Resource Guide - Translation Widget

6 Responses to “Resource Guide - Translation Widget”

Trackbacks

1.   Translation Widgets - A Small Step Towards Website Globalization — Cindy King
2. Resource Guide : Get International Clients
3. Getting Past Language Barriers To Get International Clients : Get International Clients

Reader Comments

1. Janine Libbey (Who am I?) on August 7th, 2008 21:06 pm
   

   Anyone who is serious about doing business internationally needs to have their website translated professionally. Otherwise, they are creating a negative image for themselves and showing a great lack of respect to the customers in their new markets.

   I had the first paragraph of your post translated into Spanish and then back to English by google. This is the result:

   “There is a new resource guide Get international clients. Since the addition of tools and resources to this resource guide on an ongoing basis.”

   Do I get the meaning of this? Yes, but is ungrammatical and will do nothing to create a positive image for any company who is penny-wise and pound foolish.
   

   Rate this:

   2.5
2. cindy (Who am I?) on August 8th, 2008 9:27 am
   

   @Janine, If a person is targeting a specific market they should go for a full translation. Spanish, for example, comes in different flavors and hiring a Spanish translator will not give you the same result as a Mexican translator.

   Your sample of translating one piece of text back and forth (as I call it) is actually a perfect example. If someone wants to translate into a language they don’t speak, this is a good process to use.

   Take one phrase, translate using an online tool and then back to your starting language. If the result you get back is the same as you started with you can use the translated version and feel pretty safe. If it does not match, like the example you referenced Janine, change the original text and try again.

   Even having used this process you are not sure to get a perfect translation, but it is a really good start.

   The great thing about the translation widget is that it translates into 24 languages - from any of the 24 languages - into any of the 24 languages. This makes it perfect for sites that have some foreign visitors but have reasons for not translating.

   Your own site, for example, has Spanish and English. If you had a Chinese speaking American that wanted to translate a document from English to Spanish they could be stuck with the English. Having the option to click on a flag that they recognize means that they would at least have an idea of what you do.

   Just as a side note, I have had searches come to my site that weree written in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Greek and others. I reference those language because they each use a different alphabet.

   they come to my site because I have my services page in each of those languages. A person that types my keywords in their language DO find my site. The translation may not be perfect, but they still are good enough to get the visitors.
   

   Rate this:

   3.5
3. Miami Home Security Guy (Who am I?) on September 11th, 2008 1:10 am
   

   You will come close, but I serisouly doubt it will ever be perfected. I will be interested to hear otherwise though
   

   Rate this:

   2.5

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