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A World of Good Wishes

Which Country – Which Language?

English is English, Spanish is Spanish, Portuguese is Portuguese, Belgian is Belgian, Swiss is Swiss and Chinese is Chinese – true? Well not quite. For starters, two of these six are not languages but instead describe great chocolates! This article explains some of the choices you must consider when translating into some languages that are used in multiple countries.

Belgium is a relatively "new" country formed in 1830. Dutch (Flemish) is spoken in the north, and French in the south. Belgians understand their neighbors' languages. Belgian Dutch tends to retain traditional Dutch words whereas the more liberal Netherlands Dutch more readily adopts English words. Belgian French and "standard" French are very similar to each other and standard French generally serves both.

Switzerland has four languages: German (spoken by the majority), then French, then Italian, and about 1% Romansh. Although the spoken Swiss-German is quite different from what is spoken in Germany and Austria, it has no written equivalent. The variants of all languages for Germany, France, and Italy work fine in Switzerland meaning there is no need to generate separate Swiss language translations.

In a consumer-oriented environment, if you are taking a consumer product into new foreign markets, you have to be culturally sensitive and consider the language variants that would not come up in business to business transactions. British and American English should be treated as separate locales. Canada probably has a preference for British English, but is more used to American than their transatlantic counterparts. Other English-speaking countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa also probably have a preference for British English, but American English will be understood and generally accepted.

European French differs from Canadian French with some terminological and stylistic preferences. But the more technical the subject matter, the fewer the differences. The similarity between the two variants of French lends itself to being a "make-from" language.Once content has been translated into one or the other versions of French, it is feasible to edit the translation in order for it to be acceptable in the alternate geography (as opposed to translating from scratch).

Spanish needs additional consideration. Each Spanish-speaking country has its own variant and usage of words. However, especially at a business level, it is possible to translate into "Latin American Spanish" that will be generally accepted throughout Central and South America. European Spanish should be your choice if your target is Spain. One may also translate into a "Universal Spanish" that is generally acceptable worldwide.

Portuguese is a different story! Brazilian and European Portuguese have drifted far enough away from each other that you should translate for one or the other. There is no "Universal Portuguese." So if you are targeting Brazil and Europe, you will need two separate Portuguese translations.

China has numerous spoken languages and dialects, Mandarin being the most universal and common. However, there are two modern written versions of Chinese: Traditional and Simplified. Traditional Chinese was the written Chinese prior to the formation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Simplified Chinese was derived from Traditional Chinese by the PRC in order to simplify many of the ideographic characters and promote literacy. Traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan. Although Hong Kong has seen more Simplified Chinese since its re-incorporation into PRC in 1997, Traditional Chinese still dominates. Singapore has adopted Simplified Chinese. Oddly enough, because these two languages use different character sets, translators generally find it easier to translate using English as the source rather than from one into the other

To some extent, the above is over-generalized and over-simplifies some cultural issues. It is not to say that language variants (Belgian French and Dutch) are unimportant or insignificant, but the aim is to take a practical approach to the localization effort required to take products internationally, and while the Belgian French might prefer their French, they would prefer standard French to English!

How Many Different Alphabets Can You Identify?

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Which Country –
Which Language?

How Many Different Alphabets Can You Identify?

News

European Union enlarged
It's official, you will see more of .ro and .bg. On Monday January 1st, 2007, the European Union welcomed two new Member States and 30 million people as Bulgaria and Romania completed the EU's fifth round of enlargement.

Top Words of 2006
'Sustainable,' 'Stay the Course,' and 'Darfur' were chosen as the Top Word, Phrase, and Name of the year by the Global Language Monitor in its annual global survey. "In 2006 the English language grew ever more global with some 1,300,000,000 speakers using it as their first, second, business, or technical tongue," said Paul J.J. Payack, President of The Global Language Monitor. The 2006 lists include words culled from around the English-speaking world including India, Singapore, China, Australia, and the US and UK. The Top Ten Words of 2006 with commentary follow:

1. Sustainable: Originally a 'green' term, it moved into the mainstream meaning 'self-generating.' Can apply to populations, marriages, agriculture, economies, and the like. The opposite of 'disposable.'
2. Infonaut: Those who blithely travel along the 'infobahn.'
3. Hiki Komori: One million young Japanese men who avoid intense societal pressures by withdrawing into their own rooms rarely venturing outside.
4. Planemo: Planets that didn't make the cut in 2006 as sustainable planets. Pluto was demoted to a planemo.
5. Netroots: The activists who have transformed the practice of fundraising and getting out the vote through cyberspace.
6. Londonistan: Nickname for London as its Asian population swells.
7. Brokeback (Mountain): A cultural phenomenon (Brokeback, Brokedown, etc.) with almost a million references to Brokeback jokes alone on Google.
8. Ethanol: Proxy for all things 'green' and energy independence.
9. Corruption: As in 'Culture of;' the analysis of mid-term elections suggests this was the key for the turnover of the House.
10. Chinese: All things Chinese currently in ascendance.

Reproduced from http://www.languagemonitor.com

Tips

The world as you've never seen it before
What if there were maps that showed information about countries in terms other than land mass? Worldmapper does just that. It has specialized maps that re-size countries according to variables like population, GDP, number of cars, etc. Thus, China is larger than the United States on a map that shows exports of toys, but smaller on one that shows toy imports. There are close to 200 of these maps and they give a fascinating visual representation of country rankings in categories such as public transportation, medicine imports, vegetable exports, tourist destinations, etc. Reproduced from FITA.org newsletter

Trends

Gen W: Generation Web or Generation Wireless?
An article in Ad Age points out that Gen W should also stand for wireless: "Teens aged 13-17 are three times as likely as the average cell phone owner to use their phones to access shopping guides and content from magazines, according to M:Metrics. They use phone features to get restaurant and movie info at more than twice the national average."

Wiffiti: The latest digital-graffiti systems
Text messaging is now moving from the private sphere into the public one, reports The Economist. New technologies allow text messages to be displayed on the sides of buildings, on public screens in cafés or on vast digital displays at sporting events and festivals. Such "digital graffiti" can be used in various ways: to capture the mood of a gathering, boost a brand, or to spark public dialogue. The earliest examples of digital graffiti appeared in Europe, where text messaging took off years ago, unlike in the US where it has only recently become popular. In North American, eight "Wiffiti" screens have been set up in coffee-shops. Patrons can send text messages to the 50-inch screens. What they write is also mirrored on the web wiffiti.com, so that visitors to wiffiti.com can remotely observe what's going on at any of these locations.

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