Do you want new clients or do you want to be cheap?

The pitfalls of automated translation: Do you want new clients or do you want to be cheap?

There are probably thousands of reasons why translating documents or business correspondence with automated or web-based services is a very tricky endeavor.
Sure, dictionary websites like LEO do a terrific job. But they don’t give you context. Unless you know the other language, automated answers can often be misleading or confusing.

Most likely the worst thing you can do on a professional level is using services like Google Translate to pretend that your company’s website is multilingual. Case in point: the official website of Cleveland Utilities in Cleveland, Tennessee. Classic fail. You actually achieve the exact opposite of what you intended. Not respect, but ridicule will be the reaction of your foreign users.

The question here is: Do you want to reach and attract new clients? Or are you just plain cheap and think you can get away with it?

Susanne Evens of AAA Translation in St. Louis, MO has a good real life story about machine translation. I met Ms. Evens via Twitter, where she shares some of her knowledge. Below is one of her blog entries that I would encourage you to read.

Needless to say that I am available for translation services of any kind (German-English/Englisch-Deutsch). Find my contact details here.

Think twice before using a machine translator, unless you don’t need new clients!

My daughter began college in 2002, exactly 10 years after we moved to America from Germany – when she still spoke fluent German and had a summer to learn English before school started in the fall. 10 years, apparently, is enough time to completely forget almost every bit of German she learned at such an early age. I, not realizing just how much of her native tongue she didn’t know anymore, tried to pressure her to take another language in college so that she could gain valuable knowledge of other cultures and languages. After the following events unfolded I was more than happy that she had decided to not grant my wishes, and to stick with German – the language she no longer knew best.

I believe it was her second semester of her freshman year; I get a frantic phone call… “Mom”! I need your help! My final paper is due tomorrow for German and I don’t think it’s saying what I want it to be saying. Are you really busy? Can I e-mail it to you and can you take a look?” Of course I said yes. 5 minutes later her paper was in my inbox ready to be proofread. Again, little did I realize how much she had forgotten… I called my daughter back and I asked her one simple question, “Have you forgotten everything of your German?” To which, as not only a mother – but also as the President of a translation company, I receive from my baby girl’s mouth the words I was fearing the most, “Well I used an online translator for the words I didn’t know.” I went silent – my own flesh and blood… “Mom? Are you still there?” Oh I was there. I was there trying not to scream at her about how ridiculous it was to use an online translation service to turn in a final paper that determined her final grade in the class, which could’ve caused her to fail that German class. But I digress. I got my wits about me and in my professional, calm voice explained to her why using an online translation service that has no clue about native slang, innuendo, homonyms, heteronyms, etc. is an absolutely terrible idea. After a few minutes of my speech she cut me off and simply asked me to help her.

The story of my daughter’s near misfortune with a failing paper is often times the actual story of an unfortunate company not investing the time and money into quality translators that are chosen for their native ability, educational credentials, etc. The ‘machine translator’ – as it is so dubbed in the translators’ inner circle, is just purely that: a machine. It doesn’t understand common native sayings such as, “I love this!” If that were to be translated into German the literal translation is, “I love it!” Which looks the same, yes; however, Germans don’t use the words Love and It in the same sentence, ever. The word Love in German is really only used when talking about an actual being. A native speaker would know this and would quickly be able to distinguish between the English meaning and translate it into the German version of saying that same statement. This goes a long way when trying to take your company global. Successful, globalized companies spend a lot of their time ensuring that their message is being clearly and correctly stated. Because, again, what means one thing in English doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing in Mandarin Chinese. After all, who can forget JFK’s faux pas of saying, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” Which literally means, “I’m a jelly donut!” not I’m a citizen of the city of Berlin (quotation from a June 26, 1963 speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin, Germany).
Copyright © 2009 AAA Translation®. All rights reserved.

When athletics trump business

Sometimes the Americans’ unconditional enthusiasm for team sports and school athletic programs can be unsettling for foreigners. Case in point was an experience I had today.

I was invited by Walker Valley High, one of the finest public schools in Bradley County, TN, to be a guest speaker for a session on international business. My friend Lisa who runs the German language program at the school asked me to speak on the differences between German and American etiquette and protocol in professional environments.

What was originally scheduled to take place today had been postponed to another date on very short notice. No problem, of course. Schedules change, people deal with it. The reason for the delay, however, is what will catch some newbies to the U.S. by surprise:

Due to the threat of rain on Friday the school’s football game was moved up one day (today). This also meant that the pep rally for this game was moved up – thereby killing the scheduled intercultural business session.

To make this perfectly clear: I have no problem with this change of plans. I would just like to point out that for most Germans the reason for the rescheduling will be hard to understand. How can a football game be more important than a school lesson? One with a guest speaker to boot? For German business people appointments are to be kept. Cancelling on short notice is usually seen badly.

What Germans often don’t know is how much Americans value team spirit and the relating education that leads to team players. It is fair to say that no public school in Germany has athletic teams like the schools in the USA, where these teams create an identity and a sense of belonging for the entire student body.

So don’t be surprised if you get puzzled looks from Germans next time your school sports event is cause for schedule changes.

UPDATE: Went to make my “guest appearance” at the school one day later. Was überpünktlich (right on time, one minute early – no, I’m not OCD) to be the role model Lisa was hoping for. Met a full classroom of students and Walker Valley’s principal who sacrificed a large part of their lunch break for our session. These kids were listening, asking questions and taking notes. Very nice. Thanks for having me, future leaders.

I never found out who won the ball game, though …

Weihenstephan and Boston Beer team up for Anglo-Bavarian beer

The Brewery of Weihenstephan Abbey & Boston Beer Co. team up for a transatlantic Anglo-Bavarian connection

When this press release reached my inbox yesterday I knew this would be THE German-American business news of the week. At least in my book. For the uninitiated among you: Beer has been an integral part of German culture for centuries. In fact, some even claim that beer as we know it today was originally developed by monks in territories which now are in Germany.

The brewery of Weihenstephan Abbey in Freising, in the Southeastern German state of Bavaria, is one of the oldest existing breweries in the world. The official founding date is 1040, but there are documents which prove that the Benedictine monks in the monastery have been making beer since 768.

While most mainstream American beers lack a good reputation among German beer connoisseurs, some brands have gained respect in recent years. (Note: I said mainstream beers, not microbrews)

The Boston Beer Co. is one of these exceptions to the rule that many American beers tastes like … well, not like beer anyway. Their Samuel Adams brand is brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot, the German (actually: Bavarian) beer purity law of 1516 which stipulates that beer can be brewed only with four ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast.

If this sounds like companies are being über-traditionalist by obeying this medieval law, you haven’t been to Germany where no beer has a real shot at getting consumers’ attention unless it is true to the original brewing process.

That’s why I find it more than noteworthy that Boston Beer and Weihenstephan have teamed up to jointly produce and market a new craft beer which is scheduled to reach shelves in Germany and the United States in the spring of 2010. Both companies said they have been collaborating on this project for two years. A name for this German-American, or Anglo-Bavarian beer has yet to be determined.

The beer will be marketed in bottles with corks instead of the usual metal caps. It will pack a punch, with more than 10 percent alcohol. Boston Beer founder and master brewer Jim Koch and Josef Schrädler, managing director of Weihenstephan described it as a Champagne-like “crisp pale brew.”

What an excellent idea for a transcontinental German-American business partnership. Way to go, gentlemen!

UPDATE: A knowledgable friend just pointed out to me that selling this novel beer in parts of the U.S. may be difficult for Weihenstephan and Boston Beer. The alcohol content of this Champagne-like brew will be too high. In Tennessee beer needs to have an ABV level of 5% or less to be legal. Guess, we’ll be missing out on this hoppy delicacy.

Beer experts Jim Koch (left) and Josef Schrädler at work

From an AP story:

“We’re creating a brand, a product that never existed before, a very premium brand,” Koch said. ”Beer can stand with dignity and respect with the best of wine and spirits,” he said, without elaborating on brewing style or price. Koch, a Harvard-educated, sixth-generation beer brewer with German heritage, said he was elated when Weihenstephan called suggesting a a joint project.

“No brewer can walk up this hill and not have a reverence for this place; this is the longest-going brewery on earth,” he said. Weihenstephan is headquartered at the idyllic site of the original monastery — a hilltop not far from Munich. ”Nobody knows more about beer than Weihenstephan. There is more knowledge about beer within a mile than anywhere on earth,” Koch said.

The brewery has close ties with the Technical University of Munich’s beer studies program, located at the base of the hill — a place where Koch has sought experts and answers for his own company. Schrädler said some of his staff was skeptical about the project, but were gradually won over.

“You need different ideas and perspectives sometimes. You need this atmosphere in which something new can be done. The first step is a long history. The new style will surprise a lot of people,” he said, but added he doesn’t expect Weihenstephan to become a mass-market brand. Both brewers said they hoped the new brew could win more wine and spirits drinkers over to beer. They also hope the new project will make their other products more known in Europe and North America.

“Today the U.S. and Germany have two great brewing cultures,” Koch said. “One that’s emerging and one that’s 1,000 years old. There’s enormous creativity, energy and excitement about beer in the U.S.”

Cultural diversity in the business world

Unesco report: Cultural diversity in the business world

Here is an interesting article I found on cultural diversity in business. I took the liberty to post it for you. The report makes the important point that diversity is often reduced to the protection of heritages in danger. But cultural diversity also means the development of intercultural skills – something I’ve been preaching to business clients for quite a while now.

The United Nations report on intercultural dialogue says that complying with cultural diversity, whether at the management, human resources or marketing level, can reap big dividends for businesses.

“The business world is beginning to understand and respond to the challenges of cultural diversity as a key factor of economic success,” says the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) World Report Investing in Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue.

“In an increasingly global marketplace, the capacity to create a universe with which consumers can identify adds significantly to a product’s value. Today, cultural diversity has a central role to play in the conception, brand image and marketing strategies of products that are successful in the global market,” it adds.

Multinational corporations are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of diversifying and customizing their products to penetrate new markets and meet the expectations of local consumers, according to the report, which covers a raft of issues ranging from migration, to languages, education, sustainable development, and democratic governance.

“As a result, cultural diversity today figures as prominently on private-sector agendas as it does on those of political decision-makers at the national or international level,” it says, citing major global brands, such as Nike and Coca-Cola, which spend millions of dollars advertising and promoting their products to align with the cultures, needs and aspirations of consumers.

Cultural diversity, too often reduced to the protection of heritages in danger, is also the development of intercultural skills, the search for an antidote to expressions of cultural isolationism, the lever of the effective exercise of universally recognized human rights and a means to reduce imbalances in the world trade in creative products, it adds.

On another plane, the report notes that media and cultural industries represent more than 7 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) – approximately $1.3 trillion, or twice the level of receipts from international tourism – but Africa’s share in the global trade in creative products remains marginal at less than 1 per cent of worldwide exports despite its abundance of creative talent.

To improve this situation, it is urgent to invest in cultural diversity and dialogue, it stresses.

“Through this World Report, UNESCO wishes to build on the advances of recent years and in particular to emphasize that cultural diversity has as its corollary intercultural dialogue, which implies a need to move beyond a focus on differences that can only be a source of conflict, ignorance and misunderstanding,” UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura says in a foreword.

“Cultural diversity is related to the dynamic process whereby cultures change while remaining themselves, in a state of permanent openness to one another. At the individual level, this is reflected in multiple and changing cultural identities, which are not easily reducible to definite categories and which represent opportunities for dialogue based on sharing what we have in common beyond those differences.”

Link to the original post at the UN website.

Improving the English language for Germans

Improving the English language for Germans

It is old news that the Germans’ use of the English language can be irritating at times. Nevertheless everybody understands them – regardless of how bad their accent or their grammar is (my dad is living proof). A lot of that is owed to the fact that America has always been an immigrant country where many newcomers didn’t speak proper English. American culture is forgiving of this. How about European culture? Just read this little story I found via Twitter. Thanks to Cindy King for posting this.

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as re plasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

The American handshake

Learn how to shake hands in a different culture

In this clip Dan Fishel from Columbia Business School explains how to identify an Amerian and how to properly shake hands. A funny primer for non-Americans.

Thanks to Cindy King for pointing me to the video.

Honoring German-American Day

Did you know that October 6 is German-American Day?

It may not be a National Holiday (yet?) but today is the day when America celebrates its German heritage. It commemorates the date in 1683 when 13 German Quaker and Mennonite families from the city of Krefeld landed in Philadelphia and later founded Germantown, PA, the first German settlement in the original 13 American colonies. Originally celebrated in the 19th century, German-American Day died out during World War I as a result of the anti-German sentiment that prevailed at the time. The holiday was revived in 1983 by Ronald Reagan for the 300th anniversary of German immigration and culture in the United States.

German-Americans are the largest ethnic group in the United States:  Some 43 million Americans, almost 15% of the population, claim German ancestry. But German presence on American soil can be traced back still farther. In 2007, America celebrated the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement dating back to 1607. At that time, a German physician and botanist by the name of Dr. Johannes Fleischer was among the first group of English pioneers to arrive in Jamestown (generally considered “the birthplace of the United States”). More German expertise arrived in 1608 with a group of German glassmakers, wainscot sawyers, and metallurgists. In a way one could argue there have been 400 years of shared history as well as 400 years of German-American friendship.

Some interesting trivia facts:

• In 1688, five years after its founding, Germantown became the birthplace of the anti-slavery movement in America.
• It was the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller (1470-1520), who in 1507 drew the Universalis cosmographia in St. Dié, Lorraine, which is now a part of France. Fascinated by the reports of the Italian discoverer Amerigo Vespucci – who was the first to assume that the then-newly discovered territories must be a continent – Waldseemüller drew it as a continent of its own and named it “America” on his map – the first time ever the name “America” appeared on a map.