We Learn Languages Even Before We Are Born

By Maëlle Alquezar

 

Newborn babyAccording to a study led by Swedish and American researchers, foetuses start learning language in their mother’s womb.

 

Researchers revealed that foetuses listen to how their mothers communicate during the last 10 weeks of pregnancy. Once they are born, they can demonstrate what they overheard. This study consisted of playing different random vowel sounds to 40 baby boys and girls. These vowels are unique to both English and Swedish, including the English “e” sound from “sweet”. The strength of their sucking on a comforter/dummy connected to a computer allowed the researchers to measure their responses. It appeared that the babies sucked hardest when listening to a foreign vowel which shows that babies are able to distinguish between different languages. This study indicates that babies can recognise, remember and learn the sounds before they are even born.

 

However, researchers warn parents about exposing their unborn child to new sounds such as foreign language audio courses, as foetuses spend most of their time in a sleep state. Providing extra stimulation could have consequences on that developing sleep-wake cycle and on the baby’s ability to hear.

 

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Should English Be the EU’s Main Language?

By Maëlle Alquezar

 

The EUGerman President Joachim Gauck’s proposal to make English the EU’s official language is not only aimed to encourage the UK to stay, but also to reduce costs linked to translation.

 

According to the Germany’s President, such a law would encourage multilingualism as well as reinforcing the European community . However, this proposal also aimed to cut translation costs. Indeed, translation in the EU’s headquarters appears to be complicated and is said to be expensive. While all 23 official languages are accepted as working languages in the EU, day-to-day work in the European Commission is based around its three working languages: English, French and German. With the EU’s expansion, the number of translators has significantly increased from 200-300 to 2,000-3,000 people. It is reckoned that £257 million is spent each year in translation with 1.76 million pages of work being produced.

 

What would be the implications of such a policy?

 

First of all, not all the EU’s member states would welcome English as an official language. While northern and eastern countries might accept it, southern member states might be outraged. But above all, imposing English as the official language would be profoundly undemocratic according to Diego Marani – an Italian novelist who is in charge of promoting multilingualism at the European Commission. Marani states that the total cost of EU translation work would only be equivalent to the cost of two coffees for each person a year, which is a cheap price to pay for democracy .

 

But even if EU translation work were expensive, it is the only fair way to implement policies. After all, the EU is said to be in favour of linguistic diversity and making English the official language would be breaking its prior commitments.

 

What about you? What do you think about English becoming official language of the EU?

 

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Bing Me Up, Scotty: Translation Services for Klingons

By Emma Clarke

 

Wolfestone in Klingon

Wolfestone in Klingon

Bing Translation has recently added a new language to its repertoire: Klingon. They decided to include it in honour of the latest Star Trek film, Star Trek: Into Darkness.

 

While your intergalactic clients might be impressed by the Klingon script, Bing Translation has its weaker points. Free translation websites are useful for getting the gist of a document. But when you want to communicate your message, it’s best to use a company that has a lot of experience translating thousands of documents. You only get one chance at a first impression, and one mistake could damage your brand’s reputation.

 

Klingon starships’ health and safety notices should be translated by a professional. The only thing scarier than a warrior race, is a warrior race with unclear information. Of course this is a real life issue as well as a fictional one. Employers have a legal responsibility to protect their staff, and this includes making sure that they can understand the health and safety information.

 

Aliens are an extreme example; even on planet earth what works for one culture won’t work for another. That’s why it’s always best to hire a professional translation company.

 

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Are you ready for Global Ecommerce?

By Tristan Phillips

 

Global EcommerceA new study from OC&C Strategy Consultants, working in tandem with Google has revealed that UK retailer’s potential overseas online revenues will hit £28bn in 2020, an incredible seven-fold increase on the £4bn earned in 2012.

 

As Anita Balchandani, partner at OC&C, said: “E-commerce has transformed what was once a game anchored in local markets – with retailers choosing to expand internationally when they reached saturation nationally – into one where they can pursue internationalisation at the same time as domestic expansion.” but most companies have no experience of expanding into new markets and will face substantial barriers including the perils of bad multilingual translation and online marketing, the bureaucracy and red tape of local Customs and Logistics.

 

Breaking down these barriers is crucial for true international growth; the projected figures below underline how important this is.

 

Projected Forecasts

International online sales will grow three times faster than domestic sales, rising to 40% of all UK online sales by 2020.

Western European sales will rise to £9.8bn in 2020 from £1.5bn in 2012.

Online sales in North America will hit £2.7bn in 2020, up from £0.8bn in 2012.

Growth opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe (£6.9bn by 2020, up from £400m in 2012).

Asia’s growth potential (£4.5bn in 2020, up from £400m in 2012).

The number of people searching from outside the UK for British brands – including Asos, Burberry, Jimmy Choo, Net-A-Porter, and Wiggle – has been growing by an average of 46%.

 

Are you ready for Global Ecommerce?

Tristan Phillips

Tristan Phillips is the Director of Trade 196, a company specialising in global ecommerce services. 

Trade 196 works with ecommerce companies, helping them expand to new countries through international ecommerce strategies, as well as web design and marketing, advice on logistics, legislation and multilingual customer care.

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Roundup of Wolfestone’s Monthly News

Roy Allkin

Roy Allkin – nominated for the Leading Wales Award

It’s been another busy month for Wolfestone. Roy Allkin, our co-founder, has been nominated for the Leading Wales Award. The result of which will be revealed on Thursday, May 23.

 

Our HR Manager, Emma Hughes, took part in a local event organised by Gareth Price from Careers Wales. The aim was to help Year 11 students become more aware of the business world by conducting mock interviews. Other businesses present included: Tata Steel, NatWest, and ASDA.

 

Wolfestone’s Cloud software led us to being featured in not just one but two publications: CloudPro Magazine and the Guardian.

 

CloudPro Magazine’s article Cloud brings effective document management – in any language, Roy Allkin explains how crucial it is to employ translators “in-country” and that having the latest technology allows us to do this.

 

Should SMEs utilise cloud computing? The Guardian certainly thinks so. They use Wolfestone’s example to back up their theory, stating that Wolfestone’s expansion is partly thanks to using a private cloud. At Wolfestone, translators, proofreaders, project managers and clients have constant access to projects wherever they may be.

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UK Government Fails to Help SMEs – Cable

By Maëlle Alquezar

 

Exporting Around the WorldAccording to business minister Vince Cable, the government has failed to inform SMEs willing to export on help and guidance provided by UK Trade and Industry.

 

During an event dedicated to export for small businesses, Cable said that UKTI has been reformed and was much more focused on SMEs since then. According to Barclays, which hosted the event, companies’ growth soars by an average of 30% after two years of exporting.

 

Government can always do more to help business, but let’s not forget the good work of the UKTI.  Between 2011 and 2012, UKTI helped 25,400 firms, 90% of which were SMEs. The Government’s target is to help a further 100,000 companies to export by 2020 by raising awareness of help available such as grants, seminars and advice.

 

Among the many benefits  provided by UKTI, we can find a Tradeshow Access Program which allows small companies to attend trade shows abroad by receiving £1,000 to £1,800.

 

UK Export Finance, previously known as the Export Credit Guarantee Department, also helps exporters by providing several schemes such as an insurance against non-payment from foreign buyers.

 

Large banks, such as Barclays and HSBC, also offer schemes in order to help companies export, but they don’t always cover hard to reach and risky countries.  That’s where UKTI comes in.

 

Click here to read more Wolfestone export articles.

 

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French Cinema’s Success in Britain

By Maëlle Alquezar

 

Eiffel Tower, ParisFrench cinema has managed to break all previous records in the UK. French-made or French language films have experienced a 157% increase in terms of attendance in 2012 compared to 2011, which was the most successful year for the French box office for the past decade.

 

According to the cinema organisation Unifrance, in charge of promoting French movies abroad, 8 million tickets were sold in Britain last year. The French film industry represented 4.6% of the British market. The Oscar-winning film The Artist was not the only key to this success. Other films such as The Untouchables, Amour or even Rust and Bone did very well and formed a part of the French cinema industry’s successful line-up.

 

London still ranks first in terms of the number of people who watch foreign-language movies. According to Charlotte Saluard, the Director of Programming at Cine Lumiere in London, 70% of her cinema’s audience is British. Moreover, new cities such as Manchester, Glasgow or Liverpool are seeing more and more people come to their cinemas to watch French films.

 

2012 was considered a special year for French cinema in Britain. But what does this mean for 2013? Luckily for UK cinema goers, more and more French film distributors will be exporting their films, in the hope of receiving the same level of success.

 

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Dante’s Inferno: Heaven or Hell for Translators?

By Emma Clarke

 

Dante's Lucifer

Dante’s Lucifer

Dan Brown’s novel ‘Inferno’ was released on 14 May 2013. It tells the story of a professor cracking codes in Florence that are connected to the famous Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s classic poem ‘Inferno’. In order to prevent any spoilers reaching an international audience, the translations of the novel were released on the same day. This seemingly courteous gesture meant that the 11 translators were forced to work for nearly 2 months in an underground bunker. Releasing all of the books on the same day is likely to result in higher sales of the book. However, surely it would be easier to translate Dan Brown’s novel, rather than the one on which it is based: Dante’s ‘Inferno’.

 

But what about the original poem?

 

Dante’s literature forms a large part of Italian history. Indeed, it has been claimed that Dante is the greatest poet who ever lived. The fact that Dante chose to write in the Tuscan dialect rather than Latin, helped to form the Italian language with which we are familiar today. As with Dan Brown, this was more of a financial decision than a linguistic one: more people would be willing to read the book in the Tuscan dialect as opposed to Latin!

 

Apart from the pressure of staying true to a text with so much cultural significance, Dante’s ‘Inferno’ is written in terza rima, a rhyme scheme which is very difficult to translate into English.

 

How easy is it to translate other poems?

 

Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri

All poetry presents certain challenges for translators. Should you be more faithful to the rhythm or the vocabulary? Our In-house German Translator Silke Luehrmann states, “Poetry translation may be an extreme case, but it highlights many of the challenges inherent in any form of translation. For example, translation and other language-related services are generally charged and paid on a per-word basis – yet translating two words can sometimes take far longer than ten pages.”

 

Burton Raffel dedicated an entire book to the subject: ‘The Art of Translating Poetry’. It points out that the unique nature of languages presents challenges for any translator, but especially one of poetry. All languages have different: sounds, literary history, and syntactical structures.

 

To end on a positive note, most translators welcome the opportunity to translate poetry. Translation is often an art, and what better way to express your linguistic prowess than through the medium of poetry?

 

Do you have experience in translating poetry? Or perhaps even Dante? 

 

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Exporting to China? Get Clued Up On Qzone

By Maëlle Alquezar

 

Top 10 Social Media SitesOnline communication is essential when trying to export your concept abroad. Keep in mind that China blocks social media such as Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter so you should definitely be familiar with which social media sites are successful there.

 

Qzone is one of them. It is arguably the most popular social media site in China with nearly 600 million users. Qzone was created by Tencent in 2005 as a blogging platform similar to WordPress and Tumblr. The website does not only feature blog posts but also includes videos, games and its users can also share posts and listen to music. One of its distinctive features is that users can really personalise their Qzone account by selecting accessories, choosing their background, etc.

 

According to eMarketer, a digital marketing analysis company, Qzone ranks 6th in the top 15 social networks worldwide with 21% active users. The social network is particularly popular with Chinese people aged 18-24 and its users are more likely to come from small cities.

 

What about you? Do you use Qzone to promote your brand in China?

 

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Can we afford to leave the EU?

By Danika Thomson

 

European FlagThe news of the recent parliamentary bill, which sets down plans for a possible referendum regarding UK’s involvement in the EU, has certainly raised many questions for the UK population and businesses.

 

So what does being part of the EU currently mean for small or medium businesses in the UK who are trading with Europe and how do we benefit from the membership?

 

According to the official government website, which advises businesses on trading with the EU, our membership entitles us to several benefits.

 

By being a Member State of the European Union the United Kingdom is part of the world’s largest single market – an economic zone larger than that of the USA and Japan combined with a total GDP of around £11 trillion.  This single market of 500 million people provides a relatively level playing for British business to trade in.  This enables not just free trade in terms of the absence of customs duties or tariffs but a common set of rules so that business does not have to comply with 27 different sets of regulations.”

 

So how would this change if we were to leave the EU?

 

The alternative to membership in the EU would be to enter into the EEA (European Economic Area) or EFTA (European Free Trade Asscoiation) This could only be achieved by implementing a series of bilateral treaties between the UK and EU which established rules relating to trade, agriculture, immigration etc. This type of agreement already exists between the EU and is non members, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, entitling them to trade freely within the European single market.

 

The countries above are still required to provide financially towards the EU budget as well as that of their own. In fact, despite being a non-member, with no say into the formation of the European laws, or access to European funding, Norway now pays 340 million euros per annum making it the 10th highest contributor towards the EU budget.

 

So what European funding is currently open to UK businesses and how do we access it?

 

For more information go to the The European Small Business Portal where you can choose to apply for grants, loans, guarantees, funding specific projects, indirect funding through national and local intermediaries.

 

Has your business been given a helping hand by European funding?

 

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