Wolfestone Translation Blog

Oh yes, there’s more; we did not exhaust the world’s supply of daft translations last time. We barely even scratched the surface. Here’s another selection, this time focusing more on localisation and what can go wrong when a company thinks up a shiny new brand name and doesn’t check what it means with the locals.

As ever, brand names can go astray. The apocryphal story about the Chevy Nova (that it didn’t sell well in Spanish-speaking countries on account of “no va” being Spanish for “doesn’t go”) is just that – apocryphal. It didn’t actually happen. Neither did the Ford Pinto sell badly in Brazil, on account of “pinto” being Portuguese for “a man with a small…”, erm, never mind; because the Ford Pinto was never actually sold in Brazil at any point. (This was not necessarily a bad thing for Brazilians – the petrol tank in the Pinto had a nasty habit of exploding.) Bad brand names and slogans do, however, slip through the net.

French telephone company Orange thought their new slogan “The future’s bright, the future’s Orange” would drive sales in the British market. Whether this was achieved on the mainland is unclear, but it did the exact opposite in Northern Ireland. In that part of the world, green is associated with Catholicism, and orange is associated with the Protestant Orange Order. Vodafone and BT Cellnet weren’t too unhappy that Orange went for that slogan, though…

Then there’s the Italian mineral water brand “Traficante”. This sounds all Mediterranean and healthy, conjuring up pictures in the head of La Dolce Vita. It may well have done so in many countries, but not in Spain. In Spanish the word “Traficante” means “(hard) drugs dealer”.

Another unfortunate company was a Japanese tourist agency which decided it was high time to branch out into the English-speaking market. They no doubt had visions of starting to join the big guns by getting lots of high-spending Americans in. Unfortunately, most of their customers had decidedly, well, weird requests for what sort of holidays they were looking for. The company finally discovered that being called the “Kinki Nippon Tourist Agency” was always, always going to lead to this sort of problem.

Finally, when Electrolux decided to enter the American market, it spent quite some time and money thinking up a catchy slogan. And still they managed to come up with “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux”.

No, nothing sucks quite like not using the professionals who can stop embarrassing linguistic fiascos. And, as ever, here at Wolfestone, we’ll be happy to help you make sure that your customers are looking at your product, not laughing at your ineptitude.

Russia has agreed to donate three Siberian tigers to Korea, the Environment Ministry announced Monday. Siberian tigers, also known as Manchurian or Korean tigers, once widely inhabited the Korean Peninsula but the species is now on the verge of extinction with only a small number living in the wild in the Russian Far East. Korea currently has 51 of the tigers living in captivity which came from the United States and North Korea. Of them, 24 are in the Seoul Zoo.

Russia’s tiger donation came about partly through an interpreter’s mistake. While visiting Korea in June, a Russian delegation led by Vladimir Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Federal Supervisory Natural Resources http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/intercultural-communicati…) center right no-repeat;” rel=”external”>Management Service, went to the National Institute of Biological Resources with Vice Environment Minister Lee Byung-wook to see a display of mounted animals, including a Siberian tiger.
During the tour, a Korean official said, “Korea is very interested in Siberian tigers.” But the interpreter mistranslated the comment, and asked about Russia’s willingness to donate the animals. In response, Kirillov asked if Korea could raise donated tigers in the wild.

“The government didn’t give much thought to the remarks at the time, but it seems Kirillov proposed the donation while briefing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on his visit to Korea,” a ministry official said. The Environment Ministry made an official request to Russia for the donation of the tigers in a bilateral environmental cooperation meeting in Moscow on Oct. 30.

http://eng.i-iter.org/content/interpreter%E2%80%99s-mistake-gets-korea-free-siberian-tigers

A Mexican bandit made a specialty of crossing the Rio Grande from time to time and robbing banks in Texas. Finally, a reward was offered for his capture and an enterprising Texas Ranger decided to track him down. After a lengthy search, he traced the bandit to his favorite cantina, snuck up behind him, put his trusty six-shooter to the bandit’s head, and said, “You’re under arrest. Tell me where you hid the loot or I’ll blow your brains out.”

But the bandit didn’t speak English, and the Ranger didn’t speak Spanish. Fortunately, a translator was in the saloon and offers to translate for the Ranger. He tells the bandit he is under arrest, and the ranger wants to know where he hid the loot. The bandit replies in Spanish, “Vete al infierno!”. The ranger tells the translator “Did you tell him I will shoot him, if he doesn’t tell me?”. The translator repeats this to the bandit. The bandit spits at the ranger. The ranger shoots him in the kneecap and puts the gun again to the bandit’s head. He tells the translator “Tell him this is his last chance. He tells me where the money is, or I kill him.”

The bandit is screaming in pain and cursing the ranger. But he is also scared for his life now. The terrified bandit blurts out, “Tienen que caminar tres cuadras hasta ese gran arbol: allí está el dinero”. What did he say?” asks the Ranger. The translator answers, “He said ‘Get lost, gringo. You wouldn’t dare kill me.’”

Google AdWords has added support for Google Translator Toolkit. This means you can now translate your keywords and have ads appear to global audiences in their language.

However, Search Engine Watch columnist Andy Atkins-Krüger warned about the pitfalls of keyword translation in an August post entitled Translating Keywords Should Never EVER Happen. Atkins-Kruger made the good point that while serving up ads to audiences in their language is important, simple translation is risky.

The reason is that this planet is so culturally diverse. Even countries that share the same language often have their regional nuances. Language in and of itself does not contain a culture.

The best way to serve up foreign language ads is through human translation by someone who understands the culture of the country that’s being targeted. While Google’s intentions appear to be good in offering this new feature, it should be used with great caution.

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/091028-115529

Local company Wolfestone Translation continued its remarkable development by officially launching their newest overseas office in Houston, USA. A glittering event was held at Swansea University’s brand new Digital Technium, with the Lord Mayor of Swansea making a speech and ceremonially cutting the ribbon to formally launch Wolfestone Translation USA.  This is just the latest step for Wolfestone – plans for further offices in Russia, China, the Middle East and India are at advanced stages, which will make the company a truly global operation. It is also fitting that the event was held in the Digital Technium as Wolfestone is currently leading the way in developing and utilising bespoke, state of the art digital technology in order to meet the demands of globalisation and the 24/7 economy head on. This will greatly enable Wolfestone to continue to expand as currently planned. The Lord Mayor stated ‘Wolfestone are setting the standard for business in Swansea. Their growth and success has been truly remarkable and the City and Council of Swansea are proud to support a Swansea company that is expanding across the globe and promoting Swansea as a business hub. There are many advantages to doing business in and from Swansea and Wolfestone are proving that. Long may their success continue and I look forward to their continued global expansion.’

The event was attended by an array of dignitaries and business people and a selection of speakers highlighted the need for local companies to think big and to be ambitious. They also emphasised that, in times of economic slowdown at home, it is essential to pursue new opportunities outside of your own domestic market. Directors Roy Allkin and Anna Bastek also described how expanding abroad can, at the very least, safeguard existing jobs in South Wales, or, as Wolfestone is doing, actually create additional employment in the region. Roy Allkin said ‘Wolfestone have had incredible success over the last couple of years and we certainly aim to carry on that trend. We now employ 15 people in Swansea and our continued expansion means that a lot more jobs will be created here over the next few years.’

Also on the night the University and Wolfestone Translation officially announced the Wolfestone Awards for Excellence which will provide substantial cash prizes to those Masters graduates that have demonstrated exceptional talent in the fields of translation and languages. Professor Andrew Rothwell, Director of Swansea’s MA in Translation with Language Technology, said: “We are delighted to be working closely with a leading-edge and dynamic company such as Wolfestone. Their professional input into our training, with lectures, in-house mentoring and work placements for our students, has added a new dimension to the programme and has been hugely appreciated by the beneficiaries – a significant number of whom are now Wolfestone employees.”

Wolfestone also recently won the South Wales Business Awards Business Services Business of the Year 2009 and are also the winners of the overall title of South Wales Business of the Year 2009.