What to look for in a translation agency?

One of the key aspects in promoting any business is solid communication. The message you want to send to your target audience should be received loud and clear. That is easy enough if your target audience belongs to the region you do and you share the same language for communication. But when your business expands beyond your region, you encounter a new challenge – the language barrier.

The only way to overcome this challenge is to get in touch with language translation agencies and have them translate you messages according to the language of your target audience. Since the translation agencies are always in search for the top talent, you can rest assured that your message will be delivered with clarity and efficiency. Once you can establish communication with people who do not speak the same language as you do, your business will suddenly be exposed to an entirely new audience – thus, increasing your sales leads.

Now that we’ve established that to expand your business, you need the help language translation agencies, let’s discuss how to decide which agency to go for – given that there are so many in the market these days.

It’s always better to hire translators that are native speakers

Are you looking for the best translation companies in Delhi? Then one of the most important things to keep in mind is to go for a company that employs native speakers for translation purposes. Now, this is not to discredit the non-native translators. In fact, some of them are really good at their job, but with native speakers, you get a guarantee that things will fall into place on their own. Since the native speakers aren’t just knowledgeable about the language but have also experienced the culture of the region that you want to penetrate, they know precisely what proverbs will work, what jokes could be offensive and what the public there wants to hear. They bring a level of competency that can only be earned by growing up in those particular cultures. So you should always prefer the company that employs native translators.

Go for a company that involves its translators in the marketing process

Translating isn’t just a solitary desk job. Instead, by involving the translators in the marketing process and teaching them about the marketing strategies and ethos of a certain company, the language translation agencies can minimize the chances of any mistakes. Once you know the language, translating in itself is an easy enough task, but what separates the best from the lot is their ability to go beyond their call of duty and understand the process in detail – in order to gain an insight that can tell them what would and wouldn’t work with the people for whom the messages are being translated.

Before hiring an agency, go over their prices and deadlines

You do not want to get stuck with a company that cannot stick to deadlines. Business has always been time bound; if you hire a company that provides translation services in Delhi, you need to make sure that they understand the importance of time besides meeting your required standards. Another thing that you want to ensure is that the agency you hire does not burn a hole in your pocket. As important as the translation work is, you wouldn’t want to spend unnecessarily on it. This is why, it is very important to do market research and weigh your options before you decide upon a company.

Make sure the agency has proper procedures in place

Last thing you want to do is hire a company that is haywire. Any organization that takes itself seriously will have certain procedures of doing the translation work. When you get in touch with the company, ask about those procedures. If they sound simple and efficient, it means the company knows what it is doing. You can also enquire about their portfolio and have a look at the clients they have dealt in the past and how things turned out for them. This will give you a better idea of whether that company is worth hiring or not.

How The Language Translation Services In Delhi Is Useful To The People?

What separates us from the other animals is our impeccable ability to communicate with the help of language. Unfortunately though, there isn’t one common language that the entire world speaks. Therefore, when people belonging to two different countries or cultures try to interact with each other, they’re faced with the language barrier. This is where the language translation agencies come into play. By employing a team of talented linguists, these agencies facilitate communication between different organizations and people of different cultures.

The companies that provide language translation services in Delhi and other metro cities of the world have to make sure they hire a team of translators who are highly skilled and can preserve the essence of the original message during translation. Oftentimes, there are some very meaningful proverbs in one language that become completely meaningless when they’re translated into the other language because of cultural differences. This is where skilled translators can display their magic and translate those proverbs in such a way that they’d be understood by the readers. Language translation agencies should never be underrated as they can greatly influence the growth of a business in a number of ways.

Translation increases the reach of the brand

Translation takes your brand out of the micro-culture and puts in the macro-culture of the world. By using effective translation services you can extend your reach beyond your home country and become a global phenomenon. Especially in this day and age where internet has blurred the boundaries between different countries, translation services can end up paying huge dividends. People are always interested to learn about cultures different than theirs, and by using translation services, you give them a chance to fulfil their desires – and you eventually generate sales leads. 

Helps you avoid bad reputation

As your brand becomes global, people all over the world are going to be coming across it. If you do not hire professional translators, then you could end up facing a lot of unnecessary flak. For example, KFC’s famous tagline “finger lickin’ good” was translated in China as “we’ll eat your finger”. Clearly, this is not the message that KFC wanted to send. This is why it is important to have a team of professional translators in your fleet so as to prevent these kinds of disasters from happening.

It’s great for scientific research and healthcare

Scientific research and healthcare should never be a country’s exclusive domain. These are the fields that have the potential to benefit all humanity and therefore, there is a need for open communication between the different countries of the world about these issues. Companies that provide translation services in Delhi can help in this regard and help the scientists, doctors and engineers from different countries to communicate with each other and benefit from each other’s research.

It creates job opportunities

There are a number of people who are very passionate about learning new languages. For them, the best course of action is to learn and earn simultaneously and language translation agencies give them that opportunity. Besides easing the communication between two organizations dealing in different languages, translators also play a major role in marketing and project coordination and are, therefore, assets for their organizations.

Drafting of legal documents

Drafting of legal documents is a painstaking task in the mother tongue itself, let alone having to wrestle with the intricacies of a different language. One minor slip-up is all it takes to change the meaning of the whole sentence and lead to the invalidation of a contract. Professional translators make it easy for lawyers, stenographers, and paralegals to draft legal documents with accuracy and precision that involve a foreign language.

5 factors that affect the cost of translation services

The need for language translation agencies in today’s world cannot be emphasized enough. With the economies of different countries becoming more interconnected than ever, translation is necessary for efficient communication of thoughts and ideas. Also, if a brand has customers in a different country that its native county, then by conversing to those people in their mother tongue helps foster trust between customers and the brand – which results in growth of business.

Before making the decision to avail the services of language translation agencies, the first thought that comes to mind is the cost. Along with the quality of translation, cost is one of the most important factors that affect the decision of whether or not an organization will hire a company that provides translation services in Delhi and other metro cities of the country. Therefore, having an understanding of the factors that influence the cost of translation can help you make a better, more informed decision. Let us take a look at the briefly.

Level of complexity

The cost of translation per word or per page depends upon the type of content that needs to be translated. Translating an interview speech is easier than translating a business contract and therefore, cheaper. Since, translating complex content requires a certain skill set; such tasks are best left to experts. They may cost a bit more, but the end product you get will be worth your money.

Volume of work

As it is with other businesses, if you have a large volume of work or if the work you need from an agency is continuous, then the companies that provide translation services in Delhi will be more likely to negotiate on the pricing and offer you very reasonable rates. Therefore, you should always inform the agency beforehand about the volume and frequency of work that you will require.

How soon do you want it?

Another factor that plays a major role in the pricing of language translation agencies is the level of urgency. For instance, if you want a 10,000 word manuscript translated within a day, then you have to be willing to pay more. The reason is that the translators would need to suspend their ongoing work and put in extra hours to get your job done with diligence. For their extra effort, they’ll need to be justly compensated as well.

Language combination

If the language combination for the translation process is common (e.g. English to French or vice-versa), the rate of translation would be cheaper. But if the language combination is rare (e.g. English to Vietnamese), it would end up costing you more.

Required level of service

Here’s the question: how accurate do you want to be? If you are fine with simple translation where the translator himself/herself reviews his/her work, then you can get the services for a cheaper rate. But if you want to ensure pinpoint accuracy, then additional services besides translation, like editing and proofreading would be required, which would cost you more.  

3 mistakes to avoid in Financial Translation

One of fastest evolving industries is the financial service industry – especially since the technological revolution. In this day and age, when everything is becoming global, organizations that remain confined to a specific region end up missing out on a lot of lucrative business opportunities. Language translation agencies are more important now than they ever were and those organizations that avail their services have a definitive edge over others.

Given that financial translation is not a simple task, you need to hire a company that provides translation services in Delhi or any other area close to your location, but you have to make sure that the company that you’re hiring has got the skilled personnel that can precisely and effectively translate your company’s literature without any flaws or discrepancies. Let us take a look at some of the common mistakes that one must avoid while doing financial translation.

Error in punctuation

Translating numbers seems like an easy enough task, but it isn’t always so. There are minor details, that, if go overlooked, can create blunders. For example, a simple misplaced comma can cause a lot of confusion in financial translation. Let’s take a random number 2,45,879: now, in India, it is read as two lakh forty five thousand eight hundred and seventy nine, but in US the same figure would need to be written as 245,879. The excess comma, if added, would make the number meaningless. So you need to hire a language translation agency that is aware of these nuances.

Mistranslation of certain words

There are often words in one language that mean different things depending upon the context in which they are being used. If the translator is not aware of those subtle nuances then it can lead to blunders.

One such incident occurred in the year 1994. A publication by the name Commodity News Service published an article regarding Continental Illinois Bank where it was state that there had been rumours that a Japanese bank was planning to take over the Continental Illinois Bank because of some financial troubles. When the report was translated to Japanese, the word ‘rumour’ became ‘announcement’. As a result, people panicked and rushed to the bank to take out their money. It caused a boatload of trouble. Therefore, you should always hire the best translation services in Delhi or any other region where your company is headquartered in.

Translation without context

It is very important for the organization to consult with the language translation agencies and clearly state the message that they want to convey – otherwise translation can become a recipe for disaster. Once such incident occurred in the year 2009, when HSBC bank, which is one of the largest banks in the world fell victim to mistranslation. It’s slogan that stated “Assume nothing” became “Do Nothing” when it was translated to other languages. As a result, the bank had to do rebranding which set it back by a few million dollars.

It is quite evident that this disaster could’ve easily been avoided if the translator was aware of the context and had better knowledge of the language. To avoid such problems for occurring, the best course of action is to settle for nothing but the best when it comes to hiring a translation agency. Even if it costs you a bit more, it can save you tons of money, which you otherwise have to spend in fire fighting in case a company that provides cheap services messes things up for you. Always remember, spending a few extra dollars in the right direction can save you from having to spend a few millions for being stingy.

How to be successful as a PR professional

Public Relations is not an easy sector to begin with and as a PR professional, you are your client’s representative. The way you act and handle things will directly be reflected on the reputation of your client in the market. Therefore, it is necessary to know all the dos and don’ts before you step foot into the industry. PR is an ever-evolving industry and while a good PR firm would always take the time to teach its employees the basics of navigating the communication and media world, there are some rules that are unwritten – these are the ones that the aspiring PR candidates need to understand on their own.

Let us discuss some of these unwritten rules of the PR world that can make or break your career.

Know your job role’s limitations

If you work for the leading PR firms in Delhi NCR, you have to know that there are certain things that are beyond your pay grade – for instance, finalizing deals or signing media invites. Only the executives of your company have that authority. It is, therefore, very important that you be aware at all times not to overstep your jurisdiction on such matters. Whenever you are in doubt, always consult your seniors for advice instead of taking the decision yourself. PR world is all about high stakes and your one ill-informed decision can become the undoing of a well-reputed organization. Needless to say, it will negatively affect your own career as well. So don’t take such chances.

Keep the bulb in your head on

PR requires hard work, dedication and constant innovation. If you don’t like being creative all the time then this is perhaps not the right career for you. But if you’re a natural problem solver and love challenges, then you’ll like it. Many PR firms in Delhi and in fact, all across India, value creative people. As a PR professional, you have to be a dynamic thinker and be able to occasionally venture out-of-the-box. People like things that are relatable yet unique and you need to make sure the stories you push out have those attributes. It’s not always easy but it’s always very rewarding.

Be a good conversationalist

Holding a meaningful conversation with an unknown person is an art in itself and if you’re looking to make an impact on the PR world, you should start training for it. It is a PR professional’s job to find opportunities for their clients and while this can be achieved in a number of ways, phone calls and face to face conversations are still the best methods of doing so. Written conversation isn’t always effective and it’s a one-way approach – whereas talking to someone allows you to understand their needs and demands in a much better way.

Keep the personal away from professional

If you’re planning a life where you’ll be dealing with people all day long, week after week, month after month, year after year – you cannot afford to be jumpy or someone who gets easily annoyed or angered. Diplomacy is always the way to go. Under stress of work and whatnot, the clients or the media house representatives can sometimes be curt. Sometimes, you may be blamed for something that isn’t your fault. Sometimes, someone may snap at you out of the blue. But remember to always keep your composure and take things in stride. Your politeness and positive attitude will help you develop lasting relations with people and since PR is all about creating networks, it’ll guarantee you success in the long run.