web
demographics (as opposed to mere wishful thinking and
established political and cultural prejudices) will be
able to satisfy advertisers' and users' demands.
So do it right or do it not! Either employ a bona fide
professional translation service or get someone to
revamp your online copy to accomodate all those
international clients whose command of English, while
fairly well informed, is not quite up to par with your
US or UK biased industrial lingo, er, parlance.
This holds true vice versa for non-English sites as
well, of course: don't even dream of relying on one of
the translator bots doing a good job and permitting
you to cut one single sale! And while your English
teacher at school may have lauded your enthusiasm over
and again, don't delude yourself that this makes you a
native speaker.
If you are interested in English or American or
Australian or New Zealand clients at all, don't give
them the impression of amateurish incompetence by
refusing to acknowledge the fact that your command of
English may be less than perfect. This is, after all,
nothing to be ashamed of - whereas trying to get by
this problem on the cheap very well should be! If
there's one thing you want to avoid in marketing it's
getting laughed out of court.
The following sites offer "translation" services or,
rather, pretend to do so - use at own risk:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/
http:/ ranslator.go.com/
http://www.dictionary.com ranslate/
http://www.voila.com/Services/Translate/
About the Author
Ralph Tegtmeier is the co-founder and principal of
fantomaster.com Ltd. (UK) and fantomaster.com GmbH
(Belgium), a company specializing in webmasters
software development, industrial-strength cloaking and
search engine positioning services. You can contact him at
mailto:fneditor@fantomaster.com