Globalisation is Important and so is HR German English Translation!

HR is the means used by companies to ensure useful communication takes place between company employees and when seeking new recruits.

You may have set up a company but maybe you have found that you cannot get enough workers to take up vacant positions. This is where you may need English German translators to help you with the recruitment process where advertising overseas for employees may be necessary. You need to ensure all the information about the vacancy such as wages, job conditions and hours are available in the languages which the best potential employees are likely to speak. Misunderstandings can often take place if the job specifications are not clear to potential candidates.

To get your human resources from outside your own country you will have to ensure all the information about the job is translated using a good German English translation so that you have access to the highest quality candidates.

Submitting immigration paperwork

Accessing human resources overseas is more than just advertising and selecting the best applicants but your new employees will have to go through a mountain of paperwork before they are given permission to land on the shores of your country. There will be immigration documents to complete, a contract will need to be signed and details regarding additional benefits that go with the job such as health insurance and help with housing. If all this is made available with a proficient English German translation this will make the process faster and simpler.

Understand company training documents

If your new employees are not completely fluent in the language of your country you will need to translate important information about your company to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings. This includes your company's policies on certain things like what an employee should do if unable to come to work due to sickness or has a complaint to make about the company.

Communication with employees

Once your new employees have settled into their jobs it does not mean that human relations comes to an end but your employees should be kept up-to-date on happenings in the company through newsletters, key announcements and blog posts. Providing a suitable German English translation of HR documents such as these can help to speed up understanding by new employees.

All HR departments that need to communicate with employees who speak a variety of languages will need top professional German translation help to facilitate communication.

Translation Crowdsourcing is Good for Business

Many articles have been studied about crowdsourcing for translation companies and there are a number of reasons why crowdsourcing takes place.  Most benefits are due to factors that can be found in all types of translation work. 

The cost of translation is important to translation companies but it does not always figure as the most important reason for crowd sourcing. It is hard to understand why this is the case especially when companies like Facebook has got its site  translated into 70 languages using no less than 100,000 words in each. With a price tag of around 10 cents a word this could attract a bill of around $US 7 million. 

Adam Wooten from Globalization Group Inc. states that crowd sourcing costs maybe more than more traditional professional German translations. Perhaps the reason that saving costs are not seen as important is the difficulty persuading users to do translations for free just to increase company profits. It is not surprising that professional translators sometimes do not favour translation crowdsourcing for for-profit companies.

The speed of translation speed is usually regarded as the key reason for crowdsourcing for translation. A good example is the translation of Face book into French. When 4,000 users of Facebook translated the complete site into French in a 24 hour period it could most likely have won the prize for the quickest translation ever. That speed of translation would be just about impossible to achieve with translation organised in a traditional way.  When Facebook overtook MySpace it occurred because of the international user base.

Translation crowdsourcing means a single user base can translate into many languages with a minimum of organisation.

Some people think that the user base produce far better quality English German translation than traditional translators as they have a better understanding of the subject. It is quite safe to assume that crowdsourcing quality is more than adequate. 

Facebook says 300,000 users have completed translations and with more than 500,000,000 users that is 6 in about 10,000 users. 

In summary speed is of the greatest importance to translation crowdsourcing and quality seems to be good too if Facebook and Twitter are used as examples. About quality there are differing views but we can say for certain that at least Facebook and Twitter have achieved good quality translations to draw their supporters.

How Translation Improves The Economy

There are a number of factors that contribute towards economic growth in a country. An important factor is the number of industries that are manufacturing products that are of high quality and are similarly offering high quality services as well. A developed economy is in a unique position that allows the promotion of industries and services which in turn allows the industries to grow at a faster rate than in a less developed economy.  Both economic development and industrial development depend on each other to be successful.

The German English translation industry, in particular in the areas of technical and business translations has undergone considerable expansion in recent years. Reaching out to new markets overseas necessitates translating product information and advertising material from English to a German translation so as to capture the German speaking market.

German translators in countries where every day a new business venture is initiated can  take this opportunity by marketing their translation services. This means getting product information translated so that industries compete favourably with their competitors who have forgotten how important translations are when marketing products to as many people as possible.

The importance of translation apps to the world economy

Not only is translation in itself important but all the computer applications that go with it; Translators can build up all sorts of glossaries and resources as they go about different translations through the use of computer applications. Many translators even use machine translators to help them start the translation process. This machine translation software has been developed by translators themselves enabling them to create their own industry and income earning ability.

Furthermore, the translation industry has helped in the developing of other related industries such as proofreaders, graphic artists, text formatters, administrative personnel and even project t managers.  All these professionals can be outsourced from all corners of the globe and don’t even have to be visually present in an office to perform a translation task. Personnel in this burgeoning translation industry are part of what is forecasted to be by 2018 an industry worth $37 billion globally if all the salaries of the various professionals are added together. This indication shows the importance that industries are placing on localising their products to tap into the world market.

What a Translator Puts in Reflects the Quality of the Translation

This is without a doubt a true statement when it comes to translation. Machine translators are an example of the effects of bad input, so it is necessary to ensure that all input is relevant and accurate. A machine translator works on the basis of what has been fed in reflects what it is able to translate accurately when it is given a translation task.  It is particularly important with translations that are prepared with localisation in mind that the correct words are used for the audience, otherwise it will have difficulty understanding the true context.

Most translation companies have devised a checking tool so that it ensures that each translation matches the target audience. There is one important but often overlooked fact and that is the way punctuation and sentence structure can impact on the reader. For example, long sentences and long words are difficult for some readers to understand.  The target audience will detect how the words, sentences and paragraphs should be organised in a text. Some people simply have better grasp of their own language and can tolerate reading more complex vocabulary while others can’t. If you, as a translator, get this wrong your translation could be a complete waste of time as it could be falling on deaf ears.

Not all people who seek translations necessarily understand how difficult it is to translate some texts accurately as the context may be unfamiliar to the German English translator. Often, some research may be necessary on behalf of the translator before an accurate translation can be undertaken. It is quite surprising how when a client receives a translation he or she does not think it reflects the message he or she is trying to convey. 

When the translation is checked for accuracy it is frequently discovered that the translation is quite correct and the problem is more to do with what the client has asked to be translated as it does not quite suit the target audience that he wanted. 

If you are seeking an English German translation that you wish others to see you should ensure the information you want translated suits the target audience it is intended for. 

How a Good Interpreter Manages to Learn How to Multi-task

Interpreters and translators are often faced with similar challenges, but interpreters must be better multi-taskers in their job. They have to listen and speak to more than one other person at the same time. But how do they do it?

The reality is that we all do that very same thing a lot of the time, but not necessarily in multiple languages. How often have you found yourself dutifully listening to someone talking to you but find yourself perking up your ears to another conversation going on at the same time? Or finding yourself in a lively group of people all talking at once. It’s not that managing multiple conversations at the same time is particularly easy, but it can be done. Like anything in life, if you have the incentive, then you can learn to get better. It’s the same with the multi-tasking interpreter.

In a way, even the German English translator must multi-task to some extent. It all depends on how fluent they are in both languages or whether they have to consciously think in the language they are translating into. The interpreter must listen and talk at the same time, in more than one language, so this is definitely a more difficult task, but not necessarily any more difficult than the example given at the beginning of this article. Think of the multiple conversation scenario. The brain has to cope with what could be very different messages being converted at the same time, while the interpreter only has to convert a single message, albeit in two or more different languages.

Professionals who choose a career in English German translation or interpreting generally go through a period of training. That doesn’t make a perfect interpreter, but it certainly sets them up on the path to being a good multi-tasker. One of the ways interpreters are trained is to first listen to a variety of recordings, audio as well as video. These should be varied and not just regular news style recordings, but the sort of more disjointed speech that many people use when they are talking. The next step is to ‘shadow’ what is being spoken by repeating the words out loud. Then, the same speech should be repeated, but using paraphrasing, making it more natural and understandable to whoever might be listening. The last step is to repeat the latter, but in another language.

German English translators have the luxury of time on their side and aim for accuracy in their translations. Interpreters do not have the time to be meticulous in their delivery, but have to get the gist across as well as they can!

German Super Words Have no Literal Translation

German translation is in a world of its own. German as a language is linguistically similar to several other European languages, but seems to be unique in its ability to construct complex words by combining several others together into a ‘super word’. These super words cannot easily be translated literally. In fact, if you have a German dictionary you might not even see some of these words in it unless it is a very comprehensive one. Professional German translators need to have a very extensive vocabulary if it is to include the rich diversity of German super words. Not sure what we are talking about?

Here are some examples below. 

Have you ever eaten ‘comfort food’ if you were bored, lonely, or just stressed out? If you do that on a regular basis, you may just put on a few extra kilos of weight, what is called in German Kummerspeck, literally ‘grief bacon.’

If you do end up with too much Kummerspeck, you will have to fight quite hard against your natural tendency to do nothing about it to shed those kilos. What is called in German Innerer Scheinehund is the tendency in each of us to put off doing now what could be done later, our ‘inner laziness’. In fact, the German term literally means ‘inner pigdog,’ which somehow or other becomes something quite different!

Have you ever thought you really wanted to be somewhere else, somewhere altogether more exotic than the place you are right now? Of course, you have. It’s common in winter, when the skies are grey and drab. Germans feel it a lot and call it Fernweh, or in English literally ‘distance pain’. Perhaps that’s why so many Germans can be found all over the world in exciting locations. They just love to listen to their Fernweh!

Some of us keep working and living the same old life until suddenly we get the feeling that we really should have done something more exciting. Maybe it’s now too late? That funny feeling that we might be missing out on something is what Germans call Torschlusspanik. It literally means ‘closing gate panic’ or in other words a fear that an opportunity is going to disappear!

Have you ever been caught out doing something you shouldn’t and have given some kind of lame excuse? Some of us do it all the time, especially kids! A poor excuse in German is called Erklärungsnot, although the literal explanation is ‘explanation poverty’!

As you can see from just these few examples alone, learning German is actually a lot of fun, so don’t leave it all to the professional German translator. German words might seem like Zugenbrechers, (tongue twisters) but most of them are easier than that and once you’ve mastered a few yourself, you can try them out on your German speaking friends!

Why is Legal Translation so Specialised?

Legal translation from German to English or vice versa may involve any sort of text that is used within the legal system or systems in the two countries that are corresponding. Given the fact that there are several countries where German is spoken, each with their own legal system and specific terminology and correspondingly there are several ore countries where English is the principal language, you can see straight away that German English translation of legal documents is a highly specialised task.

The variety of legal documents that may need translating is impressive:

• patents;
• transcripts;
• witness statements;
• depositions;
• official reports;
• financial documents;
• identity documents;
• wills and testaments

The documents in the list above are just some of the sorts of documents that may need to be translated for one reason or another. The fact that most western countries are becoming more multicultural through increased migration means inevitably there are more documents that have to be made available for things like student and employment visas, residence, marriage, birth, divorce and citizenship.

Many businesses and government agencies are finding that they need to deal with a variety of organisations in another country where the language is different and legal documents must be made available.

Legal document translation must be in the hands of not just translators who have an excellent command of German and English but must be specialists in the legal field as well as having an excellent understanding of legal terminology in both languages.

In many instances, even small mistakes in English German translation can lead to costly misunderstandings, lost or delayed contracts and other significant legal consequences.

In some countries, translators must be accredited to a nationally recognised body which means that their training and qualifications are suitable for most translation tasks. In some European countries, translators must swear before a court that their legal translations are accurate and in other countries (e.g. Italy), a legal translation must be accompanied by a certification that it is an accurate legal document. This level of accreditation is not uniform and in Britain and the U.S., for instance, accreditation and sworn statements are not mandatory by government authorities but they may have their own trade recognition which should satisfy the client who wants some confidence that they have chosen the right translator to work on their legal documents. 

Do Your Potential Customers Know You Exist?

  

Perhaps it’s the arrogance of the native English speaker that everyone else in the world should or could understand English well enough to think they don’t need to bother with learning another language themselves. In the business world, this arrogance, or misunderstanding, means that an astonishing number of companies think they can communicate with the rest of the world in English. 

For some businesses, it’s more about a false economy than arrogance or ignorance. The thinking is that all a business has to do is to advertise its products or services on its website and millions of people around the world will be glued to their screens in anticipation.

To be honest, this is a failing of English language based businesses more than any other language. It doesn’t take too much persuasion for a German company, for instance, that is considering expanding its market beyond the borders of Germany and a few other European countries where German is widely spoken. Few people really are able to understand German, so there is an obvious need to include German translators in the budget when it comes to expanding a market, even if it is just having an English, French or Spanish website version available.

Some startling gaps in the business plan of U.S. companies, for instance, illustrate where some businesses are failing to grasp their mistakes. One translation firm did some research into what languages a sample of 160 U.S. based businesses translated their marketing material into. The answer was that nearly half of them did not even bother to translate into Spanish, despite the huge Spanish speaking population in that country and that the same language is spoken throughout Central and South America, which is a key international market target for U.S. businesses.

German companies, by contrast, accustomed to having to communicate in other languages, are at a distinct competitive advantage in having no compunction in hiring German English translation services if they are targeting English language based markets and no doubt finding professional translators to translate their marketing material into other key languages, too. There is an old saying that you get what you pay for and in terms of paying out for translation services, international wannabe businesses that allocate part of their budget wisely will reach the people they intend to reach while others will never be heard.

The Police Need Translators and Interpreters Too

The amount of money that police in one of Britain's counties is paying out for translation services has become a controversial topic with local politicians claiming that the money could be better spent on tackling important local crime issues, like rural crime.

Lincolnshire is a large county in the Midlands of England. One might wonder, like one of the candidates vying for election as the county's Police and Crime Commissioner, Marc Jones, why the police in this largely rural county might need to spend over $500,000 on translating services.  These are not German translators or French translators but mostly translators who can interpret and translate languages spoken by some of Britain's most recent immigrants including those from Eritrea, Somalia and the Philippines.

When contacted by media representatives, a spokeswoman from the Lincolnshire Police, Deputy Chief Constable, Heather Roach, said that the county had become more diverse over the last decade and there was a need to be able to communicate with victims, offenders and witnesses who could not speak or understand English well enough. She went on to say that the police force regretted the amount of money being spent but thought that it was unavoidable in this era.

Marc Jones had made the comment about the expense of translating and interpreting services being astronomical and suggested that he might set different priorities if he won the position of Police and Crime Commissioner. He said that the Lincolnshire force had already overspent far too much on legal help to remove a former Police Commissioner.

Presumably, whatever Mr. Jones thinks about one specific government agency, this trend towards an increasing need for translation and interpretation services in many areas of life is something being experienced all over Europe where there has been a surge in immigration recently. Germany is one of those European nations that has chosen to take in many immigrants during the Syrian Civil War crisis and it can only be guessed how many German translation services will be asked to provide help to communicate with these immigrants.

What’s Behind the Scenes of Success as a Translator?

A freelance translator is unlikely to boast success immediately, as it takes time to build up experience. In fact, it involves years of learning and working with text in order to reach a successful outcome. It is difficult to shortcut when it comes to translations and there are no keys that will allow instant access to success as a translator.

There are some things you can do to help you on the road to be a successful translator. The first thing is to get qualified as a translator through undertaking an advanced degree followed by a professional certificate in translation. Certification may not necessarily be required but it is a good way to begin. The second stage is to ensure you have proof of your competency in your second language. This can be in the form of a formal test. The third stage is gaining experience and this could mean at first acting as an interpreter for people in need. Maybe a new immigrant needs help with difficult parts of the language when it comes to translating.

Once you have started to build up a portfolio of your German translation achievements you can start marketing your skills as a translator. You will be surprised how many different organisations you can approach who need translation services. These include police stations, law firms and your local hospital.

You can also start up your own website where you can showcase some of your translation achievements. You can list your rates for the services you offer as most translators work on a freelance basis rather than being tied to one company.

As you move forward you may find that you have become more specialised in certain translation areas and you are familiar with terms related to particular industries as an English German translator. This will benefit your ability to get German English translation work too. Learning the language of specific industries makes you an expert compared to other translators which offers you more openings with less competition.