Spanish Phrase

Have you heard of the Spanish phrase; Bueno, Bonito and Barrato?  Translated into English it means Good, Nice and Cheap.  The meaning of the phrase is better understood as “It’s a good bargain”.  Part of the attraction of the phrase in Spanish is the repetition on the three “B”’s.   The expression is also used for people who want to get everything at little expense or effort.

How to Write Marketing Copy for Global Marketing

1. Use clear language.

Do not use slang, colloquialisms, or improper grammar. Catchy marketing phrases do not work across cultures and languages – sometimes they don’t even work in different countries with the same language. Electrolux was thrilled in the UK with the response to their slogan “It sucks”. They could not understand why it was not well received in the United States!

2. Drop local references or specific country places.

Unless you plan on changing the marketing copy for each country that speaks the same language, ..read more

10 Things I Know About Language Translation

10.  Just Do It. 

A huge share of the business market is being missed if you are only targeting English speaking audiences.  Less than 10% of the world’s population speaks English as their first language, yet if information about a product is in a person’s native language, that person is four times more likely to purchase.

9.  Provide Good Copy

Providing well written English copy is the most important first step to insure a quality foreign language translation.

8.  Quality of Linguist

Use a ..read more

Latina Women – Hot, Spicy & Very Loyal!

There was a December 8th article in the New York Times that highlights the importance of marketing campaigns targeted to U.S. Latina women which according to the last Census count was about 25 million people!  One company that is targeting this market is Cosmopolitan Latina aimed at bicultural and bilingual Latinas in Texas, California, Florida, and New York. In addition to launching the new publication, Cosmopolitan will add content and advertising dedicated to Latino women in 750,000 copies of its ..read more

The Visa Van

I just read a very interesting and humorous article about Adam Humphreys and the business he started.  Adam lives in New York City and wanted to travel to China for a vacation.   While dealing with the Chinese Consulate to acquire the necessary visa, Adam found it very confusing and time consuming.

Realizing he couldn’t be the only one to feel this way, he decided to set up a mobile consulting business to help others who also need to deal with the ..read more

Chinglish

Here is an excerpt from an article about a new Broadway show:

The comedy, is about the hilarity and politics that ensue when a U.S. businessman tries to secure a lucrative contract in China for his family’s sign-making firm. The lead producers of “Chinglish,” Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel, are bringing the play to Broadway after a sold-out run at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

“In its own way, I would call it a groundbreaking comedy,” Richards said in an interview. “There’s ..read more

Body Bags

Almost as good as the confusion among English speakers over the term Fanny Pack, is the humor raised by the German equivalent for knapsack. Companies often use or “borrow” words from other languages to give their product names a certain cachet. Sometimes their choices are a bit odd. German makers of knapsacks refer to them as “Body Bags“.

Latin Words

As many as half the words in English are derived from Latin, including many words that are of Greek origin and were adopted by the Romans. In addition to Greek, there are numerous French, Spanish, and Italian words of Latin origin that have entered the English language over time.

Some examples of Latin words still used today are:

bonus: good corpus: body dies: day domus: home/house malus: bad magnus: great

vivo: live

terra: earth

tempus: time

From: TheNewsConnection.com

http://thenewsconnections.com/

New Americans Agenda

In previous blogs, I have spoken about the importance of immigrant integration into our culture.  Unfortunately, integration faces many challenges. According to the New Americans Agenda, “The most evident is the rise of virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric in the country. Although most Americans agree that immigrants are valuable assets to local communities, a small minority of individuals feel that America should no longer be a nation open to immigrants.”  

A challenge to integration that is unique to the Commonwealth is the great ..read more

New Americans Agenda

Being in the language translation industry, a lot of our business involves working with immigrants and helping them integrate into American culture.  The Massachusetts New Americans Agenda provides some interesting insight into the importance of our immigration population.  According to the Agenda; “Immigrants in Massachusetts represent over 14% of the state’s population and an even larger portion of the Massachusetts workforce.   By 2004, immigrants accounted for 1 in 6 of all workers in the Commonwealth.  More importantly, immigrants make up ..read more

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