Written by Dawn McIntyre

Assuming all of your audiences can speak your language is a long shot and to fully understand the content is even further away from your goal post. When you are marketing your business and services within the travel, tourism and hospitality sector, common sense would be to market it to the largest audience possible, correct?

If the content is only in one language, then your audience has been dramatically reduced. If your audience is vastly reduced then so is your customer base, sales, brand and services. Translation has huge global benefits to the travel and tourism industry. If a business or travel agency doesn’t consider or take the plunge to translate their valuable content, a high percentage of potential customers have fallen off the radar or been lost, massively.

English is expected to be spoken

Although the UK is great for global business, one of the downsides is that it’s expected or replied upon that people around the world speak English. One of the common research findings is that English people are one of the lowest international language speakers. Being born and raised in England, it’s true and this can stem back within the education sector, historically. It’s crazy as the UK are within the top 5 countries for trade, dealing with export and importing goods.

Travel can be equally important whether for personal or business needs but either way, ensuring the content has been translated 100% correct is the NUMBER ONE priority.

Our business translation survival tips 

Never assume the customer speaks the language of the content and don’t reduce your audience

Prepare your social media posts in different languages whether this is in the content description area or the post itself.

Set up your translation on your website if you want to offer travel on a global basis or for the audience whose doesn’t have English as first language.

Have a professional translation agency to check any translated content to save your brand and from ending up ‘red faced’

Add translation services to the content for your social media, website, marketing, events and publications of your brand to attract bigger and new business

Finally, if you feel there is a specific demographic audience you would like to try out or target, start off with one translated language. Although China has not opened its borders for travellers, there is still a huge target audience in the UK of Chinese residence or visitors who are passionate about travel. You could be missing out!

If you would like to know more about translation services, help with protecting your business for translated content, please feel free to contact us for a friendly chat or a quotation.

written by Dawn McIntyre

Buying a property can be one of the most stressful transactions but imagine your location is in another country. There are so many points where you need to be 100% sure of the content accuracy for translation for your life changing decisions.

Real estate translation differs from other translated content as it is not just about localisation or cultural differences. The translation for real estate content includes contracts, appraisals, property development documents, leasing information, property management papers, housing deeds and legal aspects. The understanding of what you are signing is imperative, therefore you must be fully sure the translation is correct at top level.

Real estate buyers and sellers market

Buyers will need property information translated into their first language for other aspects of geographic location, commuting routes, schools and transport links. It’s not just about the property. Sellers will need to ensure their property is promoted and includes the right type of target markets. Whether it is a buyer or seller, an experienced legal and real estate translator must be employed.

Perils of your future investment

There is so much that can go wrong and at such a high cost for real estate! Image the translation is incorrect, no matter how small but the wording doesn’t explain that you are not the freeholder of the property. What about T&Cs which may be incorrect and you find that you have signed on the dotted line to discover there are annual maintenance charges. This is your future investment and accuracy is the most important aspect of all.

For real estate translation, you will need to ensure your translator has a high level of legal experience. Ensure this is backed up with references to minimise any risks.

Whatever the cost of your property you purchase, the price you pay for the best translation service will be a drop in the ocean compared to the high personal and financial risks which could come back to bite you if not followed by the right route.

Feel free to contact us for further information on real estate or other translation services.

Written by Dawn McIntyre

Financial translation is one of the most important services for any international or growing organisation. Here we set out a blog post to allow you to understand what is included and the importance of finance translation from an expert service provider.

Translated financial reports

Global organisations will have access to several international reports which are written in different languages. Here they will need to be translated into one common, agreed language. The financial reports are a crucial element of any business decision making or structure from lessons learned to what worked. Having this information translated accurately, hugely matters.

In all translation in any shape or form, accuracy is the NUMBER ONE factor to gain the best end result. Without accuracy, your risks catapult to a greater high. Your brand will be at risk, your business confidence will be jeopardised and your financial gain can plummet. Imagine you have incorrect data or information translated within your business reports from any of your international branches or groups.  The errors this can be catastrophic for your business!

So, remember that when choosing a language provider, ensure they have financial translators who are native speakers and who have a financial translator with a minimum of 2 – 3 year’s experience.

Typical types of financial translation

Financial translation can be general with a wide range of services. Common translated documents in addition to financial or company reports can include the organisations accounts, T&Cs, balance sheets, contracts, tax reports, statements, shareholder summaries, bonds, stock, equities. This is name just a few.

To summarise financial translation

Attention to detail is a must. Proofreading will be a huge part of the quality check process so ensure your provider has this role included in the services provided. The proofreader will be different to the translator and generally higher experience. They are used as a second pair of eyes and specialise in the grammar, punctuation, terminology, flow of content and correct native wording. These checks are vital for both speed and accuracy.

Use a financial translation organisation who can provide you with their expert translators.

If you would like to know more about financial translation or you would like a quotation, please feel free to contact us direct through our website or info@accueast.com

Written by Dawn McIntyre

Professional translation can be difficult in most subjects but believe me when I say Patent and Intellectual Property (IP), requires a certain type of initiative, skill and cleverness. It’s about successfully ‘getting it right every time’ as this subject is attached to a legal consequence matter.

Chinese IP and patent registrations

AccuEast fully understands the market in China as Chinese is their core expertise within the translation service delivery. Knowing the system which is used is also highly recommended as it is different to the UK. It is always advised to seek professional guidance if you have a product or service which you are registering in another country for IP or patents.

Inaccurate patent translations results

Some examples of serious issues for inaccurate patent or IP translations can include:

• missing deadlines for filing your innovative creation
• leaving yourself open to someone stealing your hard work
• being vulnerable and not protected against sharks wanting to take it from you
• loss of money, costs
• project delays
• legal penalties and loss of company reputation
• mis-interpretation of products, descriptions, labels and categories

IP & patent translation technical expertise

As we have stated in the past regarding matching the right native translator to the correct subject matter, you go onto another level with patent translators. Certified patent translators are normally native speakers or who has a long history of expertise within this discipline. They will usually have a background in specific industries such as medicine, biotechnology, science, technology, pharmaceuticals or engineering.

Selecting the right translator for the project is key and it can make a world of difference to the outcome. Now this is not just for costs and legal reasons as mentioned previously, it’s for meeting quality outcomes and project deadlines which also comes into the mix!

Patent translation summary

To sum up the life of a patent translator, their expertise in specific industries is a must. They need to know the jargon within the industry, how it is phrased and the technical descriptions used. The speed in which the patent translators work is unbelievable but this is not compromising quality. We have to take our hat off to the skilled, patent translators who work with such ‘attention to detail’ and precision. Their 100% expertise and experience is crucial to the job in hand.

Article written by Dawn McIntyre

It’s a common mistake to confuse the roles of a translator and interpreter. To those in the profession, it can be frustrating and to a business, annoying as they will not be receiving the right set of skills for the person doing the work.

Over the years, we have seen valuable contracts issued which feature the title ‘interpreter’ when the actual work is for translation. This can be a real problem and it shows the procurement team consider the two roles the same. It’s vital you collaborate or work with the right skill set for the best results.

Just so we can help you understand, an easy way to distinguish the two roles is:

Interpreter: has skills for listening, verbal interpretation at a speed to match the verbal discussions within the language being translated.

Translator: focuses more on language writing, using core meaning of source text, cultural language and correctness.

So… from a translation point of view, we look for skills such as

1. the ability to have extensive reading capability of different 
2. strong identification to understand meaning, flow and native language
3. punctuation, grammar and spelling are vital to a translator’s skills
4. pick up on expression, idioms, localisation
5. proofreading is normally a higher skill than a translator

To finalise the skills of a great translator, they should be familiar with the culture, customs and social settings of the source and target language speakers.

Now that you have a much better understanding of the difference between a translator and interpreter, you can see that their roles and skill sets are completely different!

If you have any projects which require experienced translators, feel free to get in touch with us and we are happy to offer our help and support with a no obligation quotation. Contact info@accueast.com

Written by Jennifer Lee

Dating back to Ancient Mesopotamia when medical, mathematical, and chemical knowledge was inscribed on clay tablets in varying languages, translation has always aided the progression of medicine. Inherited knowledge from ancient civilisations contributed to Hippocrates’ Corpus Hippocraticum in 5^th century BCE, which was one of many Ancient Greek works translated into Arabic in 9^th century Baghdad, Anglo-Saxon in 10^th century England, Latin in the 11^th century, Castilian in the 13^th century, and so on. Each further translation of medical theory has allowed scholars around the world to connect and contribute more to medicine throughout the course of history.

Medical translation, it’s fairly safe to say, is a specialism of its own, and not one that any translator can simply take on. While medical translation does share some features in common with other types of translation, such as the need to adapt cultural differences and the methods of translation, the translator’s priorities are slightly different when it comes to medical writing.

Background Knowledge is Vital

Although many fields of translation also require a thorough background knowledge of the subject, there are few disciplines where it is as vital as medical translation.

Comprehension is an important part of the translation process and medical texts tend to involve less focus on aspects such as rhythm and cultural references.

The medical translator’s priority is to adequately handle “factual complexity and accuracy”, to quote Maria González Davies and Vincent Montalt. Accuracy and validity of information could not be more vital when the health of patients may be at stake. And because accuracy is so important, this means that it’s essential that the translator have significant expertise in the subject at hand.

“If [you] don’t understand the source text, [you] can’t translate it. ” ~ Maria González Davies and Vincent Montalt

While it’s fairly obvious to say, it’s still important to remember that if you cannot understand a source text, you cannot translate it.

One of the basic tasks of a translator is to understand, so that they can enable their readers to do the same. If a translator fails to understand the source text, then it is likely to be misinterpreted or not understood at all by the reader.

Medical professionals should not have to work harder to understand a medical text because a translator has failed to properly communicate the source meaning.

Considering Target Audience

As is also the case with other areas of translation, communicative purpose is a very important aspect of medical translation that must be taken into account.

If the target audience are patients, then the writing of the medical text will be vastly different than if they were healthcare professionals. If the text is for experts of a given field in medicine, then the writing will be significantly less explicatory than it would be for medical students. How familiar the target audience is with specialised terminology and concepts is an important consideration to take into account when translating medical texts.

Which country the audience is from is also an important thing to take into account as many medical terms are spelled differently in different countries, the most obvious example being the difference between UK English and US English. Localisation of the text can sometimes be necessary to ensure that the writing conforms with the typical practice in that country. Some examples of medical terminology that differs in the UK vs the US are:

• “Tumour” (UK) vs “Tumor” (US)
• “Haematology” (UK) vs “Hematology” (US)
• “Glycaemic” (UK) vs “Glycemic” (US)
• “Neurone” (UK) vs “Neuron” (US)
• “Foetus” (UK) vs “Fetus” (US)
• “Analyse” (UK) vs “Analyze” (US)
• “Anaesthesia” (UK) vs “Anesthesia” (US)
• “Paediatric” (UK) vs “Pediatric” (US)
• “Specialised” (UK) vs “Specialized” (US)

At AccuEast, we implement particularly rigid Quality Assurance procedures in our medical translation projects, with suitably qualified translators and proof-readers, as well as specialist medical informants. For more information on our services, please contact us at info@accueast.com

Written by Dawn McIntyre

Targeting a Chinese audience for your business brand through social media is not always that straight forward, particularly if you’re used to using western marketing tools. You need to know which style of language to use and how to attract the audience, using specific channels like WeChat, Weibo, Little Red Book, Bilibili and Douyin, to name just a few. Investing your money into the right marketing strategy is key to business growth and success.

Chinese marketing agencies and common issues

Some of the common pitfalls of engaging with Chinese agencies (or using a UK agency who outsource to China), is that although they know the social media channels to use, your brand and product may end up looking like every other brand style! They may just upload some images and Chinese content, but in the same style as thousands of other UK companies churning out material for China’s social media platforms. If you have read our other blog posts, you’ll know that colour, style and dialect are vital.

It’s clear to see that UK brands are spending their money to reach target audiences in China, but unfortunately it can be difficult for them to really know how their advertisements come across. While checking the numbers of likes, follows, shares, etc. is important, this line of monitoring cannot be the only thing that your marketing plan relies on.

As a translation company specialising in Chinese, AccuEast have worked with various UK in-house marketing teams to help them be more specific, brand savvy, and filter out weaker content that blends in with the crowd. Our staff know both young and older target audiences and see the same problems occurring time after time. Agencies push out generic brand material targeting a two-dimensional idea of a Chinese consumer – all “China-red” with no nuance or consideration to what Chinese viewers want to engage with.

Ensure that your agency is delivering 100% originality, and freshness to your brand. Don’t blend in!

Check with your agency to understand which regions your content is targeting, as Chinese is spoken in many different countries and regions and the dialect is different for everyone! For instance, Simplified Mandarin is used in Mainland China, as well as Singapore and Malaysia. This is a modern form of Chinese characters which uses fewer strokes to make the characters simpler to read and write. Traditional characters, however, are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao and are written using the original script. There’s also Cantonese which is spoken in Hong Kong, Macao and parts of Southern Mainland China.

It’s important to know the geographic area of your target audience in order to use appropriate dialects. It’s vital to ensure your agency is using correct language and producing interesting content and images to make your brand stand out.

For more help and advice for translation and social media support, contact us on info@accueast.com

Written by Dawn McIntyre

Whether you are a small, medium or a global company, your brand is one of the key important factors to your success. Investing in your brand and its future is everything, so it is crucial that you protect your organisation’s identity and reputation no matter what! With this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the risks involved with translating content the wrong way and how this can create a major issue for your brand.

Use of Machine Translation Tools

It’s easy to consider taking a short cut by translating your company’s content using machine translation tools such as Google Translate (which is one of the most popular choices). However, anyone in the business of professional translation will cringe at the thought of using this option.

Machine translation tools such as Google Translate can be so harmful to your brand without you even realising it, and there are some real horror stories where internal resources have used these tools and created unthinkable brand damage. But why risk such damage to your business? While it cuts corners and costs, it also generates a huge potential risk.

Why is this machine translation tool risky? In order to explain, allow us to give you the bigger picture of the service which machine translation does not deliver.

It’s important to understand that machine translation tools are AI neural machines that use statistical models to create translations. What this means is that the machine predicts the likelihood of a sequence of words using statistics. While this is very successful in comparison to previous models of machine translation, it isn’t perfect. Sometimes the software will create errors of omission and leave sections of text untranslated, or it may make terminological mistakes.

Would your internal resources know if it was incorrect, and would they have the ability to make necessary changes regarding terminology, localisation, and consistency? Unless they’re fluent in both the target language and English, chances are they probably wouldn’t notice the mistakes.

This can lead to documents and information being mistranslated in a way that’s confusing to the readers. Even worse, sometimes the results can be insulting or disrespectful!

Professional Translation Tool Options

The safest and best way to translating your organisation’s content or marketing material is to use a company who has experience with software such as SDL Trados or MemoQ. This option will allow you to have more reassurance and less risk for your brand.

AccuEast also have strict processes in place which are equally important to the content translation. You can never underestimate the importance of quality checks, proof-reading, and active localisation.

At AccuEast, professional audit checks are undertaken, freelance linguists are experienced and knowledgeable, content quality is inspected, and standard industry software is used, such as SDL Trados and MemoQ.  Features of this kind of software are terminology machine translation and localisation. MemoQ is designed for freelance translators to reuse previous translations of terms stored in a memory bank, which saves time and cuts the cost to the customer! This software helps to improve the quality of the translation, checks for consistency, and ensures the use of the correct terminology is in place. These tools can also be used by the proof reader.

To protect your brand and reputation, when translating your content and marketing material, be sure not to use common machine translation tools. Nurture your business and brand and reach out to a professional company to protect you every step of the way. It costs nothing to get a quote and can massively save you money in the long run by showing a positive brand image to the international market.

Written by Dawn McIntyre

People may often be mistaken in thinking that utilising marketing channels in China is the same as doing so in the UK, with your standard Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. Tapping into this vast, but challenging market is an indispensable advantage for companies seeking international business but does require an experienced hand. This article will talk about what you can expect, and a great way of reducing cost without having to speak Mandarin.

Point 1. Set up your Chinese social media channel(s). WeChat is the most popular platform in China, and we’ve found that it tends to perform better than other platforms such as Weibo. However, this may differ depending on your product, service or company. Start with WeChat and once you are gaining followers and promoting regularly on this channel, you can look at expanding to other platforms.

Point 2. Make sure to do your research when deciding on images and layouts. Colour and style are almost as important as the content! Checking with someone who has expert knowledge in this area can help you make sure that you’re getting the most out of the time and money you put into your presentation. Colour associations and aesthetic preference of Chinese consumers are not the same as those of UK consumers.

Point 3. Formulate your marketing strategy with help of someone who knows the market, platforms, and language. Brand image is very important in China and if represented poorly, it can have a lasting effect on your company’s reputation. In order to protect your brand from risk and damage, it’s important to seek expert advice in this area.

Point 4. Get your channel set up correctly from the start and save on time and cost by offering a work placement to a Chinese student experienced in social media content marketing. Not only are you providing students with valuable opportunities, but you also benefit from someone who knows Chinese culture and how to market to Chinese nationals.

Point 5. Make sure you’re learning wisely and delve into Chinese social media with the help of an experienced company. Check and double-check the translation, and always protect your brand.

AccuEast has produced social media articles for UK business and higher education institutions seeking to access the Chinese market. We work in partnership with Chinese universities who have gifted young students that speak excellent English and currently run and manage their university’s social media channels. All translations are checked by our team at AccuEast.

The student placement program is set for around 6 weeks, allowing UK business to access expert informants on Chinese marketing and allowing the students to gain experience for their CV.

If you would like to know more about our short term, online student placements, please enquire on our website: https://accueast.com/en/contact-us/

By Jennifer Lee

It’s a cold night, but there’s light all around you, shining through the red and gold rice paper of hanging lanterns, and casting a soft, warm glow on the evening. As you bite into hot, soft tangyuan, its warmth heats you up inside, and the delicate sesame flavour dances lightly across your taste buds.

Such is the setting on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year all across China, as hundreds of millions of people gather together to celebrate Shanyuan Jie, otherwise known as the Chinese Lantern Festival. This celebration marks the end of the Spring Festival and often involves elaborate lantern displays, some of which measure over 20 metres high, depicting animals, dragons, palaces, trees, and more. These are often arranged together to illustrate famous scenes from historical or mythological stories.

There are several beliefs about the origins of the Lantern Festival, but given that it dates back over 2,000 years, making it one of China’s oldest celebrations, no-one really knows for sure. Some believe it to originate from Buddhism, and others believe it to originate from Taoism.

One legend linked to the festival’s origin speaks of a beautiful crane that flew down to earth from heaven but was hunted and killed by some villagers. The legend goes that this angered the Jade Emperor of heaven because he favoured the crane, so he planned a storm of fire to destroy the village on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. However, the Jade Emperor’s daughter warned the villagers, and they came up with the idea to hang red lanterns around their houses, build bonfires in the streets, and set off firecrackers, so that the village would appear as though it were already on fire. On the fifteenth day, the troops sent down from heaven saw that the village was already set ablaze and returned to tell the Jade Emperor. The village was saved and from that day on, the people celebrated the anniversary by carrying lanterns on the streets and setting off fireworks.

Some activities often enjoyed during this festival include:

• Guessing lantern riddles – this tradition dates as far back as the Song Dynasty (est. 960-1279) and involves writing riddles on small slips of paper that are hung from the lanterns for festival attendees to guess. Apparently, sometimes, imperial advisors used these riddles to make suggestions to the emperor, so if the emperor didn’t like the suggestion, the advisors could claim that the riddle had been misinterpreted and avoid his wrath. This is because then and now, these riddles are rarely obvious and often open to multiple interpretations. Some are, in fact, so difficult that they’re referred to as “dēnghǔ” meaning “lantern tigers”, as it’s easier to fight a tiger than to solve them!
• Eating Tangyuan or Yuanxiao – a glutinous rice ball typically filled with sesame paste, red bean paste, or other sweet fillings. You can also get savoury tangyuan, served in a clear broth. You can get deep-fried tangyuan, where the hot oil makes the outsides crispy. You can also get unfilled tangyuan served as part of a sweet dessert soup such as red bean soup or black sesame soup.
• Watching dragon and lion dances – these are types of folk dances performed throughout the Spring Festival that are often quite complex. The lion dance (or wǔshī) involves two dancers wearing a single lion suit, where one performer controls the head, and one controls the rear, and often involves dancers performing various acrobatic tricks to the beat of drums, gongs and cymbals. The dragon dance (or wǔlóng) usually involves a team of dancers, and rather than being inside a suit. These dancers manipulate a long flexible model of a dragon using poles attached to its body.

For photos of these traditional Lantern Festival celebrations, take a little look at the image gallery below. Yuánxiāojié kuàilè! Happy Lantern Festival!

For more content on Chinese culture, please visit our social media pages. To enquire about our services, please contact us at info@accueast.com.